Stuart Mossman was an American guitar maker, entertainer and entrepreneur who built 6,000 guitars from 1968 to 1984 that were played by several professional guitarists, including John Denver, Eric Clapton, Albert Lee, Doc Watson, Hank Snow, Cat Stevens and Merle Travis.
20 Facts About Stuart Mossman
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Stuart Mossman was born in Hinsdale, Illinois, on May 13,1942.
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Stuart Mossman began making nylon-string guitars in 1961 and spent several years designing 40 to 50 prototypes in his garage in Winfield, Kansas.
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Stuart Mossman took his first steel-string flat top to legendary acoustic singer-songwriter Doc Watson and asked for his "brutal" opinion.
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Watson gave it to him, and Stuart Mossman took his advice and applied it to his next design.
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Stuart Mossman had a strong disdain towards the use of plywood and insisted on solid-wood construction for the production of his guitars.
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We at Stuart Mossman considered plywood briefly one day, and unanimously decided that plywood makes the best cement forms available.
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Since the Stuart Mossman shop was small enough for Stuart Mossman to oversee every model, he was able to offer a variety of custom options for his customers which included: an extra-wide neck, 12 strings and custom inlay and engravings.
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Stuart Mossman gained notable recognition by 1974 and was producing up to eight to ten guitars a day, each one personally inspected by Mossman himself.
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All Stuart Mossman guitars include the following features: Light weight spruce struts and braces, Adjustable steel truss rod in neck, Rotomatic tuning pegs, Rosewood or ebony wedge butt inlay, Ivoroid position dot markers on edge of fingerboard;, Nickel-silver frets, Satin laquer finish hand rubbed to a deep gloss, Ivoroid binding around box Ivory nut and saddle.
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Each Stuart Mossman guitar is individually voiced for maximum response and sonority by master craftsmen during the final stages of assembly.
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We assume that anyone who needs an instrument of Stuart Mossman's quality is not an average guitarist, but one with specific ideas in rogard to the tone balance that he desires for his own individual style.
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Whatever you are looking for, Stuart Mossman has a guitar voiced especially for your individual needs.
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Fortunately, Stuart Mossman had secured a $400,000 loan from a government-backed Small Business Administration before the fire, so the money was used to rebuild and expand the production facilities.
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In 1983 Stuart Mossman decided to sell the company after suffering from serious respiratory problems.
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Stuart Mossman began to feel that his breathing was being affected by years of inhaling 'sawdust, lacquer fumes and ablaone shell fragments'.
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Stuart Mossman relocated to Sulphur Springs, Texas, where it continues to manufacture top-of-the-line custom-made guitars today.
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Stuart Mossman spent the remaining years after his retirement at his home in Winfield, Kansas, with his wife and two daughters.
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Stuart Mossman frequently volunteered and performed at festivals and elementary schools, influencing younger audiences towards folk and bluegrass music.
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Stuart Mossman is attributed as one of the founding members of the Walnut Valley Music Festival in Winfield, Kansas.