The Steel Guitar Forum

1959 Fender Stringmaster D8




1970 Emmons "Fat Back" S10





What's even better is I Still Have Them !

I bought a late 40's Gibson Electraharp when I first started playing steel about 7 years ago. It was a birds eye maple with 4 pedals. I still have it sitting up in my studio, but dont play it any more. Its certainly a beautiful instrument though!!

In 1962 I had a triple neck Rinkenbacker steel. I think it was a 1957 model, should have kept it, Shorty

started on 7 string rickenbacker next wasa triple 8 fender then fender 400 8 st. then sho-bud LDG #5032 then MSA D -10 (73)

Bobby Lee - that Rick is just beautiful. Do you play it regularly or is it just part of a collection that is stored under the bed?

I had a Gibson Electroharp around 1972. It was ancient when I bought it, and very well traveled as evidenced by the multitude of travel stickers on the case. I wish I had found out more about it when I bought it, but the woman who sold it to me wore the kind of expression that doesn't encourage questions.

The guitar was so worn out that I had to play it with the right side up against a wall. Otherwise every time I would press on a pedal the guitar would shift, like a typewriter carriage, clear over into Nevada.

I had it about a year but had to sell it to recover from some theft-induced financial misfortune. That was my last pedal steel until I purchased an MSA S-10 Classic two months ago.

1936 Dobro model 37.
1947 Gibson BR-4
1967-68 Emmons Original D-10 cut-tail

Ken Byng wrote:Bobby Lee - that Rick is just beautiful. Do you play it regularly or is it just part of a collection that is stored under the bed?

I play it, but I don't take it out of the house. It's in the rotation of "alternate" steels that I set up in my music room. Right now the Fender 1000 is the active one, so the Rick and the '78 Sierra Olympic (featured in another topic) are in their cases. The Williams D-12X is the only steel that I actually gig with, and it's always set up.

I've discovered that a marimba takes up as much space as two steel guitars!

Acoustic ... 1927 National Tricone (Style 1)

Electric ... 1934 Ricky A22 Frypan

Heres my dads old National D-8 with a tripod. I don't know how old it is, I thought late 40's or early 50's.
You should have heard my dad the Rev. Bishop Dwight Moody play STEEL GUITAR RAG or LIFES RAILWAY TO HEAVEN on this thing. One of these days I'm going to move all that stuff off those reel to reels and put it on CD especially the time He was playing this National and I was on pedal steel and he blow me away so bad I quit playing the song and just listened to him.

Rev Bishop Dwight Moody's NATIONAL D-8 with tripod.

My oldest pedal guitars are the 1949 Jerry Girard Bigsby, Emmons #1164008W, and Emmons #1264018, all pictured elsewhere on other forum threads.

The oldest pedal steel I own now is an EMCI. The oldest pedal steel I have ever owned was a Fender 1000. I also own a Rick single 8 lap steel. Jody.

1960 or 61 Marlen.

I still take her to Church and play her once or twice a year.

xzxzx

Gibson EH-150, 1938, with a Gibson EH-185, mid 30's:

A couple of Rics, also around 1938, with a mid 40's Oahu. The Oahu doesn't have a tone control because it doesn't need one:

Here's one you don't see every day, a Greenfield, made in Jan 1931:

Tricone ser#364:

Norm Hamlet's Bigsby, 21154. You might notice my Caterpillar fork lift. If you're going to own these things, you need one:

A couple of Maurice Anderson's Bigsby, 71559:

I have two Oahu pearl double 6 built in 1948. Also a double 8 stringmaster 1956.

Chas,
WOW!

'65 Wraparound

I forgot about my Dobro. A model 37 all mahogany roundneck with raiser. It's an early one, No serial #, no dot at the 17th fret and Red Bean fingerboard, probably 1928? It sounds great and I'll never part with it. I still keep a couple Epiphones from late 37 early 38 but they're not the oldest steels I've ever had.
Hey Chas thanks for posting those serial #'s. I don't have your #s listed. Will you post or email me the serials for your others. Maurice's S-10 is a really unique one and another finished on the 15th! PA had to cast that endplate and I've not seen another like it. Bobby Black had a S10 Wright Custom built in the late 50's and it was very similar to that design.
It's really interesting that Norm's guitar is 21154, Morrells is 21554 and there' another from that same period, Maybe Gary Snow's? It kind of breaks the rack on the "1 instrument a month" theroy.

I am blessed to be the keeper and player of these fine instruments:
Oldest? 1927 National TriCone, 2.5. "patent pending"

1933 Oahu Student model.(Acoustic square neck)

1949 Fender Custom T8, boxcar pickups, case and all.(Thank you Gene Jones)

Early 1950's Fender Dual-8 Professional. Trapezoid pickups.

Late 1950's Fender T8 Stringmaster.

MSA 12-string SuperSlide.

PSG..2006 MSA Millenium U12. One of the first M3 U12's.

I wish I still had this one. This picture was taken in the early 60s.

Deleted.

Pedal Steel, an old crossover Sho-bud I had years ago.

I had a (I think) 40's Rickenbacker lap steel at one time.

I'm looking at a 40's Oaho, next to the computer I'm pecking on, it is naked at the time, I'm in the process of ruining it.

My oldest "steel" is an original Dobro, circa 1930. My dad bought it when he was in his early teens. He would've been 89 last month.
My next oldest steel is a Fender 6 string lap, that I bought from a pawn shop for 48 dollars back in about 1964. I believe it be a mid fifties model.
jas.