Mosrite was an American guitar manufacturing company, based in Bakersfield, California, from the late 1950s to the mid 1990s Founded by Semie Moseley, Mosrite guitars were played by many rock and roll and country artists such as Kurt Cobain, Joe Maphis, Larry Collins, Buck Trent, The Ventures and The Ramones. Mosrite guitars were known for innovative design, beautiful engineering, very thin, low-fretted and narrow necks, and extremely hot (high output) pickups. Moseley's design for the Ventures, known as the "Ventures Model" (later known as the "Mark I") was generally considered to be the flagship of the line, but all of his guitars bore his unmistakeable touch.

The company fell on hard times in the late 60s, but continued to produce Mosrite guitars until 1993 in North Carolina and Arkansas. Most of them were exported to Japan, where their popularity remained very strong. The quality of the instruments always remainded very respectable. Semie Moseley died in 1992. His wife Loretta continued to produce Mosrites a year or so after his death. There have been a few attempts at reviving the line, but with little success. As of now Ed Roman Guitars [1] is selling Mosrite USA guitars built on site in Las Vegas. It is interesting to note that 80% of the USA Mosrite production is for Japan and 15% goes to Germany. The rest of the entire world including the USA buys the remaining 5%. All Ed Roman guitars are made in the USA.

Kurt Cobain's Mosrite Gospel Guitar (one of only two 'Mark IV's) was recently featured in an online auction, fetching $131,450.00

Originally published on Wikipedia