Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 28 Mar 2007 9:53 pm |
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I'll give the Forum first shot at this for a couple of days before eBay--this is my second Lightning Bolt" resonator guitar. Actually, this one--a squareneck, with a slotted (but not routed all the way through!) headstock--is a little nicer than my first, but I'm keeping #1 for sentimental reasons.
This is nobody's Scheerhorn, although it does have an actual resonator cone but no soundwell or soundposts. (A lot of 30s guitars had coverplates simply screwed to the guitar top, with the area under the coverplate sprayed silver to take the look. One of these I've seen--with a moon and stars coverplate--I've seen was a Regal brand.) It has a Dobro-like sound but nowhere near the sustain of a traditional Dobro or copy.
After nearly 20 years with my first "bolt," I've come to the conclusion that these were made by one of the Chicago factories, possibly Kay or Regal. (A clue is in Tom Wheeler's "American Guitars" book under the Grossman wholesalers entry. A guitar with this coverplate appears in an ad.) I've seen this coverplate on guitars (all cheapies) with a variety of soundholes--some with resonators, some without. I might have seen a fingerboard teaching diagram with the Radio-Tone notation on some guitar...although there was a different and higher-end specific "Radio-Tone" model. But this all may point to the same large Chicago factory. And that's my long-winded point.
 
The cone is more of a bowl than a Dobro cone--no raised center section. There is a base in the bottom of the cone and the bridge rises up through a cutout in the coverplate. (This one may have been modified; I think the one in my other reso looks different.) Painted top "binding."
Cosmetic issues (more pictures available of these): there has been some veneer delamination or loss (all replaced or repaired.) The back, sides and neck have been refinished. No endpin. Bolt secures the neck heel. Replacement strip tuners (PING or similar) are missing a couple of screws and so are pulling away from the side of the headstock a little bit. Headstock (nondescript wood, tuner slots) reminds me of Regals I've seen or owned. Replacement nut is a tad tall and tilting forward. It also looks like a previous owner installed some kind of backlight behind the lightning bolts--there's flashlight bulb and some kind of fixture rattling around inside. (You'd have to take off the coverplate and remove the cone to get it out. I'll leave that to the next owner.) There's also an apparent repair where this was installed through the shoulder of the body.
This is not damage but the (factory) marker at the 10th fret will drive you nuts. (I put tape over it on the other guitar and put a "9" sticker from a blank VHS on the 9th fret.)
Still--even though this was probably an $8-$15 guitar in its day (late '30s, I'd guess), it's super cool. Fabulous wallhanger and even kind of fun to play, with a bit of fix-up here and there. Comes in a waytoobig chipboard case, $250 shipped FedEx Ground in the lower 48. |
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