Electric Hawaiian guitar
ALTERNATE NAME(S)
- Electric lap-steel guitar
- Electric slide guitar
- Electric crutch guitar
Maker
Semie Moseley
Date1984
Place MadeJonas Ridge, North Carolina, United States, North America
ModelBarbara Mandrell Custom Crutch Guitar
Serial No.None
SignedOn fingerboard, five position markers utilizing Mosrite logo: M (inside serrated edge circle)Stamped on pick-up case, under strings: [Mosrite logo] mosrite® / OF CALIFORNIAMarkingsInscribed on brass plaque attached to back of crutch: Barbara! With God / You Will Make it / Jesus Loves You / and I Love You / Semie 1984DescriptionThis lap-model, stele guitar is built in the shape of a crutch and was custom-made for Barbara Mandrell after her 1984 car accident. She was severly injured.
The crutch body is finished in a silvery, light-blue color and includes the name, “BARB,” lettered in black on the neck. The crutch arm and hand rests and lower end cap are made of rubber. Six chrome mechanical peg tuners (not a peg box or peg disc). Pegs are located below the hand rest. The strings extend along the “foot” or “leg” of the crutch.Dimensionslength: 47.25 in
width: 8.25 inProvenanceIn 1984, custom-made for Barbara Mandrell. By 1998, owned by George Gruhn Guitars, Nashville, Tennessee, who sold it to the National Music Museum in November 1998.Published ReferencesStrauchen-Scherer, E. Bradley. _Musical Bodies_. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2026: 88.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1998
Object number06190
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