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Post new topic Does anyone recogize this lap steel?
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Author Topic:  Does anyone recogize this lap steel?
Jim Palenscar

 

From:
Oceanside, Calif, USA
Post  Posted 17 Jan 2022 9:41 pm    
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Noah Miller


From:
Rocky Hill, CT
Post  Posted 18 Jan 2022 3:02 am    
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Yup, these show up from time to time and nobody seems to know who made them; they're not from any of the big mass-producers. They probably date from the '40s, give or take a few years. I've seen them bearing a few different brand names, but also with no markings at all. Sometimes they have conventional controls but sometimes those distinctive rollers.
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Jim Pitman

 

From:
Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2022 1:32 pm    
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Mother of Toilet seat (MOT) finish dates it to about a decade ~ 1935 to 1945. I speculate that finish on a lap steel will make it collectible eventually. It was discontinued because the process was dangerous, very flamable.
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Noah Miller


From:
Rocky Hill, CT
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2022 2:49 pm    
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MOTS coverings first appeared on steels around 1939 and could be found well into the 1950s, for example on Magnatones through at least 1957. Plastic coverings were used on some steels through the '60s, though the pearloid patterns generally disappeared around the beginning of that decade.
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Glenn Wilde

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2022 10:43 am    
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Noah Miller wrote:
MOTS coverings first appeared on steels around 1939 and could be found well into the 1950s, for example on Magnatones through at least 1957. Plastic coverings were used on some steels through the '60s, though the pearloid patterns generally disappeared around the beginning of that decade.

Magnatone was my first thought on the OP's guitar, but i don't recognize the pickup assembly. Magna made some similar guitars though, my friend has one badged as a GELB or GIEB or something like that.
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Noah Miller


From:
Rocky Hill, CT
Post  Posted 22 Jan 2022 11:02 am    
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Yeah, I've seen these misidentified as Magnatones or Dickersons before. The covering does closely resemble Magna/Dickerson steels, and whoever built this steel may have used the same plastic supplier. But the pickup, body, fretboard, and choice of hardware are unlike anything Magnatone used.
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