As far as I can tell, this is a 1950's Rickenbacker Console 518 Triple 8 Steel Guitar. There is no serial number that I have found but you can look closely at the photos and dig around online, you'll see matches to the name. Everything is original except the winding on the third pickup (furthest from the player). That pickup suddenly stopped working one day so I had it re-wound and it sounds amazing now, just as good as the others. Also in the photos you'll see that the nuts are not original. I had a machinist make three additional brass nuts because I like to play with a slightly wider string spacing than the originals allowed for. Frankly, these new brass nuts are better, but I still have the originals and will include them in the sale. They pop right in, no tools required. The pots have a little crackle in them, but are fully functional.
Here's a video of me playing something slow and country/jazzy on it. Steel comes in around minute 2:40
http://youtu.be/QPxYy2oNoaY
In addition to the smooth sounds in the video above, it also has a growling snarl like none I've ever heard and I've been around a lot of vintage gear. I had one neck in an open tuning and used that neck as a gritty blues neck and the other two were strung with thinner gage strings in higher six tunings for the country swing stuff. Its an amazingly versatile instrument that one could do a lot of different things with. I played it in The Wiyos (www.thewiyos.com) and we do everything from old-time country to swing jazz, junkyard blues, beat box driven soundscapes, even some rock, etc. I did it all on this steel. It's the one I used on our 2009 release Broken Land Bell and I also played it a few times opening up for Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan on the Dylan Show summer tour, 2009.
I have the original case which is in excellent condition. There are a few superficial scratches on the guitar body which should be visible in the photos. Otherwise it is road tested and ready to go.
There’s more videos on Youtube if you want to dig deeper to hear other sounds on it or I can send you some audio tracks from studio recordings.
I live in VT but regularly travel to the Hudson Valley in NY and would be happy to arrange a physical drop-off in this region. Otherwise we can discuss shipping options on the phone. Thanks for looking.
