The Steel Guitar Forum

To those that own or have tried this steel;

How does it compare in tone to the single necked (bakelite) ones? Does it sound similar, or have a tone of it's own?

DERRICK...I have the one which (unfairly) gained the nickname "OLD UGLY" ... it's a great steel, with lots of zip to it. Mine was made somewhere around 1946, is brown metal with chrome covered machine heads and is in prime condition. I found it a few years ago, all covered in dust, strings missing at a flea market ! The bakelite has a slightly different sound as does the Silver Hawaiian model. Problem I find with the SILVER HAWAIIAN, it is too shiney and difficult to see the frets when a spotlight is aimed at it.

I had one here for over a year for some work. It looked sort of impressive I thought, with the neat covers over the tuners etc. But I wasn't impressed with the tone at all. This model was all aluminum, not the one with the bakelite necks. I made new nuts for it because the original spacing for the strings was off, some too close together,and some too far apart etc. The other thing about it is that it has no legs, and must be played as a lap steel, or with a stand of some sort.

...I have the one which (unfairly) gained the nickname "OLD UGLY"

Me too! The guys in my band called it BIG UGLY! Probably because of the big, clunky, brown metal body.

I had a D-16 for a few months, and I didn't like it. Too big and heavy for the lap, yet it didn't have legs. Uncomfortable to play, for that reason. Not a good tone IMHO, and not much sustain. I just couldn't get a good sound from that lap steel so I sold it.

Derrick, you probably want to play out with it, and may recall Bobby's experience with his old D-16, so I'll mention it to the rest, that by using an out-board EQ in the studio he was able to dial in a sound much closer to the great old Ricks, and was very happy with it.
He then got rid of that guitar.

Some say stuffing the body (with ?) cavity will help the overall sound.

There seems to be a lot of variations on this guitar. Mine has a cast aluminum body with wood necks instead of bakelite. I think they're walnut. The pickups are 1 1/2" with six string bobbins and two extra poles attached to the end with extra windings. It had some harsh resonant peaks when I got it, but stuffing most of the body with newspaper smoothed it out.

I've never played another Rick so I can't give a comparison. The tone is kind of throaty, thick but clear. When i dig into the strings it starts to get a harder edge. Distorted it makes me think of Santana's Black Magic Woman.

Fred

The wood necks are an interesting thing. I hadn't heard of those before. The 1 1/2" magnets are new to me also. Anybody know when those guitars came out?? I would think the wood necks would mellow the sound somewhat. Maybe the wood necks were the early models.

I can only surmise that "OLD UGLY" came in various models over a period of years. Perhaps I was lucky as my old buggah has a great sound and ample sustain. It's heavy, yes. No legs. I fashioned a good stand for it and am able to play it standing or sitting. However, I am still a Canopus fan !

Anybody know when those guitars came out??

According to Vintage Guitar Magazine the D-16 was made from 1950-52

I have a few doubles ... but have always stayed away from the 8 string versions ... of any style Ricky.

Here is my 1938 D14 ... cast aluminum body ... the "good" bakelite necks (ala befrore the change in neck design).



When it first arrived ... I was very disappointed by the crappy tone and sustain ... but didn't take long to see why ... they mounted the bridge over the black wrinkle paint.

I removed that ... and set the bridge to the bare aluminum and ... wow ... just like one would expect ...

Kinda half B7 & half frypan.

B. Ingano said he never saw one before ... let alone played one before (when he visited). He really liked this one.

My "T logo" D12 is "da bomb" ... tone and sustain is there ... one of my favorites.

The cast aluminum body (adding any stuffing to it ... would be negligible, in my opinion) ... is very nice ...




Anyway, either the above two ... well, weight isn't a factor for me ... I'm used to heavy steels (ha,ha).

This one ... I bought just to have. It's basically not playable ... the tension "caved in" the entire pup region.



A rare factory model ... but the brazing of the hollow bodies just didn't work because there is no internal support in the area ...

And it caved in like a pumpkin face ... two weeks after Halloween ...

Ironically the seller called it ... near mint

I don't have the all metal "old ugly" ... so I can't comment on it.

Happy Holidays ...

Aloha Rick,

Thanks for sharing the pics from your collection.
First time I've ever seen a Pre-War model, especially a 7 stringer. All the ones I've seen on E-bay are with the T-logo.

Is that the original pickup/magnets on the Pre-War D-14?

Yep ...

Rick great shots of the party etc.
And the growing collection,
and the grwoing kids too.

This on I had had a tremendous tone. It had Bakelite necks.:-


From about 1948 I believe..

Baz, a little off topic here however I believe the 12/07 issue of "Aloha Dream" is the best one yet. Great articles etc and as usual a beautiful cover Mucho mahalo to Pat and you and best wishes for the new year. CC

Mahalo Nui Loa CC. Same to you and more so !!
Nice to know our work doesn't go unnoticed.

Rick Aiello wrote:...This one ... I bought just to have. It's basically not playable ... the tension "caved in" the entire pup region...

Thanks for the warning. There's one on eBay right now. I wonder if it too is in imminent danger of caving in...

c c johnson wrote:Baz, a little off topic here however I believe the 12/07 issue of "Aloha Dream" is the best one yet. Great articles etc and as usual a beautiful cover Mucho mahalo to Pat and you and best wishes for the new year. CC

Yes, absolutely. Basil, you should be proud of your publication. I think if you put it all together as an omnubus publication at some time in the future you have the makings of the most magnificent book ever written on the subject.

basilh wrote:This on I had had a tremendous tone. It had Bakelite necks.:-


From about 1948 I believe..

Mine looks pretty much like Baz's but it does not have the Bakelite necks. I have to say I love mine. Perhaps because it was such a bargain ($250 on eBay about ten years ago). Perhaps because of the pickups. Or perhaps the sustain is lightyears better than on my Fender.

I guess the quality varied from year to year?

I don't find it too heavy for my lap, but then again I have plenty of cushion there. I do mourn the fact that there are no legs, however, as I would use it on gigs. It may be heavy, but my '48 Dual Professional is much, much heavier in the case with legs.

basilh wrote:This on I had had a tremendous tone. It had Bakelite necks.:-


From about 1948 I believe..

Oh yeah, used to have one. It was my first steel guitar, D16, and I miss it. It needed work, I could barely play it, let alone fix it, I live in an area where there are few steelers, and I had no idea what to do with the thing. Sold it to a guitar store guy who is a collector. Eventually bought a 8-string Melobar, then a D-8 National, at one point had a 6-string Morrell ("for experimenting with tunings" whatever that meant back then) and a 6 string Melobar. Wish I still had that T-logo Rickenbacher. Ah well...

I almost bought a nice D-16 about 20 years ago. It was mint, and,,,,, it came with a Ric stand! The stand looked similar to a snare drum stand. It had a little Ric plaque on it.

I wonder why they called it the D-16 when it obviously has Double 8 Strings.

Probably "Double Neck 16 string Guitar"

Better than double 16 guitar, which I've seen advertised often and even saw posted in a Hawaiian music exibit here at the Bishop Museum, for which I corrected them.

If you find one of these Rics at a garage sale, flea market, auction, make sure you look around and see if the stand is there. Sellers might not have any idea what the stand looks like.