Check out the label image.
Note how different the back wood is from
the sides. Flint Hills were supposed to be all Indian Rosewood.
Do you wonder what the unusually
streaky back wood is? Compare the wood visible around the label to the back wood.
The grain and coloration are very different. Is this is a laminated piece? Surely
not. (I have a GP where the inside and outside of the back have very different coloration.)
The label may tell the saddest story in the history of guitar building in
the United States. Note that there are only two signatures. We can only speculate
why only two people worked on this guitar. Was it because it was a custom
build or a special request? Or because Mossman had only two people left working
on guitars? By this time in the company history, business was winding down.
Perhaps most employees were laid off. We can only imagine the lingering
affects of the fire which destroyed the supply
of rosewood which was a precious and not replaceable commodity. We can only
imagine the affects of the aggravation owner Stuart Mossman suffered from the
Conn storage facility debacle which happened just a short time previously.
If you have read histories in other sources (http://mossman-guitars.com/History101.htm),
you know that the Conn company ruined a large batch of guitars by improper
storage. According to the histories, Mossman was stuck with the loss. This had
to be a very sad, even nerve racking time for Stewart Mossman. Like
the song says, "There, but for the grace of God, go you or I."
