Lap Steel Info and Value ???

[Mike Harmon]

I found a decent-looking old 6-string lap steel recently in a local pawn shop. The name on the headstock end is "Tonemaster". There are also the words "English Electronics" running downward toward the nut.

This guitar has a tan mother-of-toilet-seat finish, but upon closer inspection, the finish is just a thin contact-paper like material bonded to the outside of the body. Fingerboard is a black transparent plastic, with gold sparkle dot and triangle position markers.

The bottom is covered with black felt, with 3 leg sockets. The guitar has a black plastic pickup cover, with white tone and volume control knobs. The pickup seems to work OK.

The guitar is equipped with a "Stringtone" adjustable "changer", made by Rowe Industries (the DeArmond folks) with E, A, and C# positions.

Any ideas as to who the manufacturer is/was? How about a ball-park value?

Thanks,
Mike

[Russ Young]

I think the MOTS English Electronics lap steels were made in the 50s by Valco (the maker of National, Supro, Oahu, Bronson and many other lap steels). If you look under the pickup cover you'll probably see a "string-through" pickup.

Depending on the condition, I would guess it's worth $250 - $400.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

how much does the Pawnshop want for it ?

[Mike Harmon]

CrowBear,

The original price marked on the tag said $500, but it's been there for 15 months, so I think they were getting eager to sell it.
I offered the guy $100 today and he came back with a counter-offer of $200.

Mike

[Chuck Fisher]

So its like a National Triplex, and has a 3-tuning gearshift-thingee (changer)????

I always liked the national's looks, do these work well?

[Russ Young]

Mike, does it look at all like this? (This one doesn't have "Stringtone," of course.) It doesn't look at all like a Triplex though.

There was a forum thread not too long ago about Stringtones: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/004154.html <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Russ Young on 24 November 2003 at 04:56 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Mike Harmon]

Russ,

It looks almost exactly like this:
http://home.att.net/~mharmon/tonemaster.jpg
(hopefully, this works ...)

except that the "Stringtone" bridge/changer is used instead of a hardtail bridge. The black plastic "U-shaped" cover plate is exactly the same (knobs and all). The fingerboard has different markers, and the headstock is a little different, but this is it, for all intents and purposes.

Mike<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Mike Harmon on 24 November 2003 at 06:02 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Brad Bechtel]

That's a good sounding instrument. The Stringtone bridge (if in good shape) can be used to modify the tuning on the fly (not like a pedal steel, but like having three different lap steels).
In my opinion, $200 is a good price; $500 is not.

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Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

[Mike Harmon]

Hi Russ,

I walked into the pawn shop yesterday and asked the man if he'd take $175. He said OK, so then I asked him if he'd consider
a trade. He said sure, so I went out to the car and got the old Peavey T-60 guitar I'd bought at the OTHER pawn shop a
couple of months earlier for $100!

He asked me how I'd like to trade, and I told him "even up". He thought about it a couple of seconds and then said OK!

I brought it with me to St. Louis and took it over to show the guys at Scotty's. Don Curtis cleaned and lubed the "changer" and fixed the mis-adjusted fine tuners. It works just great now. Now all I have to do is learn where everything is on the E major, A major, and C# minor settings!

Mike

[CrowBear Schmitt]

now that's a happy ending