The Steel Guitar Forum

Looking through e-bay, lots of entry lap steels.Some of these sellers are selling the same guitar under different names,with different prices and different countries of origin. One example is an all mahagony guitar called a G&S, claims to be made in Vietnam & sells for 149.00. Another seller offers the exact same guitar for 119.00 and claims it is made in China. Can't forget the Artisan which has been sold as Galveston,Rogue Danville and a instrument seller called 2kool4school sells it with no brand name
Other units I am curious about are the "New Wood" by New York pro, sells for 225.00 and looks idertical to the Gretsch that's sold for around 300.00 and the Starfire for 169.00.
Anybody have any experience with any of these guitars?

There isn't one discussion on this list regarding all of these guitars, but I believe almost all of them have been discussed and/or reviewed here in the past. Use the Search feature to see what others have said.

Remember, you get what you pay for. I don't regret owning a Rondo SX lap steel, but I wouldn't sell my Rickenbacker, National, Fender or Gibson lap steels because I bought it.

There are so many great vintage lap steels out there (on eBay) that are incredible value for money. My first lap steel was a 1947 National New Yorker and I think I paid $375 for it in 2005. Other Valco made steels - Supro, Airline, Oahu etc. - go for less than that and I've heard nothing but good things about them.

My 2 cents.

Fred

same here. my first lap steel was a 1939 Epiphone Century. found it on line. 250$ with great looks and a weak pickup. my second was an eBay Epiphone Zephyr 1940. 150$ and for 80$ I had Lindy Fralin rebuild the pickup. it is a killer lap steel now.
I too look at eBay lap steels. all those new candy-crayola colors may look and read nice, but my instinct says I got a better deal buying used vintage.
Artisan is very popular on guitar player boards. for the money the guitar works.
I am seeing more lap and pedal steels in small guitar shops these days. they're old and played by the real deals. the prices are easy too. I like that I can try them out. they have nice differences.

Lap steels (and non-pedals in general) are about the last affordable vintage guitars of any type. All three of mine (Supro, Loney, Guyatone) are vintage and were under $300. And not purchased that long ago. Good solid instruments that sound great! I have nothing against the new ones and might buy one sometime. But,like Brad, I'm hanging on to these.

I have a Vega from an ebay buy. $149 bucks plus shipping,and it's one of my favorites.
If you find one you like on Ebay, just ask around here for opinions. Many people here have had a variety of lap steels.

Without wanting to sound a bit "me-too", I'd also look at vintage on ebay. I got the majority of my collection for under $150 on ebay, and all of them are killer (mostly valco non-branded, or Supro branded). With so any fine vintage steels, why get a new one? I can see why someone might prefer a modern, say, National roundneck over a vintage one for certain reasons, but lap steels?? Nah.

Another vote for Vintage.

Spend $250 - $350 and get a vintage American made Supro, Oahu, National, Magnatone, Alamo... etc. Many of these lap steels were sold as student models in the 1940s and 50s, but the materials used and the workmanship are way better than the imported discount lap steels on the market today. If you buy vintage however, be sure to check out the Electronics and the Tuners. Those are the two main problem areas with old lap steels.

There are still some good deals on vintage lap steels out there, although the prices are increasing gradually. I won't mention all of the insane deals I found a few years ago except to say that I paid only $60 for the English Electronics (Valco) lap steel that I now play. That is the one I used to record the mp3s linked below.

A lot of the posts on SGF about buying steel guitars on Ebay scared me off.

To prevent nightmares, I always buy at the Steel Guitar conventions where you can see them, smell them, try them, and inspect them.

I have bought 8 steel guitars at conventions. All good vintage ones.

Aloha,

There's an old saying about musical instruments that says "Buy used, play for free." Get a decent old instrument as mentioned above (not a collector's piece, just solid and decent). If you decide you later don't want to continue, you can get out of it what you have in it, hence "play for free."

That's been my philosophy since I first heard that about 25 years ago, and it's worked every time.

Good luck.

TJW

I vote for vintage, too. I got a few vintage lapsteels off of ebay with nothing but good instruments at a fair price (although maybe this is the one area in life where I'm lucky). I still go into pawnshops and music stores and ask if they have any old lapsteels, though ebay seems to have done away with any real bargains. I got a doubleneck Supro off the Forum recently. It rocks. Could be that's the safest way...advertise what you want on the Forum...you know your'e dealing with someone who loves steel playing and you have some recourse.

I prefer vintage, but it's not like there aren't any new, affordable, fine sounding steels on the market.

My DynaLap holds it's own against anything, and I'll bet Tom Pettingill's sweet looking products are just as worthy.

Why so many choose to buy this rubbish that is now saturating the market pretending to not be junk is curious.
Live and learn, the hard way, I guess.