Best Era of Oahu Steels?

[Phillip Holt]

Is there a certain era or models of Oahu steels that people prefer. Most curious of pickup quality and certain things to avoid if I'm looking at buying a vintage Oahu?

[Joe A. Roberts]

One thing I can think of:
I am not sure if it affected all Valco product brands, but it seems like the later Supro branded instruments would sometimes use a dummy pickup magnet, so instead of two magnets, one of them would be a piece of wood painted to look remarkably like an actual magnet
Don't know if it is necessarily a deal breaker, but worth investigating...

[Phillip Holt]

That's definitely the kind of info I'm looking for. Curious if the models made in the '40s are generally better and more sought after than things from the '50s and so forth?

[Frank James Pracher]

I have and have had quite a few over the years.

Kay manufactured "Tonemaster" Oahu's... I like the ones from the early 40's...

The Valco manufactured ones I prefer are from the early 50'

The Valco pickup bobbins are literally made out of thin cardboard... I've seen them perfect condition and falling apart.

Adjusting the pole pieces on these is critical to getting the best sound, and some are very brittle and will break very easy.
My experience is they can be pretty inconsistent and quirky but it's part of the charm.

[David Matzenik]

The body of my late Tonemaster is not symmetrical.

[Phillip Holt]

Hey Frank, how would you identify one from the early '40s?

[Frank James Pracher]

Hey Frank, how would you identify one from the early '40s?

Not sure if this is definitive but I look for the double fretboard dots on the 1st fret... some of the later ones I've seen have the dots on the second fret.

[Phillip Holt]

Copy that, curious if anybody else can verify that?

[Phillip Holt]

I've attached some images of various Oahus that I found online that are all listed as '30s or '40s. Anybody have thougths on if any are more desireable than others related to pickup tone/quality? Are any to be avoided?

[Frank James Pracher]

Here's the model I've had good luck with... Note the difference in the fretboard markers. All three of mine sound and play wonderful

[Erv Niehaus]

I like this one.
This is just like my 1st guitar

[Joseph Lazo]

I just got this Tonemaster. It has a stamp on the top of the headstock: T145. Does anyone know how to decipher that? I'm assuming the "T" is for Tonemaster. Could the 45 be the year?

[Noah Miller]

I just got this Tonemaster. It has a stamp on the top of the headstock: T145. Does anyone know how to decipher that? I'm assuming the "T" is for Tonemaster. Could the 45 be the year?

This is one of the later models, late '40s to early '50s. As far as I know, these were the only Kay-built instruments to receive serials prior to the Valco merger in 1966. However, there is no known list of these serials out there.

1945 would be too early by a couple of years, as post-War production of electrics hadn't ramped back up. I believe these serials were probably sequential and you can't read the year from them without some long-lost factory records.

[Joseph Lazo]

Thanks, Noah! There's some old sheet music that came in the case and it's dated 1949, so the time frame you mentioned syncs with that.