Semie's Semi

The legends of affordable retro venture once again into Mosrite territory for a new take on an obscure Semie Moseley classic...

- Ed Mitchell

You might recall the occasion last year when Danelectro released its ‘64 model, a guitar that betrayed very little of the brand’s own heritage. In fact, the ‘64 owed the lion’s share of its features to the late Semie Moseley’s Mosrite classics as brandished by instrumental cats The Ventures and punk icon Johnny Ramone.

Say you eyeballed the ‘64 and thought ‘I’d be all over that if only they axed the Bigsbyesque vibrato and made it a hardtail.’ Well, the new ‘66 model should make your day. With this latest release, Dano have spec’d a chunky six-saddle, wrap-around bridge/tailpiece with intonation adjustment. The other metal bits of note including the small UFO volume and tone knobs, and a set of vintage Kluson-style machine heads.

The ‘66 is actually based on a lesser known Mosrite beauty, first released in the year of The Beatles’ Revolver album as the Combo model. The guitar was available in six-string, 12-string and bass formats. Like the original, the new ‘66 has a bolt-on maple neck. You also get 23 medium frets – that’s including the zero fret – tightly hugging the contour of the 356mm (14”) radius rosewood fingerboard.