He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams by Kathleen Rowe March 2nd, 1984 Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Collection: Winfield Notable Artists
Title
He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams by Kathleen Rowe March 2nd, 1984 Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Subject
S. L. Mossman Co.
Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Newspaper Article
Winfield Kansas
Description
Kathleen Rowe writes about Stuart Mossman closing his business and moving to Southeast Arkansas. Mossman reflects on his past successes and friendships throughout his career.
Creator
Rowe, Kathleen
Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Source
Winfield Public Library
Publisher
Winfield Public Library, Winfield, Kansas USA
Date
1984-03-02
Rights
Format
text/plain
Language
English
Type
Clippings
Citation
Rowe, Kathleen
Wichita Eagle-Beacon , “He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams by Kathleen Rowe March 2nd, 1984 Wichita Eagle-Beacon,” Winfield Digital Collections, accessed June 24, 2026, https://winfield.digitalsckls.info/item/195.
Text
He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams
Bittersweet Will Be His Departure From Making Guitars
By Kathleen Rowe
Staff Writer
WINFIELD — Stuart Mossman came to this small town 50 miles southeast of Wichita nearly two decades ago to build guitars.
Now, 6,000 guitars and a national reputation later, he has to leave it behind.
Where a major fire and a bad business deal failed, chemicals have succeeded. They’re driving him out of the business.
For the past five years, Mossman, 41, has been suffering severe headaches from his exposure to toluol and toluene, chemicals used in making guitars.
April 1, Mossman will close his shop and head for the wooded hills of northwest Arkansas, with a new real-estate license in hand.
He’s going to sell land.
ENDING THIS phase of his life is bittersweet, Mossman said.
He has seen his guitars played in movies such as “Bound for Glory” and “Nashville,” and by musicians such as John Denver and Emmylou Harris. With endorsements from Merle Travis, Hank Snow and David Carradine, the Mossman reputation has grown. In the past five years, his guitars have been recognized consistently as among the best in Frets magazine readers’ polls. In 1981 they were tops in their category.
“I’ve always made what I wanted to make, and I’ve never been hurting for orders,” Mossman said. The average Mossman guitar sells for about $1,300.
“I enjoy it, I really enjoy it,” he said, planing an unfinished guitar as he talked. “I hate to leave. ... And I know I’ll have a great deal of pressure. I’ve sold before, and I haven’t worked for anyone for 20 years.”
BUT HE’S buoyant about the future.
“I’ve almost always enjoyed everything I’ve done,” he said. “This has given me opportunities and experiences I never expected.”
His new job will be with a 95-square-mile development called Bella Vista, where his parents have retired. As he sees it, selling land and selling his award-winning, handmade guitars aren’t that different.
“You’re selling dreams with both,” he said. After a cram course last year, he scored second in the state on his exam for an Arkansas real-estate license.
When he began his career as a guitar maker in 1962, it was with a company in Michigan. In 1965, he and his wife, Kendra, moved to Winfield, where he began repairing and building acoustic guitars in his garage. He and Kendra have two daughters, Rebecca, 12, and Laura, 7.
BY 1969, he had incorporated his business and moved it to a building
on Strother Field. From two employees, the operation grew to 58 by 1977.
In 1975, a fire that started in the lacquer room burned the plant to the ground. Mossman rebuilt, but a few years later the business was threat-ened again, this time by what he de-scribed as an “unfortunate experi-ence” with a distributor. He scaled down drastically, and has operated since 1978 with only a couple of em-ployees. He recently settled a lawsuit against the distributor.
About five years ago he began to be bothered by headaches. Doctors blamed them on chemicals in the lacquer and solvents used in binding and finishing guitars. Mossman admits he was careless about safety precautions when he was younger.
Now he receives weekly shots to combat the headaches.
And now the factory and the Moss-man name are for sale.
• MOSSMAN, 6C, Col. 1
Mike Hutmacher/Staff Photographer
Stuart Mossman is making a special collection of 20 guitars before closing his Winfield business.
6C THE WICHITA EAGLE-BE
The Mossman guitar has been recognized as among the best in Frets magazine polls.
A Silver
Cockroach
Adorns ‘Lil’
MOSSMAN, From 1C
DOES HE PLAN to rebuild his business again?
“Physically, I don’t think I can,” he said, “and I have no desire to build it up to a big factory again.” He’s been swamped with orders lately, “but that doesn’t have anything to do with how bad my headaches are.” Still, he might continue to build a few guitars every year as a hobby, he said.
Mossman was born in Chicago, raised in Dallas and lived else-where in the country before set-tling in Winfield. But his roots in Winfield are deep. His great-grandfather settled in Winfield in 1870, and Mossman spent childhood summers there with his grandparents.
“Winfield has been home since the day I moved here,” he said. “In a town this size, there’s a lot of possibilities for individual efforts. ... You owe it to your community to try to make it a more interest-ing place to live. When you leave, you should have left your impres-sion.”
THERE’S NO question that Mossman has. His presence in the town has helped make it a mecca for what he describes as “the Win-field kind of music” — a diverse mixture of musical styles played on acoustic, stringed instruments, with an emphasis on folk and blue-grass.
In 1971, he and two friends, Joe Muret and Bob Redford, organized the first Walnut Valley Festival and National Flat-picking Championship, which causes Winfield’s population to more than double in size every September.
In 1978, he and two other friends, Carl Fisher and Kenny Glasgow, founded County Con-certs, a local subscription series of string-band concerts. Fisher plays with the group “Southwind” and said that musicians in the area see the closing of the shop as a loss.
“The shop has brought a lot of musicians and a lot of interesting people to town,” he said.
FISHER AND Mossman, who have worked together for much of the past 11 years, are devoting the company’s last weeks to designing and building a special collection of 20 guitars.
“In all these years, I’ve saved only one guitar,” Mossman said. But he’s always saved pieces of wood — Brazilian and East Indian rosewood, curly koa, curly maple. Much of it was lost in the ’75 fire, but the best of what remains is being crafted into the collection.
These are guitars Mossman has wanted to build for years. Some will be inlaid with 14-karat gold, others with sterling silver. One, named “The Lil” after a roach-infested cafe well-loved by Moss-man, has a mother-of-pearl cock-roach with silver feelers inlaid within it.
Craftsmanship, materials and design determine how good a guitar is, Mossman said, but every so often an exceptional instrument is created, for no clear reason.
“God’s wood is different,” he mused, studying a piece of extinct Brazilian rosewood he’s held on to for almost 15 years — waiting to make just the right guitar.
Original Format
Paper
Title
He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams by Kathleen Rowe March 2nd, 1984 Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Subject
S. L. Mossman Co.
Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Newspaper Article
Winfield Kansas
Description
Kathleen Rowe writes about Stuart Mossman closing his business and moving to Southeast Arkansas. Mossman reflects on his past successes and friendships throughout his career.
Creator
Rowe, Kathleen
Wichita Eagle-Beacon
Source
Winfield Public Library
Publisher
Winfield Public Library, Winfield, Kansas USA
Date
1984-03-02
Rights
Format
text/plain
Language
English
Type
Clippings
Citation
Rowe, Kathleen Wichita Eagle-Beacon , “He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams by Kathleen Rowe March 2nd, 1984 Wichita Eagle-Beacon,” Winfield Digital Collections, accessed June 24, 2026, https://winfield.digitalsckls.info/item/195.Text
He Trades in the Stuff of Dreams
Bittersweet Will Be His Departure From Making Guitars
By Kathleen Rowe
Staff Writer
WINFIELD — Stuart Mossman came to this small town 50 miles southeast of Wichita nearly two decades ago to build guitars.
Now, 6,000 guitars and a national reputation later, he has to leave it behind.
Where a major fire and a bad business deal failed, chemicals have succeeded. They’re driving him out of the business.
For the past five years, Mossman, 41, has been suffering severe headaches from his exposure to toluol and toluene, chemicals used in making guitars.
April 1, Mossman will close his shop and head for the wooded hills of northwest Arkansas, with a new real-estate license in hand.
He’s going to sell land.
ENDING THIS phase of his life is bittersweet, Mossman said.
He has seen his guitars played in movies such as “Bound for Glory” and “Nashville,” and by musicians such as John Denver and Emmylou Harris. With endorsements from Merle Travis, Hank Snow and David Carradine, the Mossman reputation has grown. In the past five years, his guitars have been recognized consistently as among the best in Frets magazine readers’ polls. In 1981 they were tops in their category.
“I’ve always made what I wanted to make, and I’ve never been hurting for orders,” Mossman said. The average Mossman guitar sells for about $1,300.
“I enjoy it, I really enjoy it,” he said, planing an unfinished guitar as he talked. “I hate to leave. ... And I know I’ll have a great deal of pressure. I’ve sold before, and I haven’t worked for anyone for 20 years.”
BUT HE’S buoyant about the future.
“I’ve almost always enjoyed everything I’ve done,” he said. “This has given me opportunities and experiences I never expected.”
His new job will be with a 95-square-mile development called Bella Vista, where his parents have retired. As he sees it, selling land and selling his award-winning, handmade guitars aren’t that different.
“You’re selling dreams with both,” he said. After a cram course last year, he scored second in the state on his exam for an Arkansas real-estate license.
When he began his career as a guitar maker in 1962, it was with a company in Michigan. In 1965, he and his wife, Kendra, moved to Winfield, where he began repairing and building acoustic guitars in his garage. He and Kendra have two daughters, Rebecca, 12, and Laura, 7.
BY 1969, he had incorporated his business and moved it to a building
on Strother Field. From two employees, the operation grew to 58 by 1977.
In 1975, a fire that started in the lacquer room burned the plant to the ground. Mossman rebuilt, but a few years later the business was threat-ened again, this time by what he de-scribed as an “unfortunate experi-ence” with a distributor. He scaled down drastically, and has operated since 1978 with only a couple of em-ployees. He recently settled a lawsuit against the distributor.
About five years ago he began to be bothered by headaches. Doctors blamed them on chemicals in the lacquer and solvents used in binding and finishing guitars. Mossman admits he was careless about safety precautions when he was younger.
Now he receives weekly shots to combat the headaches.
And now the factory and the Moss-man name are for sale.
• MOSSMAN, 6C, Col. 1
Mike Hutmacher/Staff Photographer
Stuart Mossman is making a special collection of 20 guitars before closing his Winfield business.
6C THE WICHITA EAGLE-BE
The Mossman guitar has been recognized as among the best in Frets magazine polls.
A Silver
Cockroach
Adorns ‘Lil’
MOSSMAN, From 1C
DOES HE PLAN to rebuild his business again?
“Physically, I don’t think I can,” he said, “and I have no desire to build it up to a big factory again.” He’s been swamped with orders lately, “but that doesn’t have anything to do with how bad my headaches are.” Still, he might continue to build a few guitars every year as a hobby, he said.
Mossman was born in Chicago, raised in Dallas and lived else-where in the country before set-tling in Winfield. But his roots in Winfield are deep. His great-grandfather settled in Winfield in 1870, and Mossman spent childhood summers there with his grandparents.
“Winfield has been home since the day I moved here,” he said. “In a town this size, there’s a lot of possibilities for individual efforts. ... You owe it to your community to try to make it a more interest-ing place to live. When you leave, you should have left your impres-sion.”
THERE’S NO question that Mossman has. His presence in the town has helped make it a mecca for what he describes as “the Win-field kind of music” — a diverse mixture of musical styles played on acoustic, stringed instruments, with an emphasis on folk and blue-grass.
In 1971, he and two friends, Joe Muret and Bob Redford, organized the first Walnut Valley Festival and National Flat-picking Championship, which causes Winfield’s population to more than double in size every September.
In 1978, he and two other friends, Carl Fisher and Kenny Glasgow, founded County Con-certs, a local subscription series of string-band concerts. Fisher plays with the group “Southwind” and said that musicians in the area see the closing of the shop as a loss.
“The shop has brought a lot of musicians and a lot of interesting people to town,” he said.
FISHER AND Mossman, who have worked together for much of the past 11 years, are devoting the company’s last weeks to designing and building a special collection of 20 guitars.
“In all these years, I’ve saved only one guitar,” Mossman said. But he’s always saved pieces of wood — Brazilian and East Indian rosewood, curly koa, curly maple. Much of it was lost in the ’75 fire, but the best of what remains is being crafted into the collection.
These are guitars Mossman has wanted to build for years. Some will be inlaid with 14-karat gold, others with sterling silver. One, named “The Lil” after a roach-infested cafe well-loved by Moss-man, has a mother-of-pearl cock-roach with silver feelers inlaid within it.
Craftsmanship, materials and design determine how good a guitar is, Mossman said, but every so often an exceptional instrument is created, for no clear reason.
“God’s wood is different,” he mused, studying a piece of extinct Brazilian rosewood he’s held on to for almost 15 years — waiting to make just the right guitar.
Original Format
Paper