Chat with Nokie Edwards& message for Jay Dee

Rick Barber · Post by **Rick Barber** » 12 Feb 2003 8:09 am

I was on the Surfing to Baja Cruise with "The Ventures" and "Los Straitjackets" last week. One morning I was sitting on the upper deck thinking about breakfast and spotted Nokie Edwards walking by. I looked over at him and said "Hey , your'e getting pretty good at that chickin pickin stuff. Nokie is a master finger picker and uses his new HitchHiker guitar. Nokie, lead guitarist for the Ventures, and I sat down and had breakfast together. I was able to chat with him for a half hour. That was really special---a chance of a lifetime.

One evening the Ventures had played Sleepwalk and the next day there was a question and answer session. I stood up and identified myself as a steel player and what that song meant to me.

Also Nokie had mentioned some steel players that he either knows or has worked with over the years. He wanted to extend greetings to our steel buddy Mr. Jay Dee Maness .

Since a lot of steel players started with 6 string playing Pipeline and Walk Dont Run etc. I thought you all might get a kick out of this visit.

The beloved drummer Mel Taylor passed away some time ago and his son Leon took over on drums. Nokie plays on certain concerts. Don Wilson who plays rythym guitar usually is still playing. We celebrated his 70th bday on the ship. Bob Bogle usually is on bass. They all play with great precision. I hope they make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame soon.

Those of you who have a fondness of surf music in your musical heritage can follow the Ventures at their website www.theventures.com

Nokie has his own website: nokie-edwards.com

Los Straitjackets are also a great band with Venture influences and you can learn about them at www.straitjackets.com

I met another great artist who is a polished classically trained guitarist who plays a strat with the confidence like Eric Clapton with influences of the Ventures and The Shadows etc. She has her own unique style and makes use of the whammy bar. She is Zoe Mcculloch and she is 16. See www.zoemcculloch.com . She lives in Wales in Great Brittain.

Best Regards,
Rick Barber

Chuck S. Lettes · Post by **Chuck S. Lettes** » 12 Feb 2003 8:53 am

Hello Rick,
What a great chance to see and hear the Ventures! I am definitely influenced by their music and their ability to make interesting instrumentals. Nokie's work,especially some of the concerts in Japan, creates some inspiring music. Rick, I hope to get to see you in Dallas next month. Thanks for the post about the Ventures.
Chuck

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 12 Feb 2003 3:55 pm

Yes Nokie is a great thumb picker and has been at the Chet Atkins Convention for the last few years and plays on the main stage. The first time I saw him there it was quite a treat. He was not in good health at one point and didnt play, but fortunately he seems to be fine and plays great. He always has time for other players and is usually jamming at night in the lounge at the Music City Sheraton. He had a small model guitar, nicely done, for sale and he autographed it for me. A true treasure for me. He was definatley my first influence on the guitar-I bought all the Ventures albums I could when I was in high school and wore them out dropping the needle and learning those songs. I still enjoy playing them.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 13 Feb 2003 7:45 am

Hey Rick,
Sometime near the end of '76 or the start of '77 I was working part time at a music store (Nash's Music) in Inglewood, California doing repairs and some sales. Al Bruno (SoCal Super Picker) was our main guitar teacher. Nokie had came to town and had gone to the Imperial Inn afterhours to see Al and had fallen in love with Al's Bigsby Palm Pedals he had installed on his Gibson. Al sent Nokie to see me and he told me he'd like a set of them but he wanted more levers. He brought in an old Telecaster which I shimmed the neck to get the strings higher from the body so I could raise the bridge. What I did was take two sets of Palm pedals and put all four levers on one unit. He wanted them on the first four strings so as the 2nd & 3rd were most important I cut the 1st and 4th string lever off about 3/4 to 1 inch or so and raised them slightly so they could be activated without depressing the others. This way, the 2nd and 3rd levers were clear to be activated in the normal way. It seemed to work very well. Personally though, I don't think I'd have defaced that old Tele if it was mine. The owner of the store (Kenny Nash) had a bunch ol old Ventures albums and he went home while I was working on Nokie's guitar and brought them all back to get them autographed. Nokie stayed the greater part of the afternoon and played some awesome stuff on that guitar. I'd only heard him in the Ventures context and until that day didn't realize what a fine finger style player he was (is). All in all he was a super fine guy. A while later when he was in town the next time, I got to hear him in action live at the Imperial Inn jamming with Bruno and he had some major league chops for sure..........JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Doug Jones · Post by **Doug Jones** » 13 Feb 2003 11:12 am

Nokie and his wife Judy are two of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. I'll never forget one weekend at a nightclub gig. Our guitarist had to be out of town. We had the pleasure of having Nokie fill in both nights getting just the usual meager club pay. What a treat! The people in the crowd had no clue of the talent that poured out of his soul through his guitar. We sure did, though.

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 13 Feb 2003 11:16 am

A band I was in in the 80's opened for the The Ventures 1984 Tour one night in Lewiston MT. Got to hang Nokie for a while and it was cool!

Bob Anderson · Post by **Bob Anderson** » 13 Feb 2003 11:44 am

Rick, Wht a nice story..Just great.. Wished more could fill us in on the lives of our past heroes

Rick Barber · Post by **Rick Barber** » 13 Feb 2003 1:15 pm

(Incidently I plan to attend the Nokie Festival which should happen July 4, 5 but check his website listed above. Its held in Oregon. Zoe McCullouch said she would be playing too --- she is the 16 year old sensation .)

I also kept running into Don Wilson (our Ventures member) who made famous that octave double picking down the neck run from E to E in PIPELINE. I kept seeing him in the elevator. He always is all smiles. We celebrated his 70th bday. His Mom was there too and I think she is 90. He was kidding on stage and said what his Mom cant believe is that she has a baby boy who is 70 ::--)) .

Also on Walk Dont Run it was actually Bob Bogle that played that. Bob loves letting the drummer play his bass with drumsticks as part of the show.

Looked like Don was using an Ampeg over a huge Mesa cabinet. The coolest tone I heard was LOS STRAITJACKETS lead player using a vintage strat played through a Fender Vibrolux Reverb (with the twin 10's) . That thing sounds great when its cranked. I have a custom shop one of those just like. Its great for that driving grungy retro sound. They have MP3's on there website. I love that song PACIFICA. So they wear masks in there act but man are they precision players together and such polished showmen on stage. They have played on Conan Obrien show before.

As you know the Ventures played Mosrite guitars but apparently they had some obstacles in developing the perfect guitar neck. Later in life they hooked up with Aria (I believe its called) . That company developed what they loved as a guitar neck. I think those are on the market now. They played some of those too. I know Don loves his Fender Jazzmaster --- I think he likes the vibrato arm sticking out where its handy. They call him Tiki Tiki. Bob Bogle is so good on that bass too. A good example of his ability shines in the theme to GoldFinger.

It was heart warming to hear songs they mastered like Walk Dont Run and Perfidia medley, Hawaii 5-O, Secret Agent Man, Apache , Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Wipeout, Lets Go, Pipeline.

Don loves to talk on the MIC and crack jokes. And I'll tell you they asked Nokie to tell a recent funny story ----the audience got so quiet listening to his story spoken with a quiet assured voice. You could have heard a pin drop --- it's testament to just how much respect his fans and Ventures fans have for the Maestros of Surf Music and Instrumentals.

I didnt want to leave out Leon Taylor the son of the late Mel Taylor. Leon is truly a wiz on the drumset. Lets face it surf music on drums surely is a workout.

I hope they make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame soon.

If it wasnt for The Ventures and Duane Eddy I would have stuck as only a clarinet player instead of guitar and pedal steel.

Best Regards,
Rick Barber

Cairo Zoots · Post by **Cairo Zoots** » 16 Feb 2003 11:49 pm

ventures 1963

[This message was edited by Cairo Zoots on 16 February 2003 at 11:55 PM.][This message was edited by Cairo Zoots on 17 February 2003 at 12:08 AM.][This message was edited by Cairo Zoots on 17 February 2003 at 12:36 AM.]

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 17 Feb 2003 12:31 pm

Does anyone know who the founder of the Mosrite guitar company was? And where were they located? Always thought they were a cool looking guitar.
Like probably everyone else, the ventures made a huge impression on me in my youth.
Ken [This message was edited by Ken Williams on 17 February 2003 at 12:33 PM.]

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 17 Feb 2003 2:35 pm

Hey Ken,
That would be Semie Mosely from around the Bakersfield Area. He also made those great double necks for Joe Maphis and Larry Collins. The first time I worked at the old Foothill Club in SoCal our lead player (Jim Bob Sedgwick of the Forum) had a Mosrite Joe Maphis model which was a single neck though with a natural top. Those things were always the fastest guitars around with low action and small frets. You could really smoke on one of them. An old friend of mine in LA (Brian Lonbeck) played a double neck for many years also. The last time I saw him in the middle 80's he had a single neck Mosrite which had three pickups and looked something like a Strat. Semie Mosely is now deceased but I'm not sure of the year......Have a good 'un, JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 17 February 2003 at 02:40 PM.]

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 18 Feb 2003 1:31 am

Jerry, interesting that you know Brian Longbeck. I first heard of him when my buddy Deke Dickerson wrote about him in Joe Maphis-newsletter. There were pictures from the early 60's when Brian was playing with The Mandrells, sharing the stage with Joe and Rose Lee Maphis.
Semie Moseley was just a teenage kid when he built those doublenecks for Joe and Larry Collins. Semie's own personal guitar was a tripleneck (!!!). In the 50's he also did alot of guitar customizing for the c&w artists, making new necks and pickguards on guitars for people like Little Jimmy Dickens, Larry Hart, Lorrie Collins and Rose Maphis.
I just saw some new ( Japanese ) Mosrite Ventures guitars in a music store here in Helsinki, pretty darn good guitars, looked and sounded just like the real ones, right down to the vibramute tailpieces. 750 bucks, not bad considering what the originals go for.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 18 Feb 2003 10:15 am

Hey Jussi,
The last time I saw Brian was in '84 or '85 not too long before I moved to Virginia. We were the houseband at a benefit for a bass player/vocalist named Tony Treece who'd died of a heart attack a short time before. Brian played with Tony off and on for many years around the LA area. His original double neck which had his name on the necks (Brian on top neck & Lonbeck on the bottom) had been stolen. Semie had made him another double neck which was a more modern looking guitar with humbuckers and everything. I think that Semie might have relocated to Arkansas or somewhere like that and Brian worked with him every now and then. He was also a pretty good fiddle player and what's odd was that he played a 3/4 size fiddle. He carried it in the case with his guitar. He'd wrap it up in a cloth or something and lay it between the necks with the fiddle headstock pointing towards the guitar body. He was also a student of Joe Maphis' at one time and it really showed. He was (is) a blazing flatpicker who could do all of Joe's tunes and some other fiddle tunes on the guitar with amazing speed and cleanliness. He made me jealous on more than one occasion. I was glad that the last time we picked together, I was on steel and not guitar.......Have a good 'un, Jerry.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 18 February 2003 at 10:17 AM.]