Ed Sanner who is 88 years old and still working on guitars and making pedals. He worked at Mosrite, a legendary guitar company based in Bakersfield, California. For rock and roll, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Fred Sonic Smith from MC5, and Johnny Ramone of the Ramones played mosrite guitars. Mosrites were ubiquitous in surf music, most famously played the Ventures. They even had their own model. Mosrites were originally used in country music with Joe Maphis, Buck Owens, and Roy Nichols all having played Mosrite guitars at one time or another. At the peak of production in 1968, Mosrite was making an estimated 600-1000 guitars every month. Mosrite didn't just make guitars, they made amplifiers and pedals too. The main designer of those electronics was Ed Sanner. He was one of the pioneers of early solid state amps and created the Mosrite Fuzzrite fuzz pedal back in 1966. This pedal was made famous on iron butterflies Inna gadda da vida. and Don Rich even used it on Buck Owens song Whose Gonna Mow Your Grass?

In this episode, we talk about a lot of different people involved with Mosrite, so let me give you a short explanation. Semie Moseley is the founder of Mosrite. He was a great guitarist and a master guitar builder that pushed boundaries with his designs. His brother Andy Moseley also worked in the factory. The branch manager who was in charge of running the factory and ordering all the parts was Ken Gilstrap. Ed sometimes refers to him as Bilstrap. I also want to give a special thanks to Chris Goodsell who you may remember from episode 9. He has been friends with Ed for years and without him this interview could have never happened.