Here's my dad playing his back in the late 80's or early 90's. It's the first lap steel I ever saw or played. He got it at a pawn shop near the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana. I think he paid $75 bucks for it. In the last 2 pics, that's me accompanying him on piano.
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, 1953 Alamo Lap steel, (a gift from the late Stu Schulman) Recording King Phil Leadbetter Dobro, Roland Cube, Roland Mobile Cube, Fender Champion 40
Magnatone family MOTS steels and amps hold a soft spot in my heart. I call them my "Jelly Beans." Here are some of mine:
1937-8
Here is one of the early ones (1938) next to one of the last ones (1954 ish).
I stacked these two to illustrate the difference in the neck profile from an early and later guitar. Maybe they had a problem with warping or breaking and thickened them as a fix.
Time flies like an eagle
Fruit flies like a banana.
I think you are the winner John! I saw your collection early on in my Lapsteel journey and didn't realize what I was looking at. Fantastic......
Last edited by Bill Groner on 6 Feb 2024 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, 1953 Alamo Lap steel, (a gift from the late Stu Schulman) Recording King Phil Leadbetter Dobro, Roland Cube, Roland Mobile Cube, Fender Champion 40
Here's tune on my '52 Magnatone that shows the pure sound of the pickup direct into the computer with just a little reverb and minimal EQ. I think these little guitars are truly underrated.
So much cool stuff here. Love the grill cloth, David. I'm a little embarrassed to include my butchered Dickerson in this thread. I picked this up super cheap on ebay years ago because someone had cut through the MOTS covering to get to the pickup and then given up. I made the red teardrop pickup plate from a sheet of pickguard material to cover the extensive damage and put in a pickup I had laying around. It was also missing the bridge so I modified a Gretsch (I think) bridge to work. It was also my first experience installing the Stewmac tuner buttons. One thing I love about these guitars is that with the bridge so close to the end, they're physically a lot shorter than most 22.5" scale guitars and don't take up much space in the trunk or overhead bin.
Bill Sinclair wrote:One thing I love about these guitars is that with the bridge so close to the end, they're physically a lot shorter than most 22.5" scale guitars and don't take up much space in the trunk or overhead bin.
Another feature of the Dickerson and Magnatone MOTS instruments is the fact that they're featherweights. I've often wondered if it's balsa hiding underneath that celluloid.
Jack Hanson wrote:
Another feature of the Dickerson and Magnatone MOTS instruments is the fact that they're featherweights. I've often wondered if it's balsa hiding underneath that celluloid.
I have quite a few of these and most appear to be pine bodies, one I'm fairly certain is redwood, and another I have is oddly enough maple! I think they used whatever was cheap and on hand for the student models.