Restoring a 1949 Gibson Ultratone - NEED PARTS!

[Seth Hancock]

I recently posted about getting this at an auction a few years back and never learning to properly play it... Well, now's the time and I want to try and bring it back to life. I would LOVE to know if anyone has any spare plastic headstock and hand rest(proper name?) plastic parts completely in tact and for sale. I know it's a long shot since those plastic parts are notoriously damaged and broken but I thought I would ask. Also, I would love to get my hands on the original volume and tone knobs with the #s still on them as well as any extra tuners someone may have laying around. The knobs here are the originals but all the #s have faded over time and all the tuners are here save for one that was replaced (but the original tuner was still in the case so perhaps it just needs a looking over. I looked on StewMac but couldn't find the knobs and everything else .

Thanks for looking and I look forward to seeing what comes up here.

Seth

[Jack Hanson]

I would LOVE to know if anyone has any spare plastic headstock and hand rest(proper name?) plastic parts completely in tact and for sale. I know it's a long shot since those plastic parts are notoriously damaged and broken but I thought I would ask. Also, I would love to get my hands on the original volume and tone knobs with the #s still on them as well as any extra tuners someone may have laying around. The knobs here are the originals but all the #s have faded over time and all the tuners are here save for one that was replaced (but the original tuner was still in the case so perhaps it just needs a looking over. I looked on StewMac but couldn't find the knobs and everything else .

The overwhelming majority of surviving first-generation Ultratones (1946-1951) in playable condition are missing their fragile, pinned headstock cover, and/or their extremely fragile hinged fingerrest. In fact, many players -- myself included -- find the fingerrests cumbersome to the point that they interfere with their playing. The covers are merely ornamental, and in no way enhance the sound of the instrument.

1) The chances of finding a virgin in a whorehouse are exponentially greater than finding an intact hinged Plexiglas headstock cover and/or fingerrest from the first generation Ultratones. They are out there, but virtually all are already attached to an intact instrument in similar condition.
2) Only the final few batches of white Ultratones (before Gibson switched to the newer bodystyle circa early 1951) had numbered knobs. Most -- if not all -- Ultratones shipped between early 1946 and sometime in 1950 sported the unnumbered, clear, gold-tinted knobs like yours.
3) The pinkish-coral tuner buttons are unique to Gibson Ultratones -- the first-generation white ones, and the very first of the second-generation blonde-topped ones. If there is indeed a source for the original buttons, it's a mystery to me. (There are at least three different variations of early postwar Kluson tuners with the pink rectangular tuner buttons.)

If it's your ultimate desire to create a museum piece, by all means keep looking. It's possible you may be extremely fortunate and come across the correct parts. Good luck!

But if you really wanna play the thing, it's relatively simple to make your Ultratone into an awesome-sounding, great-playing lap steel.

If that was my Ultratone, and I wanted to make it "player grade excellent," I would:

1) Carefully remove what remains of both the headstock cover and the fingerrest.
2) Fabricate and install a new jackplate from plastic pickguard material.
3) Replace the original tuners with new Gotoh SD90s, utilizing the original ferrules. They will drop right into the original holes without modification.
4) String it up and play it.

It goes without saying that all original parts -- even the broken ones -- should be saved.

As long as its electronics are functional, your Ultratone oughta be good to go for another 75 years or so. The original white Ultratones and black Centurys are among the finest-sounding lap steels to ever matriculate from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Here's one of my four "player-grade" white Ultratones that I rescued from a basketcase a couple of years ago. It plays great, and sounds amazing. In my opinion, it looks alright. Not as cool as an original in mint condition with its Plexiglas covers intact, but I don't have a huge investment in it, either:

[Seth Hancock]

This is extensive and awesome. I THANK YOU for taking the time to educate and inform me! That alone was worth my $5 price of admission.


It actually sounds amazing and I just wanted to restore it to its full glory since it sounds and plays so well. I am going to have my tech guy try to put the original pink/coral tuner back on and have no idea why the previous person only had one white knob (perhaps they too were trying to restore it). The top plexiglass piece is still in tact with a slight break in the plastic but the bottom piece has its fair share of masking tape holding it on. I will, more than likely, remove it and just hold onto it.

The only other question I have is regarding the back. I have seen on several other Ultratones a small, rectangular cover for the pots. However, my back cover is large and takes up the majority of the entire lower half and it was clearly made that way since there is bevel and notch where the back cover sits. I have not seen that on any other Ultratone and I searched online for quite some time looking for another example. Perhaps you know this issue as well? Again, thank you for your wealth of knowledge. I genuinely and sincerely appreciate it.

Seth

[Jack Hanson]

The only other question I have is regarding the back. I have seen on several other Ultratones a small, rectangular cover for the pots. However, my back cover is large and takes up the majority of the entire lower half and it was clearly made that way since there is bevel and notch where the back cover sits. I have not seen that on any other Ultratone and I searched online for quite some time looking for another example.

That's a new one on me too, Seth. I've never come across -- or to the best of my recollection ever seen a photo -- of an Ultratone, Century, or any other Gibson lap steel with a control cavity coverplate such as yours. Every one I've ever seen has been a black-painted oval of Masonite approximately 7-1/8" x 2-1/4", like this one:


It would be interesting to take a peek under both the backplate at the cavity and controls, and the fingerrest at the pickup, its mounting plate, and the bridge. There must be a reason why yours is different than most.

Has anyone else ever seen one of those massive control cavity covers on the back of a white Ultratone (or a black Century)?

[Seth Hancock]

It would be interesting to take a peek under both the backplate at the cavity and controls, and the fingerrest at the pickup, its mounting plate, and the bridge. There must be a reason why yours is different than most.

Ask and ye shall receive!

[Jack Hanson]

That's interesting, Seth. Thanks for the pix.

Aside from the rout and enlarged cover plate, everything on your instrument looks perfectly normal for a late '40s Ultratone. About all I can come up with is that yours may have been a one-off that had some flaw on its back in which the factory attempted to disguise with the additional routing and the large cover plate in order to salvage an otherwise usable body.

Those concentric circles may offer some sort of clue. Or not.

Would any of our esteemed Forumite Gibson fans/historians/experts have any other ideas?

[Nick Reed]

Here's an old 1952 Gibson I have. Been in my family over 64 years.

[Jack Hanson]

Here's an old 1952 Gibson I have. Been in my family over 64 years.

One of the finest lap steels of the postwar era in my opinion. Not to nitpick, but it's most likely your instrument is pre-1952, since the shift to the slightly modified dark blue bodies and P-90 pickups occurred sometime in mid-1951, per AR Duchossoir's Gibson Steel Guitars 1935 to 1967.