1954 Rare Harmony CONSOLECTRIC steel guitar w/built-in amp

[Andy Volk]

In 20 years of looking at steels I've never seen one of these. anybody ever see/play one?

http://oliviasvintageguitars.com/other/guitars/2660/

[Bob Fraser]

If I am reading the price correctly, it will be gone in no time.
no, I have never seen one either, very cool.

[Bob Fraser]

dbl pst,sorry

[Doug Beaumier]

They are rare, but I've seen 3 or 4 of them for sale over the years. Unfortunately they are not highly sought after by players or collectors so they don't sell for much. It's an interesting idea, but it never caught on. If you do a Google search for CONSOLECTRIC and then click on Images you'll see a lot of them. Here's one of them:

[Andy Volk]

Thanks for the education, Doug. The forum never ceases to amaze.

[George Keoki Lake]

Seems I recall EPIPHONE had a similar idea, only much more "modern" in appearance ?

[Paul DiMaggio]

I think Epiphone had an amp that looked like a suitcase, it had a door in front of the speaker and another one that covered the back. I'm not positive but I think the guitar had it's own case.

[John Gould]

Just saw one a couple of days ago at TrueTone Music in Santa Monica

[Andy Volk]

FJ's Catch-of-the-Day. Cool catalog graphic.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 5321428167

[Ron Whitfield]

Since sustain is so lauded (maybe overly so) by steelers I always wondered why/if anybody made something similar which had the guitar secured to the amp top to add sustain as can be found when placing a steel on a tabletop or a guitar against something solid. These composite tops of the '50s and '60s probably wouldn't be sufficient to make much difference.

[Matthew Lutton]

Hi there I know this isn’t a recent post but can you recall the tube lineup? I just got one myself but the legs didn’t come with it and the amp works but I’m not sure it’s all original. The amp itself only has an on/off switch and a jack for a twin prong cord adaptor which seems odd (not sure how to make that into a 3 prong cord which I typically do on all my old amps) and I’m not sure the tubes in it are the originals. Perhaps the owner was smart and modified it for current 120 volt power instead of the 110 volts it was designed for. Outside of a variac, can I get the voltage from a multimeter? If someone could tell me where to place the prongs and what setting on the multimeter to use, I’ll try to see if it’s near the expected 110

Anyone know the leg thread size for replacements? I believe they’re smaller and just like the Smeck legs, I’ll see to be sure but I’m sure they’re the same size.. cheers all, thanks for your help!

[Barney Roach]

There are NOT a lot of technical specs to be found easily.

Chances are decent that the tubes you have are fine- unless
they are missing. Hope this compilation photo I made
is of some help to you.

[Matthew Lutton]

Thanks very much for confirming!

[Eric Philippsen]

I owned and refurbished one. Since I do electronic work I also rebuilt the small internal amp, too. As I recall its design did not have an output transformer and, low powered as it was, it wasn’t much to write home about. Amazingly, it came with the original instruction page which included a schematic! I’m not 100% sure but in Barney’s photos the one on the left looks like the amp module of the steel I owned. I recognize my printing of the tube types on the chassis.

The concept was neat. Self-contained, the steel was attached to the removable top which you simply flipped to store and carry it.

As a vintage gear dealer I ended up taking it to several guitar shows. It was a tough sell even, as I recall, priced at $400-or-so. That was 5 years or more ago. I finally sold it to another dealer from Cincinnati.

[Ian McLatchie]

There was one in a music store in Toronto 25 or 30 years ago. As Eric sais, nothing to write home about.

[Cartwright Thompson]

Widowmaker amp. Get yourself an isolation transformer

[Matthew Lutton]

Their great. I know how to make it safe. Funny to hear it called “nothing special”. I humbly disagree, I have several amp in case models and this beats em all. But to each their own, I’ve always loved Harmony gear, but certainly agree it’s a niche. Overseas buyers will pay a ton for the good old hollowbodies and I’m sure lap steels are the same. Built my collection buying and selling USA harmony guitars over the past 25 years and they made some great stuff. Anyway, cheers and happy holidays to all!