The beauty of SL Mossman guitars

[Ten]

Probably few if anybody in the world who could hand their guitar to Dan Crary and not have it sound better in his hands. Pretty dang cool to have had him play it, along with it being a Mossman!

[alathIN]

Got my Flint Hills back from Steve Mason a while back.
He did a beautiful job, of course. It needed the neck reset, a new bridge, and some fret work. Other than just a small spot of lacquer crazing, the guitar is pretty much like-new now.
The biggest change I noticed after Steve's work is that the action is excellent all the way up the neck now. Before the neck reset, it got higher as you went up, enough to mess up the intonation around the 10+ frets.

I also asked Steve about pickups. He likes the K&K pure pickups - peizos that mount inside the guitar under the bridge, so I had him do that too. If you're unfamiliar, the way these work is to pick up the vibrations of the top. Unamplified they sound a little dark to me. I'd heard they brighten up with a preamp, so I tried my inexpensive multi-effects unit that's really meant for electric guitar. Using clean boost and a touch of reverb generates a very nice natural-sounding acoustic guitar tone. Main criteria for me: they're affordable and they don't deface the guitar.

I play fingerstyle and use 11 gauge strings which I know isn't what Stuart Mossman had in mind, but it's very easy to play and it sounds beautiful on the rare occasions I hit two or three consecutive notes correctly. Mossmans are reputed for loudness but for playing fingerstyle I find the "scooped" tone to be just right. I also find the dreadnought size helps me keep my hand and fingers located (I never learned the trick of putting my pinky finger down, so I "anchor" off my forearm).

[Tube Sound]

Originally Posted by alathIN

Got my Flint Hills back from Steve Mason a while back.
He did a beautiful job, of course.

Hi alathIN. Nice to hear you got the Flint Hills back with fine work from Steve. It's been several years since he worked on my Great Plains. I'm really glad he's still at it. Thanks for letting us know.

[Wade Hampton]

TubeSound, I stopped by Steve's shop in early April. He's not only still going, he's got two highly competent employees working for him - two, at least, that I happened to see the day I swung by. Steve might have more folks working for him than that.

He's doing fine, and - as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread - he's still leading the Alferd E. Packer Memorial String Band. They recently celebrated their 40th year of gigging together. Their performance at this year's Big Muddy Folk Festival was the best I've ever heard them play, and I've heard them many times.

Alferd E. Packer, of course, was the only American ever convicted of cannibalism, back in the 19th Century.

Alferd E. Packer



The Alferd E. Packer Memorial String Band

Steve Mason is the gentleman with the white beard and top hat covered in rattlesnake hide...


whm

[Tube Sound]

That is really great to hear, Wade. He is so good at what he does and has quite the sense of humour. He is full of stories and at the time he worked on my guitar, I told him he should write a book but I imagine he is pretty busy, as is. I don't know if Steve named the Alferd E. Packer Band but it would be just like his humour. I haven't talked to him since the repair and it is really cool he carries on. Thanks for sharing that.

Dan

[The Watchman]

Did they make anything other than dreadnoughts? Those are the only ones I've seen.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by The Watchman

Did they make anything other than dreadnoughts? Those are the only ones I've seen.

Those are the only Mossman guitars that they ever made on their assembly line. Stuart did make a Triple O that he decked out with abalone like a Style 45 as a wedding present for his wife, which David Carradine played in the last scene of "Bound For Glory," his Woody Guthrie biopic:

David Carradine as Woody Guthrie

From what I've been able to piece together from talking to Steve Mason and Scott Baxendale, there might have as many as three or four other Mossman Triple O's that got made, perhaps as many as half a dozen all told. There's a gentleman who has one or had one who's posted about it on this forum.

One time I was talking to Jim Baggett, owner of Mass Street Music, about how I'd like to get my hands on a Mossman Triple O when he said: "No, you wouldn't."

Jim's played several of them and found them to be overbuilt and not especially expressive instruments.

Anyway, the overwhelming majority of Mossman guitars in existence are dreadnoughts, because they made during the era when dreadnoughts were the overwhelming preference of acoustic guitar players. Back in the 1970's that's what most players wanted.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller