The Steel Guitar Forum

My first steel -and I am not making this up-was a formica table-top fitted out with neck, bridge, pick-ups, etc. from a Sears Silvertone electric guitar I took apart. I tuned to an open 6th chord and played along with Hank Williams and Bob Wills records. I was-and am-in no way a luthier; the thing was held together with Elmer's glue and didn't stay in tune for very long. This all might be a good illustration of just what it took to stave off teenage boredom in northern New Hampshire in the early 1970s!

A pupleish Magnatone Amerloha. I've expanded my collection to a blue Amerloha and a triple neck. I suppose they're not the finest instruments in the world, but I got the triple neck at a good price.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Keith Grubb on 01 May 2002 at 11:37 AM.]</p></FONT>

A Melobar 8 string.



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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website

I always figured this guitar found me, not the other way around. In 1976 I saw a bakelite Rick in the front window of a pawn shop in Lahaina, Maui and realized it was the "thing" I had seen David Lindley playing with Jackson Browne. I agonized over spending $100 for something that I didn't know how it was played, much less how to play it. Best money I ever spent.

When I decided I wanted to take up lap steel, I spent a couple of hours trying the dozen or so in a big, overpriced pawnshop in Vancouver. Most were easy to eliminate, either because they were so absurdly low-end (the green Kay student model with a body so flimsy that I could actually torque it enough to raise or lower the pitch), or too trashed (notably the Silver Hawaiian minus most of its finish and pickup output on the upper strings). Like many people, I started with a Dickerson, in this case a grey pearloid Magnatone. Nice little guitar, and it was the one that got me hooked. Within a year I'd acquired my first Gibson, Rickenbacher and Valco instruments. Fifty-odd lap steels later, I still haven't lost the appetite. Anyone got a pre-war bakelite they want to part with cheap?

According to the inflation conversion chart that Doug has a hyperlink to (above), the $150.00 1939 bakelite Rick that JB got from Ron Derth (see the Guitar Player Magazine Inteview post) converts to $1900.00 in today's money!

No name on it, but I've seen an identical one on ebay described as "almost certainly a Guyatone"... two pickups, bought it about five years ago in a flea market for 80 francs (about $11-12)... it's led to a lot more expenditure since...
Nick

A seven string bakelite rick.
Still have it.

Nick .. guyatone seems to have stitched up the European market for steels.

A Fender Deluxe 8, but more interesting is my Old Kraftsman mahogany 6-string, finished like an old Firebird, c. 1940 (?), has AM radio scales under control knobs, nice sound.

National New Yorker, probably from the mid 50s. I have a 1940 New Yorker in my collection now and it is a much fuller and better sounding guitar, especially the bass strings.

Did you ever wonder why Gibson, Rickenbacher, National, and most of the other companies that started out with great sounding guitars did'nt leave well enough alone, but instead, decided to "improve" on their original winners?

Jim

"Did you ever wonder why Gibson, Rickenbacher, National, and most of the other companies that started out with great sounding guitars did'nt leave well enough alone, but instead, decided to "improve" on their original winners?"

Oh Jim,

You are sooooo correct. After I got rid of my first "spanish" guitar scenario, I aquired a National New Yorker 6 string in the late 40's. The one with the black and white stripes on top of the body. And the colored fret markers and tone markings.

Oh how I wish I still had that guitar. Traded it for a Fender 3 neck custom. Early 50's model. It was great. But that National HAD the sound.

So does my present Rick 7 strings pre '37.

Sometimes it IS better to leave something alone that is NOT broken.

carl

Amen, Carl. Rickenbacher, in particular, may have made the best instruments to begin with, but with few exceptions, all the changes they made were for the worse. Gibson's best instruments were probably pre-war, but they made some quality guitars throughout their history as a lap steel manufacturer. Valco also kept up their standards (such as they were) with some of their guitars, but what they did to the high-end lap steels - argh! Compared to their 1940's counterparts the later New Yorkers and Dynamics seem like cheap toys. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ian McLatchie on 02 May 2002 at 02:47 PM.]</p></FONT>

I don't belong here....I play pedals....but I
got hooked on steel through a lap. My first was a 6 string I bought out of the Montgomery Ward catalog with money I'd earned
playing rhythm guitar & calling square dances in a Saturday night band. After I saw
one played at a dance by a "famous" radio band, I had! to have one. That was 1946. I had heard Alvino Rey on the radio & I'm pretty sure he had pedals. I also heard Leonard T Zinn that winter on the radio with the 101 Ranch Boys out of York PA. They were on the ABC radio network on our local station at that time!

Don't know if you consider it a lap steel, but my first steel was a National triple 8. My Brother bought it for me at a local music store for $75.00 in 1971.

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Carter D10 9p/10k
Richard Sinkler

My first lap steel was a Rickenbacker that was made out of sheetmetal that was folded into a "C" shape, then the ends had wood caps that were screwed in. It had the horseshoe pickup. I didn't actually own it but was on loan to me for an extended length of time. After that I purchased a green MOTS Dickerson, which I still have.

I guess I don't belong here either, but my first lap steel was a black marble Magnatone and a matching Oahu amp. My folks bought it for me in 1949. I really loved that guitar, but I traded it for a nickle plated Rick. That was possibly my favorite, but then I traded it for a double Rick .. some ugly brownish color. Wish I had em all back now.

I had one of those "ugly brown" D8 Ricks.
The color didn't bother me as much as trying to keep it in tune in our WNY winters. Had quite a long "warm-up" time. Pd $200 & sold it for $150. Got the $50 down & never saw the other steeler again?? OOPS!! 1947, not sure I ever learned anything from that??!

My dad bought me my first steel around 1946.
It was an Electromuse. I still have it.
Thanks for the memories.

My dad bought me my first steel around 1946 -
a six string Electromuse. I still have it.
Thanks for the memories.

I still have my "Singing Plank", It looks as if it was once part of the frame of a mahogany wardrobe, has a hand wound pickup & no controls of any kind.
I have no idea who made it or when, but I found it in a music shop in Yorkshire and it plays blues like nothing else on earth!
I lend it to students sometimes, and they all go off and buy lap steels for them selves as a result - so I suppose I should call it an Evangelical Singing Plank!
Cheers
Dave
Cheers
Dave

I started on a Triple-neck Magnatone Maestro. My dad bought it at an auction for $35.00 and gave it to me. Brother was it filthy. After a long hard cleaning, what appeared was nearly a brand new guitar. As a matter of fact, I'm still playing it on stage.

My first lap steel (and amplifier) were Electromuse. The guitar was a 6-string with wooden body. The fret board was made of clear plex (about 1/4 inch thick) and due to being installed at a different ambient temperature had a slight "buck-up" on it. It had a tone and volume control. The amp was not very much...but I thought at the time I had a real "rig."

My first was a six string Electromuse that my
father bought me around l947. I still have it. Thanks for the memories.

Gibson 6 string with matching amp. I found this set in 1972 for $35. They are both gone.