Diana Deluxe w/ Meissner Horseshoe Advert?

[Mark Helm]

Hey, folks!

Does anybody out there have an old advert for an Oahu Diana Deluxe with the Meisner horseshoe pickup? If so, please post! Been looking everywhere for one and al I can find is this:




Aloha,

Mark

[Noah Miller]

I don't think they exist. The 1938 catalog does not yet have electrics, and the 1939 catalog shows the wood-covered pickup already.

[Mark Helm]

So, how many Diana Deluxes w/ the Meissner horseshoes were made, do ya think?

[Noah Miller]

Pulling a number completely out of thin air, I'd say maybe 100. Somewhere in that order of magnitude. The majority have no Miessner tag, probably because they shipped before Miessner smelled the possibility of legal action.

[Mark van Allen]

I have an Oahu Diana with original horseshoe pickup. I got it intending stage use, but it’s so unbelievably pristine I can’t make myself take it out in the world. Unreal condition.

[Michael Lee Allen]

I have a full page advert of 229K with what looks like a metal "horseshoe' pickup that is dated December 1937. Also another earlier and different advert from sometime in the fall of 1937 that I'm not digging out just to get the exact month. probably a "horseshoe' on that one too.
Catalog 19 from 1936 shows no electrics other than Volu-Tone.
Catalog 21 from 1937-38 shows no electrics other than Volu-Tone.
Catalog 23 from 1939 shows 229K with the wood cover and no other steels except the Volu-Tone.
Catalog 24 from 1940 shows 263K Diana Deluxe with wood cover and an inset photo of Clarence Williams of the Eddie King Orchestra with what looks to be a metal 'horseshoe". Other wood steels are the 229K and 258K with wood covers and everything else is an early pearloid Dickerson / Magna Electronics.
Catalog 25 from 1941 shows 263K Diana and 229K Tonemasters with wood covers.
Catalog 26 from 1944 is "wartime" one with only a few cheap and plain acoustic instruments and mostly print lessons.
The Diana Deluxe was still cataloged as late as 1955 in Oahu Catalog 98.
The Tonemaster was still listed in a Norman English catalog in 1961.
MLA

[Lloyd Graves]

Here's one with the amp/case. Clever design!

https://reverb.com/item/69514279-1938-o ... up-version

[Noah Miller]

That amp is not from Oahu and was not originally paired with that steel.