I found this at a local music shop and picked it up thinking to restore it and not really knowing what I had. I'm not a steel player, yet, but want to learn so I thought this would be a fun project. I've done some research and found that this is an interesting instrument. I found a couple of discussions on this forum and the patent documents that were filed in 1936.
1. Do I have anything of real historical value?
2. Is there anyway to make this thing work outside of magnetizing the strings like mentioned in the above linked thread?
3. If question 1 is yes and question 2 is no, what should I do with it?
4. If question 1 is no and question 2 is no then I would assume it would be ok to install a regular pickup and maybe drill out a larger hole on the side for a switchcraft style jack?
5. Oh, what is that switch for? Is that to send the electrical current talked about in the above links?
OK. Here are the pics. Thanks for the input and thoughts. I tried my best to find what I could before posting.
I hope that Peter Huggins responds to this thread. I met him several years a go at a steel meet, and he brought several VoluTone instruments to display.
I would say that what you have is quite rare though dangerous to use as per the 1930s instructions. I have a VoluTone amp from the same period that fits that description also. In any event, a fascinating chapter in the development of the electric guitar.
Hello there. I was notified of this thread through a private message, sorry to say I have not been keeping up on my Forum readings lately (working nights).
The Volu-Tone was on the market by 1933, making it one of the earliest electric guitars, and perhaps the first true solid body guitar, as opposed to semi-hollow, as most of the early Gibsons and Rickenbackers were (Gibsons were semi-hollow up until 1940 or thereabouts. My 1934 Rick Frying Pan was hollow-cast and sounded incredible, I still miss it).
The unique thing about the Volu-Tone pickup was that it did not use a permanent magnet. It was necessary to 'energize' the strings above the pickup to hear the instrument through an amp. This was done with a circuit built into the Volu-Tone amps, which sent voltage through the pickup to magnetise the string area. You had to plug into the special jack for no more than two seconds, then plug into the normal jack for amplification. This charged the strings, which would then work like normal and retained the charge until a string broke, although they could be re-energized if it was felt that the sound was fading out. After charging, the guitar could be used in any amp, and the Volu-Tone amp worked fine for other model guitars as well. I am not sure how much voltage was involved in energizing the strings, but it was something like 300 volts. Eventually they put red DANGER notices over the energizing jack to help avoid mishap. We have looked for many years for old newspaper articles of people being injured or killed using the system, but have never found any. Still, one wonders...
The jack used on these guitars is a three-connector tip-ring-sleeve jack, today commonly called a Stereo jack. Cheaper models used a four-prong jack, presumably to avoid mishap. I used to think that the four-prong jack predated the Stereo jack, but now believe they were used concurrently. If you replace the jack, you might as well replace the pickup at the same time.
The student model sold for $49.95 as a package: either the lap steel guitar with amp, or a pickup unit that could be mounted on a flat top guitar, with amp; or a 'velocity' microphone with the amp. The great Bob Dunn, playing with Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, used either a Martin guitar or a Mexican-made flat top with the 'translating unit' pickup. It has been reported that when playing live he would run a big magnet up and down the strings to recharge the pickup. The first recording session was January 1935 and the sound was not like anything ever heard before. Today it sounds like a hot little amp with a touch of distortion. look up the song 'Taking Off' which can be found on YouTube. By the time of the Brownies next recording session, Dunn had moved on to the Epiphone steel and amp, although photos indicate the Volu-Tone amp still on stage, probably used with the microphone for Brown to sing through.
The Volu-Tone guitars pickups and amps appeared in the Oahu catalog through 1941, but were gone after the war. I wonder what Underwriters Laboratories (UL) would have made of the energizing system. They were built by Schireson Bros. of Los Angeles, who also produced the Hollywood resonator guitar that was sued out of existience by the National company. Amazingly Volu-Tone is still in business, and still owned by the Schireson family, based in Simi Valley, CA. They concentrate on business security systems and have not made any musical instruments since before World War II. They do not have any historical information on the old instruments that were produced (more's the pity).
In my own collection, I have several guitars and student model amps, which are tiny, with a 6" or 8" speaker. None of these are currently functioning but they are interesting to examine. The earliest ones do not even have an on / off switch, you plug it in and the tubes start to glow. Eventually they added a switch and volume control. The wording on the instruction panel changed over the years as well, eventually including instructions such as "Do not stand too close to amplifier". Presumably this was to reduce 60-cycle hum, rather than any electrical worries. I do have one of the professional amps, model P.P.5, that has a 12" speaker and functions very well, including the energizing circuit. Out of several guitars, I have two that function as intended. The first guitar I got was rosewood or rosewood veneer. When I got it, some of the strings worked and some did not. Couldn't figure it out at first until I started doing the research. Years later my friend Alan got a complete original P.P.5 amp along with Oahu squareneck student guitar with pickup. We replaced the AC cord and powered it up, using a Variac to slowly bring it up to speed. The results were captured on my iPhone and posted on YouTube (user name Guitarmaniax, "The Amazing and Mysterious Volu-Tone guitar"). It was indeed amazing to hear the old dead strings come back to life, especially considering they were likely 70 years old! Unfortunately the wax capacitors melted a little from the process; they were about half the size of a pack of cigarettes. That amp was taken to Roy Blankenship and functions today as intended. On my own P.P.5, the wax caps were replaced with modern equalivents and it works fine and sounds very good, though at only 5 watts, it is not very loud. It is early enough that there is no on/off switch, although it does have a volume control. Last year at Arlington I picked up another early Volu-Tone guitar and successfully energized it with the amp. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but fortunately it does! Happy Camper here!
Your guitar in the pictures is unique to me, it does not match anything in my collection or that I have seen in person or promotional literature (I have never seen an eight-string before. Very Cool!). I have no idea what the switch is for, or if it is original. My guess is a tone switch or perhaps a kill switch. The earliest guitars only had a volume knob, later ones had both Volu and Tone controls. I also have one with no controls at all. Is that the pickup in the pictures, out of the guitar? If that is the case, it is probably not worth fixing. I don't know anyone who would have the wherewithal to do an authentic restoration. Plus you would need to find an amp with a working energizing unit, and I have only seen three or four in more than a decade of searching (although they have turned up on eBay, very rarely). The best solution I think would be for you to replace the system with a modern, normal magnetic pickup, and modern jack or cord and plug. Perhaps a gold foil design? I had one guitar that had a Strat-type pickup in it. That worked but the sound was not satisfying to me and I sold it. My guess is that Lollar or Seymour Duncan could provide an appropiate pickup wide enough to accomodate an 8-string setup.
It looks like a nice guitar, and I hope you will wire it up to work and enjoy playing it! Best Wishes and Regards. If you need more info or anything, feel free to contact me again..
A big THANKS to all my friends, here and everywhere !
Wow, thanks for the great info! Given what has been written so far I'm going to pass on the complete restoration and use a regular magnetic pickup. I just found an 8 string single coil from the '60's on Reverb for about $40. I'll try that out and post what the finished product looks like.
I have a Volu-Tone too. I don't have the special amp, so I've not managed to fire it up so far. It has the 4 prong plug. Two pins are close together, so the 4 form a trapazoid. Does anyone here know which pins are for signal, and which are for charging the strings? I've not yet disassembled it to trace wires. It's in fine condition, not easy to take apart, and I want to avoid scratching it if possible.
Also, can anyone tell me the DC voltage to charge the strings? Is it 300 VDC for sure? If one of you with a functional amp has a multimeter and knows how to do it safely, a measurement would be appreciated.
I can build a DC power supply, and hopefully get the guitar going. Thanks very much for any information you all can provide.
Great bit of history and background Peter! Thanks for taking the time.
David Walker wrote:I have a Volu-Tone too. I don't have the special amp, so I've not managed to fire it up so far. ...
As a fun experiment, perhaps you could try running a big magnet over the strings similar to as Peter described. With todays cheap and very strong Neo magnets, I'll bet you could give the strings a pretty good charge.
Thanks Tom. That's a good idea. I tried something similar. I placed very small Neo magnets at various spots but still got no signal. I tried various combinations of two of the four prongs on the cord without success. Not knowing the guitar' s circuit is a problem. The plate around the volume pot seems like it's pressed in, and I may damage things if I use enough force to remove it. I may just have to risk it to trace the circuit though. If I do that, I'll post a schematic here. BTW, I have measured Ohms between the prongs while sweeping the volume pot. I don't remember the values, but no combinations acted like they were tied to a pickup. The pup may be fried, no way to say. I'd really like to know what the guitar sounds like. I have a bunch of very early lap steels, and they're all different and interesting. The Audiovoxes are very warm, the Fender trapazoid pups just sing, but the B6 gets played the most. I hope to add the Volu-Tone to my bag of tricks. Thanks again, and I'll share whatever I learn here.
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