Mossman Dreadnaught

[rwhitted]

This is a very nice Mossman that a co-worker has. At my persistent nagging, she brought it in for me to play and to put new strings on, and cause I've never played a Mossman. It was very interesting to read Mr. Shoaf's History of Mossman Guitars (http://mossman-guitars.com/History101.htm) but it made me wonder a few things about this one.

- I think the model is an SLM - or is that SWM? If it's SLM, what's that stand for?
- It can't be Brazilian, can it? Rather extraordinary east indian rosewood if not.
- the serial number is listed in reverse of what Shoaf's story indicates - just a fluke?

I'm attaching two photos here, all four are linked below.

http://www.celticaxe.com/images/mossfront.jpg
http://www.celticaxe.com/images/mosshead.jpg
http://www.celticaxe.com/images/mossinside.jpg
http://www.celticaxe.com/images/mossback.jpg

[attachment no longer available]

[Ratishna]

Its a Great Plains model, and appears to have been made in 1976.  My guess is that someone wrote the serial number then realized they made a mistake.  Since the labels were pre-initialed by staff they didn't want to waste one.

SLM stands for Stuart L. Mossman.  He usually put his initial in the lower left hand corner.  It most likely isn't Brazilian.  My Mossman Southwinds is very figured EI rosewood, and much of Stuart's stash of Brazilian was well quartered and not overly grainy.

I expect it plays and sounds pretty good.

E. Shoaf

[rwhitted]

It does play very well - rather comfortable and very much like a real good Martin. If I could get the current owner to play it more (hint hint) I'm sure it would open up and sound even more fantastic.

Thanks for the info Eric. I feel like a knucklehead for not realizing that the "Great Plains" on the label was the model - oh well!  ^_^