The Steel Guitar Forum

RA ... that steel you are calling a "Wartime" ... is a postwar "T-Logo" ... circa '46-'48/9

What some folks call "Wartimes" ... have 1.5" magnets, integrated bridge, string thru body design, jack on audience side and Vol/Tone on audience side.

No surround or tailpiece ...

Most have celluloid (opaque white) plates ...

Sorry, just caught that when I read Mr. Taylor's comments ...

It's hard for me to believe that someone paid $2600 bucks for a bakelite with white cover plates on it, or even if it was older, with chrome plates.

Me too but eBay often has some crazy sales. I notice some of the guitars are misrepresented regarding their age but I do not think it's on purpose.

More and more are being parted out which is alarming to some us old graybacks.

I just paid $850.00 for one of the cleanest post war Ric's I've seen in a long, long time; with a good solid case, and the store owner thro' in an olde, olde Rickenaback amp. The amp is not working but appears clearly that it could be with a litte technical touch-up.

Two others I have, were purchased for $450 and $525.00. Good little machines.

Love those bakelites!!

I just bought a post war b-6 and have some questions. First the metal plates look like they were
never painted or chromed. They are bare metal and have a light coating of rust. After taking
them off, the bottoms of the plates are rust free but also bare metal. Are the panda Bear ones
painted or fired ceramic enamel? were some of these sent out with bare metal plates?

It looks like it was barely used as the tuners are are in good shape. Except for the fact in shipping to me
3 of them were slightly bent and one of the screws holding one post in was lost - so I'm missing
the screw. I probably can find this ( I think)

What kind of tuners were these? waverly? does anybody have any old tuners out there
for sale? even beat up ones.

also the volume and tone controls do not function although the pickup is
functional and in good shape. the tone pot has been replaced and a hole
was drilled in the white flying sauce knob top to accommodate the longer shaft.
the original oil filled cap is there but I'm not sure if it is functional. I haven't tested it yet.

So I'm looking for a Flying saucer bakelite knob- white black or red is OK. because of the hole.

I cleaned off all the dust and grim - I wan't sure how bad the chrome was on the tailpiece
and magnet butafter polishing it -they looks really good.

Also show much do the magnets loose magnetic charge? over time?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I looked at the pots on my B6 and am trying to determine if they are original or not. The volume pot is an IRC
with the numbers stamped on it " I®C 6151058 50000 ohms. this pot is about the standard "modern" size pot.

the tone pot is larger with the CTS on the bakelite face.
numbers tamped on the side are: 24171 5 5212

any ideas about these ?

Thanks

FXP

The tuners on these are Grovers. Someone just listed them on Reverb. I put a set on my post war B6 https://reverb.com/item/50755288-1941-r ... g-machines

I just finished putting my 1946 Rickenacher B-6 together. with the 1 1/4 pickup. The issues were the pots and cap. Some genius had wired the pickup
directly to the output jack. The volume pot was a non original non fuctional 50k pot and the tone was a 250K, looking original but hard to tell.
The cap was a Big oil filled mallory .05mfd. I replaced the volume pot with a new 100K , it read 135K when measured and cleaned up
the tone pot.(250k). The cap measured .01mfd not .05mfd but tried it anyway.

I'm amazed how bright this pickup is, I have to back off the volume and turn the tone pot on all the way to get
a tone that's not too iice picky. I'll go up with a higheer value cap.

any thoughts on how bright these pickups are?

I have prewar Frypan and B7. Both pickups are bright. I tend to play them roll off the tone 3/4 way around.