The Steel Guitar Forum

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!

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

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.

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?


------------------
Billy Easton
Casa Grande, AZ
Where the Sun Always Shines

Ricky Silver Hawaiian

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.

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

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

------------------
Jim Vogan Emmons Sd10 Stereo steel Amp

National New Yorker S-6

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

Tim R.

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...

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

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

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

Metal body Vega with a case lined in purple felt.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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

Rick 7 string bakelite. Wish I still had it.

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

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..

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

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