Gene Moles

Gene Moles (1928-2002) was an American guitarist, active in the pop and surf-music scene of the 1960s.

Denver Eugene "Gene" Moles Sr., the sixth of seven children, was born on 1 June 1928 in Wetumka, Oklahoma, sixteen miles from Henryetta. His family moved to Selma, just south of Fresno, in 1936. Gene got his first guitar seven years later at age 15.^[1]

In 1946, Moles joined the house band at the Paris Gardens nightclub in Selma, owned by a woman known as Texas Mom, where he was earning $3 a night. After three years, he moved to Bakersfield, in September 1949, and joined Tex Butler's band that featured pianist George French who were appearing at the Blackboard club. He was getting paid there $10 a night. The regionally successful "Jimmy Thomason Show" on television contributed to him becoming a local celebrity by 1953. By that time, he had acquired a "solid reputation," which led Capitol Records to engage him from 1959 onwards at their Hollywood studios to work as a session musician. Among the many tracks Moles played in was "Sweet Thing" by Buck Owens,^[1] while he also played with Merle Haggard, Red Simpson, Tex Ritter, and many others.

In 1961, Moles and Nokie Edwards of The Ventures co-wrote "Night Run" that was recorded by them as The Marksmen, also it was recorded by The Mustangs. Moles and Edwards also composed "Scratch", recorded by The Ventures in 1962 and also recorded by The Surf Coasters, and "Sunny River" and "Gringo" recorded by The Ventures for their album "Twist with the Ventures" in 1961. Years later the album was reissued as "Dance". .^[1]

Along with his work in music, Moles also worked as chief inspector in the Bakersfield small production-plant of Mosrite guitars. The Mosrites were used by people like Barbara Mandrell, Little Jimmy Dickens and Joe Maphis, as well as The Ventures who used a Mark-1 mode that Mosrite, in 1963, named "The Ventures Model."^{[note 1]} The plant went out of business in 1969^{[note 2]} and Moles opened a guitar-repair shop he named "Gene Moles - Doctor of Guitars" and, in 1991, moved to Niles Street. He operated the workshop until the end of his life.^[1]

Gene and Joan Moles were married in 1956 and had four children: Daughters Kathryn Scheer, and Marisa Blomberg, and sons Eugene Jr. and Jody. Both sons became guitarists. Eugene Jr., who lives in Nashville, has played at the Grand Ole Opry and on Hee Haw.^[1]

Gene Moles died Sunday 28 April 2002 from pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive lung disease, at his home in Bakersfield, California.^[1]

• Dick Dale
• Link Wray
• List of surf musicians
• Drag racing

• Mayer, Steven (13 May 2020). "Musician was one of the architects of the Bakersfield Sound". The Bakersfield Californian. Press Reader. Retrieved 22 January 2023.

• Dalley, Robert J. (1988). Surfin' Guitars: Instrumental Surf Bands of the Sixties. Surf Publications. ISBN 9780913944042.