The Winfield Public Library and The Walnut Valley Festival will be hosting a traveling Smithsonian Exhibit, New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music Mar. 14 thru May 4, 2008. One of the companion exhibits will feature Stu Mossman & His Guitars. Tell us about your Stu Mossman Guitar:
- Where did you purchase your Stu Mossman Guitar?
- How long have you been playing your Stu Mossman Guitar?
- Can you share a memory or story relating to Stu Mossman?
- If you have any photos of Stu Mossman or you & your Mossman email them to library@wpl.org
posted by Winfield Public Library @ 12:39 PM
17 Comments
17 Comments:
Hmmm, my grandmother lived in Winfield so I have lots of great old memories that have nothing to do with the bluegrass festival. BUT, she also played harmonica and it really was my first exposure to folk music.
Fast forward a lot of years. There is now a bluegrass festival there, and for a while a gifted luthier too, I have been playing in bands with lots of guitars around for years, and recently going to the bluegrass festival again. Festival-goers describe the feeling of excitement and comfort upon pulling into town, and whenever I hear that I think of visiting my grandparents there all those years ago. Is it any wonder I wanted a Mossman guitar for years and years?
Anyway, here's mine: http://www.joetho.com/mossman
I am a professional watercolor artist that traveled to various Kansas Art Centers to teach workshops in the 70's and 80's. While teaching a class in Winfield, I also enjoyed bluegrass music and attended some of the first festivals held.
On one of such workshop nights this wonderful guy came up to me and said that they would like to make me my owen personal guitar with E.J. out of mother of pearl. He introduced himself and I couldn't believe he was standing here debating the quality of the Conn over other brands. I loved that guitar and the person that made it possible. Like the old western songs say, somethin' bad & somethin' good. Well, I was married to a real jerk at the time and to free myself of him,he gave me the choice of our family dog or the guitar. My son would have just died without his dog so the jerk got the guitar. Well, heck as the story goes, the dog died and well, I have no Mossman guitar. If you ever find one with E.J. in mother of pearl please let the Winfield library know. This guitar was a seamless masterpiece that I treasured almost more that my dog!
My wife and I have attended the Festival for the past 34 yrs. since the first festival I had a strong desire to own a Mossman guitar. But they were way out of our budget and there was no was I could buy one. Years passed..the desire still had hold of me and when I finally had the money I asked Steve Mason, our local Mossman expert that I was looking for a good Mossman guitar. I was in no hurry since I had waited this long,I could wait longer to find just the right instrument. Some months passed, then Steve called. He said he had just the instrument for me, he had bought it from a man in Chicago who had done some work on an advertising project for Stu Mossman in the 70's and had received this guitar as partial payment on the advertising bill. It is a Great Plains model #74 1199. This instrument had been in this fellows apt. for over 20 yrs. in his closet..Steve said it needed a neck reset..he did the neck set and sold me the guitar..it is in perfect condition and the orginial case is also perfect. It is an easy player and has a beautiful tone throughout the register. One Mon. eve Jim Baggot brought Stuart Mossman out to our place to take part in our Monday night jam. Stuart was in our area presenting educational programs on small business using your creative talents, etc, to motivate student considerations for their future lives. Being a teacher and guitar player, I attended a couple of these presentations and knew Stuart from these educational presentations....by the way, he was an outstanding presenter who did not put up withh fooliness from the kids..he expected their attention and their best effort to consider what he was presenting.
Stuart had a good time at our jam session, typical round the room sharing music jam. He asked to look at my guitar. Held it up to the light and looked inside the sound hole. He was looking at the people who initialed the Mossman label inside..as he read the initials he called out the names of those who signed my guitar. to his amazement he said, "this is the only one that all the signers were women, I haven't seen another one with all women signatures." Then he went on to talk about the many women workers he had employed at his factory. He paid them high complements on their work ethic and easy of following instructions and doing a quality job on the construction process. He said his best employees were women, many of whom were farmers wives or women from the local farming community. I saw him a couple times since the jam session and he always remembered our contacts. He was a gentleman and a great teacher. He once told me he had a daughter in
Tecumseh, Kansas...I was inquiring about obtaining one of his advertising posters..he thought she might have one..but I never followed up on this and a short time later he passed away. I hope this helps in your historic collection on Mossman guitars. RMcC.
Joe Dobbs (owner of Fret & Fiddle in St. Albans West Virgina) sold me my 1971 Mossman in 1990 or 1991. A friend of mine, now deceased, lucked into the guitar in a pawn shop in Oklahoma. He traded it in, since he owned 3 guitars, and the Mossman was the odd guitar out. I credit my Mossman with helping me be a finalist at Winfield the following year. Every time my friend heard my Mossman in a jam session, he expressed regret for having let it get away from him.
I met Stu sometime in the mid to late 1990's at the festival, particularly curious as to why the inside of the guitar was finished. Stu first told me that he didn't remember, and that if a person remembered anything from the 70s, he wasn't really there! But after a moments thought, he recalled that they had produced a run of guitars for the Denver Symphony, and they had finished the inside in a effort to prevent cracking at the high altitude. Or at least he thought that was what it was. Stu was pretty happy that there were still so many pickers playing Mossmans so many years after production ceased. Stu built great guitars, and more importantly, was a genuinely nice guy. DK St Marys,WV
I first experienced Mossman guitars while working at a music store in downtown Birmingham, AL. during the '70s. We were a Conn instrument dealer and had brought on the Mossman line in addition to our other lines of acoustics. I was responsible for the reception, inspection and storage of our guitars. I opened a box and saw one of the most beautiful Timber Creek models. One strum and I was hooked. I prayed no one would buy it and saved up a down payment. My supervisor let me put it in "lay a way" until it could be fully paid for. I regularly spent my lunch times playing the guitar at the store until the final payment was made and could take it out into the world. All my guitar playing buddies flipped over how that Timber Creek sounded. Like an idiot I sold the guitar to one of my friends to buy an engagement ring for a girl I never married. I recently got my 76 Timber Creek back from the same guy that bought it in 79. I made a deal that if he ever sold the guitar that he would give me first shot at it and luckily he remembered. I had been looking for about 7 years for another TC and had not been able to find one. This time I will leave it for my children. One of my current guitar buddies has a custom shop rosewood Martin, and my TC blows it away IMO. My buddy likes it, too :)
Paul Scalisi
Birmingham, AL
I met Stu Mossman in 1968 when I was eight years old, and I was his very first guitar student. He was active in the Community Theater, where he did a one-man show as Mark Twain. Our friends Bruce and Vida Rogers convinced him to teach some guitar lessons, and he told me not to worry because it was new for him as well. I remember his home looked more like a music shop, because the walls were covered by instruments Stu had restored or simply found interesting. There were gourd mandolins, old fiddles, tenor banjos, dulcimers, and at least one sitar. I also saw his workshop and the original prototypes he was working on, and got to see his first shop being set up at Strother field.
My Mossman guitar is a Great Plains model that Stu picked out for me years later. It was 1983, after the fire and the Conn lawsuit, and he was down to limited production. I was in the Navy, and contacted him about buying a guitar. We visited and he let me play several, including a twelve-string Winter Wheat I wanted very badly, but couldn't afford. He went to the other room and came back with my guitar, asked me to try it and see what I thought. It was amazing, such rich sound and beauty--and it had only recently been finished. I asked how much he wanted for it. Stu reached out and scratched the side with his fingernail. He said with a grin "This one has a defect, so I'll sell it to you for cost." Stu was one of a kind, and he told me more than once that a person should leave a place better than he found it. Stu made Winfield a better place, and his guitars are still making the world a better place.
I used to write stories about Stuart for newspapers when I was a journalism student. I was fascinated with the guitar shop and what was happening right here in Winfield. So, I bought Stuart's #12 guitar so he could give me guitar lessons and I could become part of the excitement. I had visions of being able to play along with all the great musicians I heard on the radio and saw wandering through his shop. Stuart was a patient teacher but I wasn't a gifted student. But he was able to teach me a love for the guitar, musical history, and that music should be fun. I will always remember the stories he told about his own musical career, the people he met and the children he taught. I carry those memories with me today.
Nice blog. I will keep reading. Please take the time to visit my blog about Guitar Lesson
I was a kid in Evanston Illinois and there was this shop there called "The Sound Post." I was pretty poor but I remember going in there and they had racks and racks of the most wonderful acoustic guitars - and they had this case with Mossman guitars. One guitar, in particular, was showcased, and it was the most beautiful guitar i had ever seen. A decade later, I found one in California, and I found it. And bought it. It was a beautiful instrument. Now, I have five Mossmans. They are fantastic guitars but i would like to know more about them...
I bought my Mossman Flint Hills in St.Louis about 2 years ago. I was looking for years for a premier american made guitar such as a Gibson or Martin, but the ones I picked up were either dogs or cost astronomically high! I was browsing in Music Folk in St.Louis one day picking up Taylors,Gibsons and Martins, and nothing was grabbing me. Then I spotted the Flint Hills hanging there and read the name, "Mossman" I had vaguely heard of them, and looked in the sound hole at the decal with the signatures and thought it might be something special. The price was only $900.00, so I thought it can't be THAT special. Well, I sat down, pulled out a pick and from the very first chord, i had a warm fuzzy feeling! And fell in love with that guitar instantly! I had found what I had been looking for for years! The rich mellow sound, the crisp highs, and bassy lows, the action, everything just yelled out "TAKE ME HOME!" And I did just that, pulled out the plastic and all the change I had in my pocket and pooled it all together and walked home with My Mossman. I have since tried to purchase other mossmans on ebay, especially a Golden era, but some guy with an ebay store keeps snagging them up at any price and re-selling them at astronomically high prices, driving the cost of all Mossmans out of reach of those of us who want to actually PLAY them, not just make money off them. Well, If I never do acquire another, that will be OK, because I'll never part with my Flint Hills. I recently purchased a Collings D1, which is also a very fine sounding guitar, and my other favorite, but the Mossman is still #1.
In a previous comment an 'anonymous' writer made reference of Mossmans production having ceased. This is not true, as I am half owner of Mossman Guitars, now located in Sulphur Springs, TX.
Scott Baxendale, a former employee of Stu's acquired the business from him in the mid '89s, and we bought it in 1989.
Anyone who doubts that Stuart's fine quality ceased after he left the business needs to try one of the current generation of Mossmans!
We still use the same methods of building as Stuat did, and use the same tools he did.
If you haven't tried one, I challenge you. You can see them on our website at www.mossman-guitars.com. And before you mention it, I know the site needs to be updated!!!
Thanks,
Tony Stewart
Mossman Guitars
I first learned about Mossman guitars from my brother who lives north of Winfield, and I developed an interest in having one after I began playing guitar in 1995. I purchased mine from a Kansas City friend while we were at Steve Kaufman's acoustic music kamp in June 2001. It is a 1975 Flint Hills model with a big voice, a warm tone and is in excellent physical condition. I get a lot of positive comments from folks who hear it played.
Last Fall, I began researching the beginnings of the Walnut Valley Festival, including the two festivals held at Southwestern College when Stuart was a student there - the Southwestern Folk Festival in the Spring of 1967 and the Walnut Valley Folk Festival in the Fall of 1971. Both the man and the guitars were central players in all that came after. Please check out my blog for photos and stories from these two great events.
I would like to thank the Winfield Public Library for hosting this great exhibit, and for helping to keep Stu's legacy alive.
I have only played a Mossman once, when I was a kid in England. It was thirty five years ago and a friend came back from Walnut Valley with this thing that sounded like an angel on speed... I never forgot it, and would so dearly love to get my hands on one again. If anyone knows of one in Kuwait..or when he visits Arkansas this summer, John +965 9721043
(macaj002@yahoo.com) would love to respond..
I first heard of Mossman guitars in 1975, when I moved to Nashville. I went into a guitar store and saw a Mossman hanging next to a Martin. The Mossman was the pricer guitar. I then wrote Stu a letter-hoping that he may send me a guitar- telling him of my Canadian Jewish upbringing from Polish/Russian ancestory. Stu sent a wonderful letter back advising that he was from the Scottish/ Presbytarian clan of Mossman. A couple of years ago I finally purchased a Mossman guitar, a 1974 Flint Hills model. Very cool to have my name on the headstock to a very fine musical instrument.
I first found out about Mossman guitars from his daughter, Rebecca. She had contacted me online since my surname is also Mossman. We corresponded for a while, and in one of her messages, she mentioned that her dad had been named as one of the top luthiers in America. Well, I just had to find out more, so I did a lot of research and found a shop in Nashville that had a Mossman in stock. I was able to visit the shop and pick up a Mossman for the first time. I was amazed at how it sounded and played, and decided I had to own one! I started watcing auctions on e-bay, keeping track of all of the Mossman guitars changing hands. As soon as I had the cash on hand, I started bidding. After a few losses I was lucky enough to win a bid for a beautiful Flint Hills, SN 76-2740.
I an not a great player, but I am learning and one day hope to be able to live up to the quality of this guitar!
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