The Steel Guitar Forum

1949 SILVERTONE


My first lap steel was this 1949 Silvertone for Christmas 1949, a gift from my father and mother. It was purchased from a Sears catalog and the price was $29.00. The price included a 2 3/4 x 3/4 bullet-nose chrome plated bar and a SEARS HOME STUDY COURSE for ELECTRIC HAWAIIAN GUITAR, 40 Complete Lessons. The price on the study course was $1.50 and it was published exclusively for SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO. The course was copyright 1939 by M. M. Cole Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., and the featured Artist, Nick Manoloff. My father learned to play at about 15 years of age and taught me to play, before I got this steel. I learned to play by tab, sheet music and ear. The discoloration on the neck was caused when I glued a cardboard overlay showing every note on the neck. This steel still plays and sounds great, and I consider it my most valuable steel.

Still have it. A Sutton, Australian made, I think. A copy of... a National??
Made in the 50s, maybe, and purchased in the late 70s.

Used to rock. Here is some 'rough as' Aussie pub rock from my band in the early 80s.

http://picosong.com/i6QS

I started on an Oahu lap steel. It had a matching amp. I do not have it any more as I traded it in on a double neck Rickenbacker steel. The picture is downloaded from the internet. My original steel was very similar to this one.

I've owned only three steels, and I never had more than one at a time. My first was an 8-string Magnatone Troubadour. I think it was from the 50s. I loved it, and I love my current one. The one in the middle was pretty expensive, and I did not like it at all.

Found a beat to death and in pieces BR9 at a music store in Decatur IL. Paid very little and started the steep learning curve both in how to put it back together and how to learn to play it. I miss that steel; my Dual 6 Stringmaster is my favorite, but the BR9 was FUN!

Some very cool stories and pics above..CE I love the fact that you have your first and how cool is it that your dad taught you to play !

I dont have a picture but have a story:

My very first steel in 1968 or 69 was a Fender Quad,,,sounds strange but true...I was teaching guitar in a studio and the owner, who had been my guitar teacher, was teaching someone how to play "Steelin' the blues" and I said wow, I have to learn how to play that...sooo. he said well I have an extra steel back in the closet I will sell you for $150, and I bought that Fender quad and started lessons on it from him..I had no idea what I had !..it had been his...pictures of it are another thread...I wish I still had it ! Thats my story !

Wanted to give lap playing a try, so I made this to try out my interest:



It was my "reso-on-a-stick" guitar (25" resonator scale and reso string spacing). After a couple of modifications it turned into a nice practice instrument that I just kept in my car.

Michael Hogan wrote:This was my first lap steel and it started a collector bug in me.

My first was a B6 that looks exactly like Michael's with the exception that mine has white flying saucer knobs, and a few of the position marker dots have gone missing. Purchased at Island Guitars in Honolulu in the early '80s along with a Weissenborn that is labeled "Maui Maid." Still have and play both of 'em.

My first steel was (and still is) a 1946 Fender Champ. In 1974 I'd been playing Dobro, but I got a gig playing behind Patsy Montana, and she asked me ig I could play an electric steel. So I got it and played it for about a year. Then the pedal steel bug, and off I went.

In July 2015, for my 21st birthday, I received my first steel, one of those little MOTS Dickerson/Magnatone numbers. I hate to say it, but I pawned it a few days ago so that I could cover my rent, and I think that's some kind of guitar player initiation anyway. I have my Commodore, and my JB Frypan now anyway, so I hadn't played that Magnatone in some time. Secretly, I curse that little guitar for giving me this steel guitar player's obsession!

The one on the left is my first steel, and I still use it.

it's a National "Waikiki" model from circa WWII, one of the cheaper finishes with fake wood grain, and Lollar has repaired the pickup.

I got it as a teenager in the mid 1970's when working at a music store as stock boy.

It's been through rock bands - and survived to play Hawaiian and Western Swing and Jazz and whatever else these days.

Homemade from a 2x4. The "Weyerhauser". Actually played some rock shows with it back in 1970's.

A rescued Gibson BR3 carcass. I fitted an Artec Humbucker pickup and a decorative ftetboard. Also "decent" no-name tuners. The amp is a Gibson EH-150 re-issue and the set really sings.

Grey Rickenbacher Model 59

I would like to share a little historical information about the first lap steel owned by a very special departed friend.

Mr. Charlie Norris 9/13/28-2/7/15
Inducted into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (1995)
President of the Texas Steel Guitar Association (2002)

My first meeting with Charlie was at his music store, Norris Family Music in Mesquite, Texas. Several of his guitars were at the store and he would play for me when I visited. He played pedal and lap steels and had recorded on both. His steel guitar that interested me most was a 1935 National Electric Hawaiian 7 string, shown below.

1935 NATIONAL ELECTRIC HAWAIIAN 7 STRING




After talking with Charlie, I soon learned why he prized this steel so much. He had purchased it as a teenager and picked cotton for $0.03/lb. (2,265 lb.), after school, to pay the cost of $67.95. The guitar was purchased in Las Cruces, NM. The Hawaiians came by his home once a week, and he took lessons for $1.00/wk, paid in eggs (3 dozen /wk.). Before going into the Marines, he sold the guitar in Roswell, NM. The guitar was then bought by a man from Colorado. A man brought the guitar into Norris Family Music in 1985, and wanted to trade for a pedal steel. Charlie recognized his old steel that he sold in Roswell, NM, and immediately made a deal, getting his old steel back. I tried to purchase the steel from him for several years without success. Finally in 2004, as he was nearing retirement, he agreed to sell the steel to me. I was really pleased to become the owner of this historic steel.

A Guyatone plywood plank identical to this about 30 years ago from a junk shop. Cost me £5 (about eight dollars).

I didn’t have a clue what to do with it for the next 15 years, no internet then and not many Hawaiians living in north west England. Then Paul Godden showed me a C6 tuning and I managed to order Cindy Cashdollar’s videos from my local music shop (it took 10 months to get them) and the world opened up. I eventually sold it on ebay for about £70 so in retrospect it was the best investment I ever made in more ways than one

Below are pictures of the first steel guitar I owned, built by myself in order to see if I could handle ten strings before I went for a pedal steel. The idea was to learn to play it first then perhaps convert it to pedals.


The guitar was made from solid mahogany 8" X 2 1/2" X 36" shaped at the headstock in the same manner as a Gibson console, the scale was 25", and a split coil pickup was used.


My good friend Jimmy McGregor advised me on the sizes and scale length at the time it was made, about 37 years ago!
The fretboard was made from plastic with paper stars stuck on and varnished over, the tail stock was over engineered but gives terrific sustain with the thick body. The headstock was machined and rollers added in case it ended up as a pedal steel!
The tone from it is great and several times I have been going to let it go, but when I get it out and play it once more, it goes back in the case, because I think I would regret selling this one as it's part of my DNA, but there's a limit to how many I can hold onto according to my dear wife!

It Stays in tune and even when put away for about ten years it was playable! The scale length gives great tone, now apart from " the Boss", the only problem I have with it, is the weight, it's OK sitting on legs but not so easy to lift and carry when in the case, I'm getting older now, but who knows, I now have more guitars to choose from, then again I only have one ten stringer! Robert

Here's mine. Purchased off ebay 3 years ago this month. The amp was purchased more recently but would have been contemporary to the guitar. Including consoles and projects, I now have 9 lap steels but I still think this one is the coolest. '53 Supro Airliner, 2-tone MOTS, great sounding string through pickup w/Rick Aiello magnets.

My first steel guitar was a Teisco, purchased in Japan in 1952. The picture is the same model but not my original which was sold when I went into the Army.
This one I found on e-bay about 10 years ago. It was in poor shape. I restored it and put on Grover tuners, The scale is 20.25 inches.

A friend had a beat to crap National Tri-Cone that I bought for $75. I let a pedal steel playing friend use it for a few years, got it back and had the headstock break repaired. I ended up trading it for a 12 string Taylor acoustic that is one of the best guitars I've ever owned. I also had a '70's Dobro, for a while both at the same time.

My first electric was a Rickenbacher with a grey steel body and black horseshoe pickup. I learned a lot on it and had it until I got my National New Yorker and sold it. I wish I'd kept it. I found the Ricky in a pawn shop in Santa Rosa, CA and paid about $125.00 as I recall. Early '80's, I think.

The 1st guitar pictured is an Oahu acoustic. That is the guitar I learned on when taking guitar lessons eons ago.
I traded it in on the little Gibson in the 2nd picture.
This guitar was traded in when I got my T-8 Stringmaster.
The guitars pictured aren't the same guitars I had way back then but over the years I was lucky enough to pick up replacements.

Erv, you are now bringing back some old memories for me. My father told me he learned on and played a Gibson Acoustic as a teenager. However, his Gibson Acoustic burned when our home was destroyed by fire when I was age 4. Later, he bought a Kalamazoo Acoustic, and that was the steel he played until he purchased a 1949 SILVERTONE DELUXE BLACK, at the same time I got my 1949 SILVERTONE for Christmas. Thanks for the memories.

C. E.

This picture was taken when I was playing the little Gibson with a polka band.
We had a Saturday morning program over KDUZ in Hutchinson, MN.

Thanks everyone for the photos and comments. All were very interesting.

Erv, your comments and photos brought back lots of memories for me.
The Gibson BR6 steels have great tone, harmonics, and sustain. The polka band
you played with certainly had a handsome steel player.

C. E.