What was your first lap steel?

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 30 Apr 2002 6:11 pm

I saw this thread start up on another discussion and thought it would be interesting to find out - what was your first lap steel?

Mine was a Magnatone Varsity, bowling ball blue with matching amplifier. It cost me all of $25.00 at a garage sale in Norco, California. I played that thing to death - the amplifier was just loud enough to hold my own with every other kid with an amp.
I still have it, too!

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

Pete Grant · Post by **Pete Grant** » 30 Apr 2002 6:27 pm

My first one that my parents bought me when I was 10 was a "Gay Chord". It had a formica top and a real cheap pickup. And a Magnatone amp with sparkles. The Gay Chord logo was 8 decals of the letters. It had a Fender case. My friend Dave Nelson had one too. He recently saw one in a music store in Petaluma. I still have mine.

Billy Easton · Post by **Billy Easton** » 30 Apr 2002 6:32 pm

My brother bought my first lap steel in 1955. It was a Gibson, BR 6...one of the black ones with numbered frets, and a soft imitation alligator case. I think he paid $35 for it, and I used his amp. Don't know whatever happened to it, but a couple of years ago, I bought one just like it off EBay for $280. Is that inflation?

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Billy Easton
Casa Grande, AZ
Where the Sun Always Shines

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 30 Apr 2002 6:38 pm

Ricky Silver Hawaiian

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 30 Apr 2002 7:13 pm

Fender Champ. Got it for nothing, sold it for $30

Billy... according to this inflation chart that $35 spent in 1955 is equal to $229.98 in todays dollars, so you didn't do all that bad with your Ebay purchase.

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<font size=-1>My Site | Doug's Free Tab</font>

Jim Vogan · Post by **Jim Vogan** » 30 Apr 2002 7:44 pm

Mine was an Oahu Diana with an Alamo Amp. The guitar had one of the first Stringtone tuners mounted on it. Jim Vogan

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Jim Vogan Emmons Sd10 Stereo steel Amp

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 30 Apr 2002 8:23 pm

National New Yorker S-6

Tim Rowley · Post by **Tim Rowley** » 30 Apr 2002 10:08 pm

Supro, circa 1947. I still have it and it's a tone machine.

Tim R.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 30 Apr 2002 10:50 pm

a Gibson BR6 that i got for 35$, 30 years ago
and i still have it.
that's when i started holdin' a bar and countin' time...

jjacks · Post by **jjacks** » 30 Apr 2002 11:41 pm

I feel pretty lucky. My first lap steel
was my first guitar. It was a 6-string Bakelite Ric. My dad owned a few nightclubs here in Portland, and since the clubs were close to home, the musicians would usually store their equipment at the house rather than the club. I was an only-child (6-10 years old) and I had a blast.

That was 1961-65 and today no one knows what happened to that guitar. Then a few years ago I found one just like it hanging on the wall at Days Music and bought it even though it didn't have a case. I never could get in touch with the guy who sold it to them but did learn that it came out of a attic in NE Portland. The guy who found it say that it was dirty and submerged it in a tub of water to clean it. Since NE Portland was where I grew up, I'm thinking there's a fair chance I have my first guitar back. The bath didn't seem to bother it a bit, and it sounds just like it's supposed to.

Jeff Jacks
Portland, Ore

c c johnson · Post by **c c johnson** » 1 May 2002 1:59 am

My dad bought this for me in 1940. A solid black Rick with grey "sunburst" on back and top. A "matching" amp came with it and was about the size of a loaf of bread. He paid $52 new. In 1935 he bought me a new dobro, wood, for $38. CC

Ally · Post by **Ally** » 1 May 2002 2:22 am

Guyatone two pickup model; Nice tone, but quiet . Bought at a junk shop for £60 -- it looked a state, but it cleaned up nicely and I sold it last week for £225 ... the price of steels is going up in the UK.

AC

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 1 May 2002 2:26 am

Metal body Vega with a case lined in purple felt.

Rick Garrett · Post by **Rick Garrett** » 1 May 2002 3:17 am

My first lap steel wasnt a lap steel at all. It was an old 6 string standard guitar with the nut raised on it. Then my Dad gave me a 10 string Ricky which I still have today. Bakelite body and cast iron neck.

Rick

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 1 May 2002 3:20 am

A 6 string "Amerloha", of the green mother of toilet seat variety that was given to me along with a matching Nick Manoloff bar. It's a little screamer that seems to be impervious to damage. I still have it.

Sage · Post by **Sage** » 1 May 2002 5:26 am

Mine was a ~'49 Oahu m.o.t.s. (ivory) with matching Valco amp. I bought them from the daughter of the original owner 15 years ago for $150. I still have and use them.

D Schubert · Post by **D Schubert** » 1 May 2002 5:56 am

A black Airline with white trim -- I think it's a "Rocket" model -- with the wrap-around Supro pickup. I bought it for 40 bucks in the 70's, and traded it for a volume pedal down the road. In a fit of nostalgia, I bought an identical one for $250 last year.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 1 May 2002 6:20 am

Mine was an accoustic Oahu. The one with the decal on top. I really loved that old guitar but think I traded it off when I got an amplified Gibson with amp in about 1952.
Uff-Da!

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 1 May 2002 6:26 am

A cheap no-name spanish guitar with a raised nut. It was part of a 72 week Hawaiian guitar course that "Waldrop Studios" in Tampa, Fla was selling in 1946. They had an excellent steel guitarist and musician who taught the course.

I loved every minute of that course. Sadly, I did not get to complete it. He used only tab. After about 20 weeks, my mother took my little brother and I and ran off to Chicago and married another man. As a bribe to me to keep me from staying with my dad, she promised that my "hawaiian" guitar training would continue.

It did, but not in a good way. The teacher was a Juliard School graduate. "E tunings" were "hillbilly" and tab was NOT to be done. She taught strictly musical theory AND site reading. Oh! did I ever learn musical theory. In time, I could spell ANY chord there was and sight read instantly anything she put in front of me. Only one problem, I did not learn to play well. That was NOT part of the course. Musical theory WAS.

So, if you play well and do not know a note of music you are a thousand times better off than the reverse way. Although playing well AND knowing music is best, of course.

And that is the rest of the....

carl

Dave Mayes · Post by **Dave Mayes** » 1 May 2002 6:33 am

Oahu Tonemaster. Found it in a pawn shop for about $35. Didn't have it long... I lent it to a friend, and they lent it to a friend, and...I never saw it again.

Maurie Junod · Post by **Maurie Junod** » 1 May 2002 7:46 am

Mine was an Oahu student model that came with
the course. We got 52 group lessons for $50.00. The year was 1934. The company was
The Honolulu Conservatory of Music, Columbus,
Ohio.

Maurie

Kenny Dail · Post by **Kenny Dail** » 1 May 2002 8:52 am

Rick 7 string bakelite. Wish I still had it.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Jeff Strouse · Post by **Jeff Strouse** » 1 May 2002 9:00 am

A Harmony 6-string lap. I still have and play it...it actually has a very nice tone!

Glad to see you Carl...I've missed your posts over these past few months! I always enjoy the knowledge and stories you share..

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 1 May 2002 9:28 am

Fender Stringmaster D8. Bought it about 6-7 years ago.

mikey · Post by **mikey** » 1 May 2002 9:33 am

A Dickerson 6 string, green MOTS(and a Guild Thunder 1 reverb amp) ..still have it,(and play it, the guitar, not the amp)guitar was 10 bucks in late 70's...
Mike