SOLD off-forum 1940's Oahu Lap Steel & Matching Amp For Sale

Pedal, lap, Hawaiian, resonator ... anything played with a bar
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jsaine
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Location: Charlottesville, VA
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SOLD off-forum 1940's Oahu Lap Steel & Matching Amp For Sale

Post by jsaine »

Here is an early 1940’s Oahu Lap Steel with matching Amp for the serious collector. Valco manufactured this model for the Oahu Publishing Company and it shares similarities and pickup design with Bronson, Dickerson and Magnatone brands. The amp is a 3.5 watt tube amp with a 6in. speaker and comes with it’s original cover, which is very fragile. A similar one can be seen on radiomuseum.org which dates this 1941/1942. I have not turned the amp on because it would need a technician to go through it beforehand. The lap steel itself generates sound but upon inspection of the tone pot it is obvious that it’s original and in need of attention. I think everything is original to this combo. The pearloid is in excellent shape on both pieces. Comes with its original tone bar, picks, guitar cord, excellent case, and 2 string packs. Note that the plastic tuner buttons have disintegrated. I don’t have a good feel for the value of this but I’m asking $500 plus shipping. Make me an offer or trade for something cool.


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Last edited by jsaine on 9 Sep 2018 8:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Mark Helm
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Nice Combo!

Post by Mark Helm »

jsaine wrote: I have not turned the amp on because it would need a technician to go through it beforehand.
Is there a reason the amp would need a technician just to turn it on and test to see if it's functioning?

Thanks!
Remington Steelmaster S8 w/ custom Steeltronics pickup. Vox MV-50 amplifier + an 1940's Oahu cab w/ 8" American Vintage speaker. J. Mascis Fender Squire Jazzmaster, Hofner Club bass, Ibanez AVN4-VMS Artwood Vintage Series Concert Size Acoustic Guitar. 1920s/30s Supertone Hawaiian-themed parlor guitar. Silvertone parlor guitar.
jsaine
Posts: 84
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Charlottesville, VA
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Post by jsaine »

Mark,

Right so with tube amps this old turning them on can potentially lead to frying things. With this amp the tubes look original and are somewhat cloudy. My guess is that they are past their time. If I were to want to get it back to operating condition I would check all connections and test all capacitors, tubes, solder joints etc. and replace the original 2 prong cord. Then flip the switch. Just my opinion.
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Jerry Wagner
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Location: California, USA

Post by Jerry Wagner »

Mark,
I think an electronics technician can safely test an old tube amp with a variable transformer. At least that's what a friend of mine did with an old Valco amp I bought. We determined that it was OK as-is, but I still had an amp specialist replace a couple of old capacitors and have the speaker re-coned by a pro. I think replacing the speaker cone improved the clean volume range. If you want a 'dirty" over-driven sound, don't re-cone the speaker. You could ask the amp experts on the forum for more info about this.
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