Semie Moseley

Who was Semie Moseley?

Semie Moseley was a luthier, and the founder of Mosrite

He was born in Durant, Oklahoma in 1935. His family migrated to California along a path similar to many "Bakersfield Okies", first moving to Chandler, Arizona in 1938, and two years later in Bakersfield, California. Semie’s mother worked in a dry cleaner’s shop, his father with the Southern Pacific Railroad.

In Bakersfield, Moseley started playing guitar in an evangelical group at age 13.

Semie and his brother Andy experimented with guitars since teen-age years, refinishing instruments and building new necks.

In 1954 Semie built a triple-neck guitar in his garage. He presented a double-neck to Joe Maphis, a Los Angeles-area TV performer. By 1956, with an investment from Reverend Ray Boatright, a local Los Angeles minister, Semie and Andy started their company, Mosrite of California. Semie, who built guitars for the L.A.-based Rickenbacker company, said to his co-workers that he was making his own product, and he was fired by Rickenbacker.

When they began, their production was all custom, handmade guitars, built in garages, tin storage sheds, wherever the Moseleys could put equipment.