Mr. Moon and his early recording guitar

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I posted this on another thread, but it got buried. I thought this was interesting stuff Ralph told me and I didn't think it was common knowledge.

I got a chance to spend some quality time with Ralph on Saturday night and he relayed a few great stories to me.

First, he told me about the guitar that he played on all of the Buck Owens and Wynn Stewart and late 50s, early 60s sessions. It was a homemade guitar that he had all wired up underneath with bailing wire. The pedals were set up on one of the legs like an old Gibson. He used to tie the pedal onto the leg with wire. On a Wanda Jackson session, she took a look at him with his guitar and ran into the control room and said, "You gotta get me someone who can play." The producer just said, "Wait 'til you hear him."

Anyway, when Noel Boggs got his new guitar from Fender that year, Ralph got his "old" Fender 1000. He didn't know where to put his homemade guitar, so he brought it out to his shed and put it on a table; that's also where his water heater was. One day after mowing the lawn, he put the mower in the shed--problem was, it was leaking gas. Of course it all caught on fire and destroyed his old guitar. He told me that he and wife took what was left of it, put it in the car and drove it on out to the desert and gave it a proper burial.

This was all quite a revelation for me, because I'd always assumed he was playing a Fender on all those early 60s records.

I believe this a pic of Moon's homemade guitar:

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Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

I love that story. Thanks for confirming it. I say we get a grant from the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame and go on an archeological expedition and dig that thing up! Laughing

Did you ask Ralph where in the desert? Hopefully it's not sitting under a Wal_mart now.

Dave (huge Mooney fan)
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Somewhere in Texas. That's another thing he said: he's always lived in Texas, except for a short spell. Didn't live in Bakersfield.
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Dave Harmonson · From: Seattle, Wa

I wonder if that was a Rickenbacker that he made into a pedal steel. An old dearly departed friend of mine Ty Willard told me about playing some gigs with Moon back in the old days and he said Ralph called his steel a "Rickety-backer".
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Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

I heard from someone that it was a converted D-8 Magnatone. Not sure where that person heard it but he seemed to know a lot about the history of the first generation players.
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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Actually, that pic above looks like a T-8 Magnatone (you can see the wooden string covers on the headstock), but who knows for sure? He only said it was a homemade. He used the same guitar at Disney, too, playing the Hawaiian show, probably before he put pedals on it.
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Dean Parks · From: Sherman Oaks, California, USA

I ran into Mr Moon at Lamb's a couple of years ago, and he said it was a Magnatone, I think. He also said coat hangers were involved. "I love coat hangers", he said.

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

I am jealous you got to meet him. he sounds like an incredible fellow, and he is certainly an incredible player.

He tells the story of the buried guitar in Steel Guitarist Magazine (available here on the forum for only $5). It is a fantastic article...those old magazines are killer for $5 a pop and that Mooney one is my fave, grab it.

He tells another story in that article about playing the fender in a club and being visited by several famous steelers who for a joke removed his pedal rods while he was playing. On a chrome stamped pedaled fender you could probably just walk right up from the dance floor and punch them out because of the way the connector (there really is none, its just a slot with a springy peice of metal for tension) attaches the rod to the pedal. I dont want to get their names wrong so i wont hazard a guess from memory as to who they were...great article.

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

The guitar was a Magnatone... or at least had Magnatone pickups... and is buried in the desert outside Las Vegas. Last year Moon told me the same story you related here, with some embellishments Wink

. He said he was living in Nevada at the time, playing the Nashville Nevada Club. He'd occasionally go down to LA for sessions at Capitol, and return to Vegas.

When Leo Fender gave Moon the Fender 1000, Leo asked if he could take the Magnatone to analyze why it sounded like it did. He returned it to Moon after awhile and that's when it burned up in his carport.

Moon said that Buck Owens loved the sound of the old guitar, and was so upset that Moon no longer it that he stopped using him on sessions until he went to the Sho~Bud.

I never saw the Magnatone guitar, but I've seen the Fender 1000 several times on gigs that Moon played with Waylon in the late 60's, before he went to a Sho~Bud. It was the guitar he used on the "Corn Pickin'" album, cream white with plain aluminum/magnesium frame.
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Mike Neer · From: NJ

Thanks for clearing that up, Herb.
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Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

The Steel Guitarist Magazine has a picture of Ralph holding what looks like a D8 non pedal Rickenbacker. This picture is dated 1947 in Billings, Montana. Were there any recordings Ralph was on before his hoemade pedal Steel ? I think Ralph and I attended Bell High School, Ca. around the same time but were in differen't grades.

Mitch Drumm · From: Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake

Billy:

There is this:

http://picosong.com/nSQ

Exactly how early and what guitar, I don't know.

The earliest confirmed recording I can find with Ralph is early 1955 with Skeets McDonald.

Could this be Ralph, from early 1954? Probably not.

http://picosong.com/nSN

He supposedly spent time with Merl Lindsay, but I don't know about any recordings.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Herb Steiner is correct about Mooney living in Vegas, he of course lived in SoCal for most, if not all of the 1950s.
I think Mooney likes to think he's mostly lived in Texas, he's been there since the late 60s.

In 1961 he relocated to Las Vegas, and I think he came to California in '66 while he was with Merle.. probably 1965 into '66.. but then he moved back to Vegas for a spell. Mooney and Bobby Austin seemed to have spent a decent amount of time switching between SoCal and Nevada in the 60s.
After Haggard's band, Mooney became a total club rat in Vegas, only travelling to the west coast for studio work, and a super rare Nashville session and occasional gig, usually backing Austin, who also disliked touring.

Ralph did move to Texas in about 1968 to join up with Wynn who had moved base there. And that's about all she wrote for his moving days, at least from a State to State perspective.

When he hooked up with Waylon, he must have had a change of heart, coz he toured his ass off for close to 20 years with Waylon.

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

I heard that the rest of the story about the Wanda session was, She told the producer she did'nt want Mr. Moon on the session,When it was over she went back to the producer and told him. I WANT HIM ON MY NEXT ONE. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.
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Mike Neer · From: NJ

Jason and Herb, now it's coming back to me--he did say it was buried in the Nevada desert. Must have been between my whisky sips. Winking

I am aware that I could never be a historian or a reporter. Very Happy

I have great ears, but my wife says I don't listen. I do have a good Sol Hoopii story, though.

The only reason where RM lived came up is because someone asked him if he still lived in Bakersfield, to which he replied, "I never lived in Bakersfield, even though they say I made the Bakersfield sound." And then he said he lived in Texas, and inferred that he almost always did. It only makes sense that he lived in SoCal, as he said he played at Disneyland in the 50s.
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DeWitt Scott · From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA * R.I.P.

What about the story when Ralph drank a little too much and when he and a friend was carrying the steel toward his house (it wasn't torn down) he "barrfed" all over the Fender 1000. He left the guitar in the yard and the next day he simply "hosed it off" and pressed on.

Another time way back when Ralph was playing with Weylon Jennings I picked him and Big Jim Webb up after the gig and brought them to my store. I taped a conversation with Ralph and it was hilarious! I asked him, "I see you don't use the chromatic tuning, why is that?" His reply, "I am the Moon and the Moon don't need them!" He did use the high G# on the first first but he didn't raise the two G# strings together. He was raising them seperately. I ask him why he did that and not raise them together. His only reply, "It aint none of your darn business!" Ralph and I became the best of friends and had many good times together at the various shows.

I am in the process of writing my bio and it be about my experiences with the various steel players and my travels. However, I feel like I should leave stories like this out of it as several steels have already have their own bio book or plan to do one. They should have the right to choose what they want to put in it. Buddy Emmons was writing his bio and got half way through it and just quit. A pity. Scotty

Jeff Bradshaw · From: Leslieville, Alberta - Canada

Scotty, I sure would love to read the book when you finish it. Your friend. ..jeff

Bob Hickish · From: Port Ludlow, Washington, USA, R.I.P.

Scott
Do you know if the Moon played 6 string ( Standard ) in his teen years ? .

Hick

Fred Jack · From: Bastrop, Texas 78602

Bob, Yes Moon played six string before steel. Speedy told me that he (MOON) was the "boogie monster" in LA. Speedy and Moon used to laugh and talk about when they lived in billy goat acres.You can hear him on Wynn's box set on first few songs.
Also, he was born in Duncan,Ok and moved to LA when he was about 7 (?). Then he moved to Vegas about 61.Then to Texas in 68.
He also played fiddle. Well enuf to play in the bands.
About the Fender ... Leo gave Moon a Fender and Moon drilled a hole in it and added another string and tuner to it. When Leo saw it he was none to impressed and that was the only Fender Moon was to ever have.
One more thing ... Walt Disney hired Moon and 2-3 others to play at his place and he was very adamant ..NO STEEL GUITAR RAG! Well Moon said everything was going fine until one of his friends came by and was drinking a bit and just would not leave Moon alone. He had to hear SGR. Moon said he thought what the heck and kicked off Steel Guitar Rag only to look up and into the eyes of Mr Disney. Fired on the spot!

Bob Hickish · From: Port Ludlow, Washington, USA, R.I.P.

Jack
OK ! thanks for that info --- The reason I ask is I have an old
friend here in the North West , who is in his 90’s and tells me stories
about play in LA ( CA ) with Mr Moon when moon was around 17 .
He said Moon was a supper 6 stringer -- called take off guitar -
but then he tells me , Moon was even better on Steel -- My friend also
received a Bass guitar from Leo Fender --- one of the first electric bass --
Here is what Im told about both these guys , My friend says the band
was not that good and moon could work for the best bands around So !
My friend talked Moon into getting his union ticket so he could get hooked up
with better bands . I can only assume it all happened that way .
Question

Hick

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Moon told me the Disney story when I asked him if he played Hawaiian style. He said the Disney gig was a Hawaiian band with shirts and leis and even a little face paint, and he said Steel Guitar Rag was the nail in the coffin.

Great story, Scotty! I wish Buddy would get around to finishing that autobiography.
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Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Back around the early sixties I was playing Steel with Jack Tucker at the Pioneer Room in Norwalk, Ca. six nights a week. On Tuesday night Jack informed me that he was going to change the style of the Band and myself and the Guitar player (cam't remember who) were fired and He was hiring Ralph Mooney . However, the new Guitar player backed out at the last minute. Jack asked me to stay until he got a new Guitar Player and in the mean time Ralph Mooney would play Lead Guitar. For the rest of the Week Ralph played lead and we had a great time playing together including a lot of twinning on old Bob Wills tunes. After I left Ralph went to playing Steel but within a short time moved on to greener pastures. Jack asked me to come back but I was working my day job five days a wwek and did not want to play week nights any more.
Ralph and I were alsays friends and when my Equipment burned up Ralph lent me and Amp until I could get a new one.

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