The Steel Guitar Forum

I saw the following auction on e-bay and thought this Rickenbacker Electro looked interesting. Is anyone here a fan? Do they sound good?


Auction on eBay.

I love model 59 ricks. i guess they were student models.

Mike,
The only Rick I don't really care for is the J-6, which is very cheaply made and sounds like it.
The Metal body models (59, NS, S) sound really good to my ear and are beginning to get some respect. I really love the 59.
The Ace and Academy Bakelite models are really great and very underrated. Mine sound just as good as the postwar B-6.

That model was my first steel guitar. I bought another like it last year. I really enjoy playing it, and it has a great sound.

This one sounds pretty decent, very strong.
I bought it at Guitar Center about 6 years ago.

That D-8 is really nice looking, Rick. Do the strings go through the body, or do they attach to a tailpiece? I think that the combination of a horseshoe magnet and the strings through the body is what makes my little "student model" lap steel sound so good. Mine is red. Imagine how good it would sound if it was black!!

Regarding the one on Ebay, I don't like the finish but if I didn't already have one I'd be bidding on it. These are great little guitars to throw in the car when you think there might be a jam going on somewhere. The quality of the sound from them is impressive, especially considering how light weight they are.

Student models by Rickenbacher are a cut above many other brands student models.
Who could not think so if they ever played an Ace. It's a good guitar, student or pro. Or a model 59 for that matter. Beats the pants off a lot of the competition.

About 35 years ago I picked up a little 6 string Ace, blue, with a matching tube amp. It was blue also. I kept them for a few years and sold them for $300. That would have been in about 1979 when I sold the pair. I sure wish I still had them. Back in those days I used the lap steel to play screaming slide guitar through a Fender Dual Showman amp. It was great on Allman Brothers tunes.

I picked up a model 59 (1937) a couple of months ago at a vintage surf and Hawaiiana meet at the Huntington Beach pier.

I'll probably never play it as I love my Fender T-8, but I bought it because to me it represented a beautiful period in steel guitar. And that is a period when the steel was so popular they ACTUALLY made a student model knowing damn well most players desired to move up to a more professional model. Geez, what a time to be alive.

(I really like the old picture of a group of gals playing the steel guitar. Now there's a woman for me...)

That D-8 is really nice looking, Rick. Do the strings go through the body, or do they attach to a tailpiece?

Bobby, they attach to the tailpiece. Gary Brandin plays a DW-16 identical to that one, and coincidentally he has the same tunings on his - high C6 and A6.
It's a terrific sounding guitar.

The earlier DW16 models had strings attached at tailpiece then they changed to string thru around 1955. I have both and the earlier one sounds as good or better than the string thru, go figure.