The Steel Guitar Forum

Can you Identify this guitar :-

Nope, it's not mine...

It does look like it needs some TLC though.

There are some European-made lap steels with nthe brand name Selmer. N ot sure if they were from the Parisian Selmer company or not. The ones I've seen have been of poor quality but perhaps they made higher-end models?

mon Dieu, c'est une Funky François

The sides remind me of Hagstrom electric guitars. Did they make steels?

For 10 years I have looked through
dozens of' marche de puce', flea markets,
and never once saw a lapsteel or anything close...
Go figure.
No clue what this unit is.
Given some time, it will be a
nice addition to some collection.

Andy, it looks like something for the next reprint of your book.

Andy Volk wrote:There are some European-made lap steels with nthe brand name Selmer. N ot sure if they were from the Parisian Selmer company or not. The ones I've seen have been of poor quality but perhaps they made higher-end models?

Selmer UK separated from the French Selmer company pretty early on. Selmer UK made amplifiers. They also had stringed instruments made by the German Hofner factory and branded "Selmer" - including lap steels.

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfile ... awaii.html

But... this lap steel doesn't look much like the models on those links. To me, it looks more 1930s, so it could be a pre-war Hofner. I'm not sure how the Nazis felt about Hawaiian music, but chances are they felt the same way as they did about jazz, so Hofner probably didn't make anything like this between the mid 30s and post-1945.

It could be French or Italian, possibly even Czech or Polish (those latter countries were pretty technologically advanced before the Nazis followed by the Soviets turned them into wastelands).

I'm inclining toward "Home Constructed" or a modified combination of acquired parts, a "Bitza" bitza this and bitza that..