I spent the day out in the Texas Hill Country with Jimmie Vaughan of the Fabulous Thunderbirds (and yes, he’s also Stevie Ray’s brother).
I was aware of a red 1959 custom-made Mosrite doubleneck that I have been trying to track down for years—it was featured in a Guitar World magazine article back in 1985—and I recently found out that Jimmie Vaughan now owns it.
Steve Wertheimer from the Continental Club put me in touch with Jimmie and vouched for me as trustworthy. With Steve’s help, I was able to wrangle an invite today to go out to Jimmie’s place and photograph the doubleneck for the Mosrite book I’m working on.
Jimmie and his wife Robin couldn’t have been more gracious. Jimmie was tickled when I told him that one of my first professional gigs was opening up for the Fabulous Thunderbirds when I was fifteen years old, at the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri.
I photographed the guitar, which is a very cool and rare early example of one of Semie Moseley’s handmade Mosrite doublenecks from the 1950s. This one was signed and dated on the inside cavity, October 11, 1959. Jimmie had no idea who the guitar was made for originally, and I have never seen a photo of this particular guitar from back in the original era. I’m pretty sure it has been refinished, but it’s had this red finish for at least forty or fifty years, so it’s hard to say. It probably had inlaid pickguarfs and armrest originally, but again, it’s hard to say for certain. If there were modifications done, they were done a very long time ago.
One interesting feature this guitar has that I’ve never seen on any other Mosrite instrument of the era: it originally had two stereo output jacks. It has been since modified to only have one, but the original double output jack plate is still there on the side of the guitar. It’s a really interesting and rare guitar, and I was really happy to finally see it in person, after knowing about it for so long. Jimmie showed me several of his other guitars, including a really cool Gibson Trini Lopez model customized by T.K. Smith with a new neck and Bigsby-style pickups. Jimmie also showed me a late-1950s Kay Barney Kessel model with the full “Kelvinator” headstock, and a few of his signature model Fender Stratocasters. Was I in hog heaven? You bet.
Then we hopped in Jimmie’s pickup truck and drove into town to eat some beef brisket at the local barbecue. This day just kept getting better.
Back at his house, we watched Joe Maphis videos on YouTube. You wouldn’t think it would be the case, given Jimmie’s career and the style of Texas blues he’s known for, but he’s a big fan of all the stuff we love: Joe Maphis, Grady Martin, the Collins Kids. We were watching Buddy Merrill videos, and he was telling me that he loved watching Buddy Merrill on the Lawrence Welk Show when he was a little kid. Amazing!
The Texas Hill Country west of Austin is a beautiful, magical, huge, expansive area where lots of incredible things can happen. I couldn’t conceive of a more perfect day: guitars, cars, barbecue, and hanging out with Jimmie Vaughan.
No politics were discussed, and Jimmie was such a cool and gracious guy to hang with. For a guitar geek like myself, it was a little slice of heaven. Thanks again, Jimmie and Robin, for having me out at your place!
See more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
