Musings

Had an amazing but VERY HOT and sweltering day in Bakersfield to wrap up this particular research trip. In the afternoon I went over to the Kern County Museum, where the staff treated me like a visiting dignitary.

Had an amazing evening and morning with David McCarthy in the Bay Area. We photographed a bunch of his Mosrite guitars for the book, but he also pulled out some other amazing stuff.

The Mosrite “Johnny” guitar I photographed today is one of the earliest Mosrite guitars I’ve ever seen. It could possibly be the first Mosrite guitar that Semie Moseley made for someone other than himself.

“The Hag” model Mosrite was never put into production, and until today it was just a rumor that this guitar existed. It has never been photographed.

There I was, photographing a one-of-a-kind Mosrite Ventures-style tenor guitar in the dust and debris of an old machine shop in Tulare County.

Sleeping in the bunk of a van barreling down the highway at seventy miles an hour isn’t easy. You have to train yourself, mentally and physically.

Betsy had a fascinating history. She was one of the original Little Rascals in the Our Gang series back in the 1930s. Then in the 1940s she began a career in Western music.

In typical Garrett style, he could have done it the easy way, but chose to do it the right way. He made a new replacement neck for the mandolin, used the original fingerboard and headstock cap…

This is the grave of Moses Dickerson the First. He’s my great-grandfather eight generations back. Moses Dickerson fought in the Revolutionary War so that we wouldn’t have to answer to a king.

Had a fun trip yesterday to meet Merlene Travis at Norman’s Rare Guitars to help shed some backstory on a guitar owned by her father, Merle Travis.