Selmer Lapsteel

Ole Berg · Post by **Ole Berg** » 23 Nov 1999 6:09 am

Hi - Ijust bought a Selmer Lapsteel 6 string made in England. Does anyone have any information about this instrument? It lives in it's case, to play it you just take off the top-lid. Age?

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Tony Harris · Post by **Tony Harris** » 13 Dec 1999 4:09 am

I have a Selmer 6-String made in London. I reckon it must be from the fifties or earlier. It's Gibson shape and does come out of its case,has a big brass plate for the controls, and looks a bit like an old forties radio! When I got it it had no jack socket - just a cable coming out of a hole in the side!
I've never tried a Fender or a Gibson (these are very rare in England) so my Selemer sounds just fine.

Ole Berg · Post by **Ole Berg** » 13 Dec 1999 5:05 am

Thanks for Your reply, Tony. I have just sent my Selmer to a repairman to have it fixed. Havn't heard it yet, but looking forward to. Mine could be a cheaper version of Yours, no jacksocket, just a cable out, which didn't work. It's a kind of acoustic because it's just a plate with a brassplate for pick-up and controls, looks kind of from the 40'es.
Thanks Ole Berg.

Website · Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 13 Dec 1999 11:38 am

I've never seen a Selmer lap steel before. I'd be very interested in seeing what these look like.

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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Tony Harris · Post by **Tony Harris** » 15 Dec 1999 2:55 am

Brad,
Sorry I don't have the equipment(or the know-how)to send you a picture, but my Selmer is basically a Gibson-shape copy, I reckon. The brass plate covers most of the bottom end of the body and holds the vol and tone controls (chicken-head knobs), the bridge and the pickup. I thought the pickup was just a narrow single coil type, but when I opened up the guitar, it's U-shaped - it goes down under the plate, along and up again to form the bridge - so the bridge is magnetic!

Tony Harris · Post by **Tony Harris** » 15 Dec 1999 3:05 am

Brad, Sorry I don't have the equipment (or the know-how) to send a photo. My Selmer is basically a Gibson-shaped copy, I reckon. The brass plate covers most of the bottom of the body, and holds the pickup, the bridge and the vol and tone controls(chicken-head knobs). The pickup looks like a narrow single-coil type, but when I opened up the guitar,I found the pickup is U-shaped - it goes down under the plate, along and up again to form the bridge - the bridge is magnetic.

Ole Berg · Post by **Ole Berg** » 17 Dec 1999 3:56 am

Hi - Tony & Brad.
The discription Tony made of his Selmer Lap-Steel is similar to mine, except for the acousticness. When I get my steel back from the rep. I'll try to get a foto of it and put it in a reply. My repairman told me, that the construction of the pick-up is very unusual. It has the biggest magnet he has ever seen, and is in direct contact with the bridge. I was told, that David Lindley owns a Selmer Lap-Steel.
Thanks again
Ole Berg