Had an amazing but VERY HOT and sweltering day in Bakersfield to wrap up this particular research trip. I photographed a ton of guitars this morning. In the afternoon I went over to the Kern County Museum, where the staff treated me like a visiting dignitary.
They let me photograph the Mosrite guitars they have on display in their Bakersfield Sound exhibit, including Joe Maphis’s second doubleneck from 1973, Rose Lee Maphis’s electric archtop guitar, and the first Stradette made by Bill Gruggett while he still worked at Mosrite. Super cool! They also let me go through their country music photo archives there, where I found five incredible Mosrite-related photos I hadn’t seen before.
This heat is exhausting, and coming to Bakersfield for a research trip in July is pretty much the definition of insanity, but I got through it, and got some excellent photos for the book. Special thanks to Mike McCoy, Eddie Valdez, and Ashleigh Myers at the Kern County Museum for their help today.
See more photos from the museum and around Bakersfield at Deke’s original Facebook post!
