Semie Moseley and his Mosrite company had a somewhat nomadic history, as illustrated by this Model 88 from 1988, which was made in the mountains of North Carolina.

Born in Oklahoma, Moseley established Mosrite in Bakersfield, CA. After the company brankrupted in 1969, he was able to reacquire the name, and he split his time in the 1970s between guitar making and performing gospel music while he moved production to Oklahoma in 1976, back to California in 1977, to Nevada in 1979, and then to Jonas Ridge, NC, in 1981. He stayed in Jonas Ridge for 10 years before making his final stand in Booneville, Arkansas, in 1991.

While he experimented with numerous designs, Moseley’s most popular were essentially Ventures reissues without the Ventures name. Model 88 had the familiar shape – which Moseley developed in the early 1960s by flipping over a Fender Stratocaster – but it lacked the pickguard and “German carve” (the elegant “lip” around the top edge) of the originals.

Semie Moseley died in 1992, and his widow Loretta continues the business today.