1939 Vega Console Steel ... cool!

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 11 Apr 2010 2:09 pm

Came across this cool and unusual Vega Steel today at: http://www.folkwaymusic.com/instruments/resonators.html

As they describe it ...

"939c. Vega Console Steel
Serial # 35754. At the pinnacle of Art Deco design in the steel guitar's history you'll find the Vega Console Steels of the late 1930's. From the bold and colorful fingerboard markers to the brushed steel logo and nickel hardware this steel more than exemplifies what the prevalent design sense was all about in the years leading up to the Second World War. The instrument's heavy maple body has rounded edges and corners, a dark brown lacquer finish, gold Vega logo, and a figured Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. The instrument's original humbucking pickup in is good working order, as are its Bakelite-knobbed volume slider and 5-button tone selector (Contra, Bass, Normal, Treble, High). It's hard to pinpoint the single most fantastic thing about this instrument, but if I had to I'd look at the rotary tuning machines... They are Grover G-98's with specially designed shafts and thumbwheels; and they work perfectly. I'd love to have a set of these for my 30's 00-18!!! At the bridge end, the steel features a 3 position tuning bridge which quickly switches the instrument between A, E and C# tunings. This combination of tunings was made famous by Sol Hoopii in the 1930's, and this steel is naturally well suited for the brand of Hawaiian / Jazz fusion that Sol pioneered. The instrument comes with some case-candy, original legs (which are not particularly functional) and the original hard-shell case.
We'll let the photos do the rest of the talking"
$999 (US $999)

I've never seen or played one of these but I'd like to do so. Some very interesting and ahead-of-its-time design touches. Our late forum pal, Al Marcus, played a Vega early in his career. Damn, I miss Al's posts!

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 12 Apr 2010 9:23 am

Not to be crass, well maybe so.....it looks like a lap steel had sex with an acordian and this was the result. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Very cool looking instrument. I'd like to hear it too. Thanks for sharing.

Mark Roeder · Post by **Mark Roeder** » 12 Apr 2010 9:30 am

Thats cool

Steve Waltz · Post by **Steve Waltz** » 12 Apr 2010 11:16 am

I didn't think that humbuckers came around until Seth something or other did it at Gibson in the mid to late 50's. I guess it is a humbucker if they say so but with all of those controls I wonder if it isn't two single coils wound differently and not to each other for an actual humbucking thing but for tone changes by different selections.

Ok I just noticed the part about tone control with the buttons so I guess I'm off base there as long as that is done by resistors or caps.

James Kerr · Post by **James Kerr** » 12 Apr 2010 12:09 pm

Thank you for that Andy, Instruments from that period always interest me, I went over there for more photos.

James.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 12 Apr 2010 1:11 pm

Steve,
I have a Gruhn book that states that Vega did indeed have the very first "Humbucking" pickup, in the late Thirties.

Steve Waltz · Post by **Steve Waltz** » 12 Apr 2010 1:19 pm

Thanks John. Good to know.

Steve

Will Houston · Post by **Will Houston** » 12 Apr 2010 4:05 pm

Pretty cool looking. Andy my first thought when I saw and read about it was Al Marcus would have something to say about this one.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 12 Apr 2010 6:20 pm

The Vega has the widest string spacing that I've ever seen on an 8 string guitar.......the one in the photo above has 6 of 8 strings strung up.....and you can't see the spacing from that photo.....

Bill Fall · Post by **Bill Fall** » 28 Apr 2010 8:57 am

Andy, my longtime friend, Eddie Cunningham, called my attention to your posting of the Vega Console, wherein you said: "I've never seen or played one of these but I'd like to do so."

I happen to own one (though I never play it -- strictly a pedal guy), and I believe I wrote to you back when I first acquired it to see if you had any knowledge of the model.

Mine is in NH right now, but I'm back & forth between there & Boston, and pass by not far from you along Rt. 128. Maybe sometime we can set up a date & I'll bring the Vega by for you to check out.

Peter Lindelauf · Post by **Peter Lindelauf** » 28 Apr 2010 9:59 am

That Vega is a beauty, Andy. Really appreciated and enjoyed your <Lap> book, by the way.

Ron Yarboro · Post by **Ron Yarboro** » 28 Apr 2010 1:03 pm

Having recently started a thread about laser fingerboards, I'm curious about the process that was used to make the multicolored fingerboard on this guitar. Is the fingerboard plastic, wood or...? Also, is It screen printed, painted etc...? Being a ex-screen printer I'm seriously considering screen printing a fingerboard or two, just to see how It turns out.

By the way,that's a very nice looking guitar. Thanks for posting It.

Ron

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 28 Apr 2010 2:19 pm

That's cool! Thanks for posting Andy!

I did not know that Al Marcus had passed away and I am sorry to hear that.

Fred

Richard Shatz · Post by **Richard Shatz** » 28 Apr 2010 4:58 pm

This would be a good start to begin to collect some information on these little known Vega steel guitars.
I have acquired a few over the years, but information is scarce.

Once again, "Inquiring minds yada yada yada"

Bill Fall · Post by **Bill Fall** » 29 Apr 2010 1:53 am

Ron, my Vega Console is packed away in another state, and I haven't looked at it for well over a year. But as I recall the fingerboard is wood. When I get a chance I'll check it out & see if I can determine how the colored markers were applied.

Ron Yarboro · Post by **Ron Yarboro** » 29 Apr 2010 12:58 pm

Bill Fall wrote:Ron, my Vega Console is packed away in another state, and I haven't looked at it for well over a year. But as I recall the fingerboard is wood. When I get a chance I'll check it out & see if I can determine how the colored markers were applied.

Hi Bill,
Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for your post.

Ron

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 29 Apr 2010 3:00 pm

To Bill: thanks for the offer. That would be fun.

Thanks too, Peter, much appreciated. One of the key reasons I wrote my lap steel book was to capture some of the wonderful info from our senior players (like Al) before it all went up in proverbial smoke.

Allan Munro · Post by **Allan Munro** » 29 Apr 2010 7:37 pm

HowardR wrote:The Vega has the widest string spacing that I've ever seen on an 8 string guitar.......the one in the photo above has 6 of 8 strings strung up.....and you can't see the spacing from that photo.....

It looks like it SHOULD have eight strings but I think there are only six tuning machines and it looks like a six pole pickup too. The fret board looks wide enough for eight strings though!

Allan.....

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 10 May 2010 2:02 pm

Since I first spotted this very cool art deco design lap steel here in Andy's thread, I got very curious about them. So I thought I'd add some info and pics I came across to this thread.

Here is one that was sold by Retrofret/Musurgia in Brooklyn, New York.

And here is the info from the Musurgia website:

Vega Electric Console Model High Steel Electric Guitar (1939), made in Boston, Mass., black lacquer finish, maple body, original brown hard shell case.

An Art Deco showpiece and one of the coolest looking steels we have ever seen! This is a six-string console with Vega's original humbucking pickup (invented over 15 years before Gibson's), wheel-operated tuners, a multi-pushbutton tone selector and sliding lever volume control. The heavy maple body is laquered black with chrome trim and a fabulous Vega logo on the front. Vega offered this model in 6, 7 and 8 string versions; all are extremely rare. Perfect for gigs at Radio City; if Flash Gordon's rocket had needed a console steel, this would have been a good choice! Includes the original magazine advertizement introducing the model.

Overall length is 35 in. (88.9 cm.), 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) width, and 2 in. (5.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 23 1/8 in. (587 mm.). Width of nut is 3 3/8 in. (86 mm.). All original with some general playwear. Excellent Condition.

(There are plenty more beautiful and interesting vintage instruments on their website www.musurgia.com.)

So, 6-, 7- and 8-string models were available, to add to the discussion above about this. It seems, just like on the 1930s National New Yorkers, that a rather wide (wider than necessary for 6 strings) neck was part of the design to be able to accommodate one or two extra strings and maintain decent string spacing.

It also seems as the tuning-changer in the guitar Andy posted about in this thread could be an aftermarket additon (or a factory custom order addition to the stock design), as Bill's 8-string he posted photos of and the one from the Musurgia website are without this device, and the photo of the tuning-changer shows some unused holes where the strings would be attached if there was no tuning-changer:

Someone with more knowledge of the history of tuning-changer devices might be able to shed light on that?

Anyway, that's some more info on this fascinating old console steel guitar.

Fred

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 10 May 2010 4:17 pm

But the story of my research of these guitars does not end there (and I hold you responsible Andy, because of your GAS encouraging post!

). I contacted Folkway in Canada and they are extremely cool guys - they said they could play it to me over the phone, so I phoned them up and got to hear some cool playing on this very interesting looking and it turns out interesting sounding (as far as I could tell from hearing it over the telephone at least

) guitar.

Unfortunately, shipping from Canada to Europe is rather pricey.

But, I found a cheaper one in a US shop, and this is now headed my way:

Can't wait to play it!

Will post sound samples or a video when it has arrived.

Cheers,

Fred

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 10 May 2010 4:28 pm

Congratulations, Fred! It's definitely one of the coolest, most elegant designs of any vintage lap steel. If it sounds great too, I accept full responsibility. If not, Boston has daily flights to Brazil.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 11 May 2010 3:25 pm

Andy Volk wrote:Congratulations, Fred! It's definitely one of the coolest, most elegant designs of any vintage lap steel. If it sounds great too, I accept full responsibility. If not, Boston has daily flights to Brazil.

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 11 May 2010 4:42 pm

Very cool Fred, looking forward to the video

Mark Durante · Post by **Mark Durante** » 13 May 2010 3:11 am

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info about Vega although one of the coolest, most inovative of companies. Vega, Rickenbacker and Fender all had humbucking pickups out before Gibson (and there were a number of "tune-o-matic" style bridges out before Gibson's too). Seth Lovers design was brilliant though.

John Burton · Post by **John Burton** » 13 May 2010 3:30 am

here's some pics and some sounds from my 40's Vega six string (youtube).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7e3wcTumb0
it's a good player and sounds great. I really like it. The "humbucker" type pup on it is dead quiet, no hum and really has a full, rich sound.

This is an interesting thread for me because there really isn't much info out there on these great steels.

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1939 Vega Console Steel ... cool!

1939 Vega Console Steel ... cool!

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