The Steel Guitar Forum

I've heard it said the 50's era A-22 frying pans are rather rare. Can anyone provid any history information into these years of frying pans please. I don't know if production counts exits but any and all information would be appreciated.
Thanks.

They and the 40's era pans do seem to come up for sale or exibition much less often than the oldest examples. I'd guess there were fewer made as steel popularity declined. It'd be great to know exact answers to your question, Steven.

I think only Rickenbacker could answer your questions regarding sales, but I doubt they'd share that information. It wouldn't hurt to contact them directly with your questions.

Good luck with getting anything steel related out of Rickenbacker, they knew nothing about their own steel pickups until recently.

I have a book called the History of Rickenbacker Guitars by Richard R Smith. It mentions That Frying Pans ceased production entirely from 1950 to 1954. The company reintroduced them from 1954 to 1957. Unfortunately the book does not list them in the 1954 to 1968 production totals.
You can see differences here. Pickups, Badge and decal as well as the bakelite back on the later version.

You can order or read the History of Rickenbacker here:-
Link to Google Books version.

Thanks!

Sorry for late response but the article is just wonderful to see. Not sure why I hadn't seen this until today. Hmmm.... memory?

George Keoki Lake wrote:I might be incorrect in thinking the Ric frypan on the left was a model built by CHOY in the thirties ?

I think the Choy's were all post-production 60's cobblerations.

I saw the pre-war A-22 frypan online in the collection of the Experience Music Project (Seattle). The display card mentions when the first run was made, but no mention of the '50s manufacture. It also says that there are about 50 frypans in existence, which I doubt there are that few around.

That bakelite backplate is georgeous. Wish I could find one that nice to replace the one on mine which has a small chip out of it. It still sounds just fine to me tho'

Did any other company make a "Frypan" type guitar other than Rickenbacker?

I've seen that style guitar made by others on the internet but have never played any other. I'd sure like to try one of Rick Aiello's one day, I'll bet those are top notch.

Sent you a PM about the chip, Steven.

Len Amaral wrote:Did any other company make a "Frypan" type guitar other than Rickenbacker?

A few have done credible jobs at it, very few altho many have tried and they are very rare now. Maybe the best going today is Aussie Ross Coole (forum search), and doing so at quite reasonable rates. It's one of a small handful of steels I'm still interested in trying.

Here's my late model long scale solid neck frypan that I bought from a pawnshop about 8 years ago. It has a bakelite cover on the bottom. I removed the gold paint, and mailed it off to Bill Creller in Michigan for a complete overhaul.



I don't remember the details as to what he had done.
Maybe he can chime in fill you in.

Here's the final result.

Did any other company make a "Frypan" type guitar other than Rickenbacker?

Supro/National made a cast aluminum frypan style lap steel in the late 30s. Called the "Electric Hawaiian". Kind of a "poor man's Rickenbacher"!

The latest run of frypans from Rickenbacher had a black ( Plastic ?) fret board, according to their catalog. Kinda strange that while having equipment to do the neck in the original way, they elected to make it look cheap. I have never seen one of those up close..

Fixing up old frypans sometimes involves TIG welding holes shut that people have drilled in them for brackets (?) etc, and sometimes welding cracks around the heads stock. Last one I did must have been dropped on the head stock end, since it had multiple cracks to repair.

The guitars that came from the factory with paint on them, like wrinkle-finish black, were a bit rough on the castings, since they got painted and not polished. A bit more work involved to smooth the casting seams etc before polishing. I haven't ever painted one, although it wouldn't be a bad idea, since bare aluminum needs polishing occasionally.
I polish mine a bit when changing strings, which fairly easy.

The post-war frypans that Choy sold are somewhat of a mystery, and the castings were "supposedly" supplied by Rickenbacher (??) part of the mystery..

In the pics above, the post-war open back frypans had a decal on the headstock instead of the brass logo plate. Luckily folks I deal with have found an old logo plate to mount on the heads stock after the casting is refinished, making the guitar look better.
I've re-furbished 7 frypans ( so far ) and each one had it's own issues to fix, but none too drastic 1

I think this is one from about 1954 or so. If anyone has one of the metal headstock logo's I'd sure like to have one of those to put on here for when I get around to polishin' it up. Still for now plays and sounds fantastic to my ear. It's my favorite anyhow.
Somehow I've got to fix up the bakelite back plate too. I found a replacement knob luckily. Can't find a serial number on it anywhere (kinda strange! )





I also purchased an amp that looks to be from the 50's as well. Only other picture I've seen was by searching google for Mike Rhodes Honey Pie Mystery amp. http://www.rickresource.com/rrp/mikerhodesamp.html
I can just barely make out the Rickenbacker logo on the chassis. Mine is the same but needs restoration.

I read an article years ago about a cast bridge on a six string electric guitar sounding better with more harmonics and sustain that a milled bridge. With a CNC machining and an aluminum blank it would be feasible to make a single Frypan and with a Lollar pickup have a nice instrument. However, the milled vs cast issue may cause the instrument not to have the correct vibe.

I better stop thinking about this as I have enough projects going

I know everyone wants to hear this outfit and I did spend the time attempting to do some recoring. I had the amp updated, repaired and made safe but it still has issues. I will have it AOK soon. I will also demo the 50s frypan through this amp and both through a 50s ricky amp for comparison.

I don't remember ever seeing a serial number on post-war Rickenbackers, frypans or bakelites either.

It would be interesting to know how many folks on this forum own a Rick frypan, of any vintage...
It might be surprising how many are around...

Serial 0103.

Bill, this thread had me wondering much the same, plus Bakelite 6/7/8 stringers, and how many steels of any make were around at the end of the lap steel honeymoon circa 1960. But we'll never know, there were millions made and half are long gone to the dump or 'lost'.

I saw Ron's mention of the Ross Coole pans and thought I'd upload some new pics of one Ross's 6 string models. He's also made 8 string version before (posted elsewhere), and as you'll see he's making these with a hollow core (solid versions as well). Regards, Dave.