Help Identifying Lap Steel

[Lee Watson]

First time posting! Does anyone have any ideas about who the maker of this lap steel might be? It’s a wood body with great sustain. The horseshoe pickup, though closely resembling a Rick, doesn’t look exactly like any that I’ve been able to find. I’ve pmd a few forum members about this already but so far nobody has been able to identify it.
It’s a great sounding guitar!

[Lee Watson]

[John Watson]

Hey Lee
Being as your from Ontario- maybe check in with the folks at the 12th Fret guitar store in Toronto. They sell quite a few lap steels, resonators etc.

[Daniel Flanigan]

Does it have any identifying markings at all? If it's completely unmarked, my guess would be that it's a Rick clone, probably from 1935-1959, possibly a department store guitar. But I'm not sure, it's really just my best guess. You might want to remove the bridge and pickup to look underneath them for any markings. Maybe look at the pots too, you might at least get a date code.

[Lee Watson]

Thanks for the suggestions. The guitar has no markings on it at all. I tried to get a date code off of the pots but the pickup can’t be removed. It appears that it was mounted onto the top before the back was glued on, and before the guitar was finished. That, or the actual magnets that form the horseshoe were bolted onto the pickup after it was installed on the guitar. The pickup mount is too wide to remove the pickup from the cavity. Odd stuff.

[Daniel Flanigan]

Well, then I'd say it's just a neat old guitar to be enjoyed in all it's mystery.