This guitar was displayed at the EMP (now MoPOP) museum in Seattle during a special Hendrix event. According to the museum, Jimi purchased it at Manny’s Music shop in New York and used it during the recording of “Spanish Castle Magic” from the Axis: Bold as Love (1967) album.
Specs
The guitar features two necks—one with six strings and the other with twelve. Its pickups, if original, are single-coils with an output of up to 13K, which is significantly higher than Fender pickups from the early 1960s, typically measuring around 6 K.
From the available photos, much of the guitar’s hardware is now missing, including the original Mosrite Moseley tremolo and the Tune-o-Matic-style bridge on the 12-string neck. The reason for this is unknown.
Unfortunately, aside from the details provided by the EMP and what can be inferred from the photos, no additional information about the guitar appears to be available.
Feedback
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For direct communication, use the Contact Form. (Dan)
in the mid nineties I got to play this guitar, two thanksgivings in a roe (thru my girlfriend) spent time with the Allen bros (Getto fighters) at their mothers house in Harlem .great guys and they
dug that I was huge fan of Jimi…..thanksgiving #2 (at this point I guess they figured they could
show me something)……that was the double neck mosrite & another oddball guitar….they let
me play it, but not being a very good player (I was honored) but embarrassed to play it very long…….and I never mentioned it to anybody until maybe 2015
Do you know the serial number?. I saw 2J158
No idea, sorry. Did you see it in person?
No. It was in an article.
The guitar did not have a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, but it had one that is similar.
Oh, you’re right! It seems to be one of these – https://reverb.com/item/25238191-mosrite-moseley-tremolo-system-the-ventures-model-1965-vintage . I will fix the error, thanks!
Dana Moseley (Semie’s daughter) tells how Jimi stopped by the Mosrite factory to order the guitar. She was just a little girl at the time.
I met Semie in the early 1970s as he was crossing through Missouri. He actually stopped at my dads church and played and sang. He told us, my family, of his guitars and that famous musicians played them. Because my dad being a preacher, he only mentioned Buck Owen’s of Hee Haw, not any Rock. When he came to our house, and saw my bedroom with Led Zeppelin and more artist on my turntable stack, he shared about Jimi. I was blown away.