Mystery Lap/Console Steel

[AAT65]

Hi there experts

I just acquired this anonymous lap steel via eBay... no maker, model or serial number available. Could be homemade I guess but seems to have been done pretty well and using some decent solid-feeling hardware, including a nice case and a cymbal-stand-style adjustable stand. Or maybe it’s been modified (see the odd two control plates) and refinished.

Does anyone have any clues what this might be? I paid less than I would for a Harley Benton Slider from Thomann, or some similar piece of modern Far Eastern low-cost manufacture, so I’m happy whatever it is, but would love to know more about it.

Distinguishing features:
* 6 strings
* 2 single-coil pickups
* ‘vertical’ tuning keys (classical guitar style)
* top-loading stop bar and separate bridge (height adjustable by thumb screws)
* chrome cover over the bridge - needs to be removed to change strings
* individual on-off switches for each pickup
* Volume and Tone controls
* integral stand (cymbal-stand style tripod rather than 3 separate legs)
* matching hard case (3 compartments, baize-lined)

[Danny Mitchell]

Hi Aat65
I'm afraid I can't help with your query, but something in your pics caught my eye. If you don't mind me asking, what is the wooden, box-like thing on the red instrument stand?
Cheers
Danny.

[AAT65]

Hi Aat65
I'm afraid I can't help with your query, but something in your pics caught my eye. If you don't mind me asking, what is the wooden, box-like thing on the red instrument stand?
Cheers
Danny.

It’s a cigar box guitar — from a cheap kit sold as a “Blues Box Guitar”. 3 strings, piezo pickup, tuned to G-D-G. My wife gave it to me as a Christmas present, it’s good fun for blues but of course fairly limited: so it’s helped tempt me into the world of 6-string lap steel... and who knows where next??

[Danny Mitchell]

Ah Ha! A touch of the Seasick Steve.

Thanks for the info and all the best with your lap steel journey

[Will C]

I'm always amazed that some enterprising lap steel player hasn't dubbed himself "C6th Steve" yet.

[AAT65]

I'm always amazed that some enterprising lap steel player hasn't dubbed himself "C6th Steve" yet.

Whenever I hear his name on the radio I hear it as “C 6 Steve” or sometimes (referring to 1970s music-making technology) I hear “C60” and then have to mentally re-parse it when I catch the “v” at the end...

Anyway regarding the original question — I am now pretty convinced it’s homemade. The clincher for me is the fretboard —nicely made and bound, but I wondered why the fret markers stop at the 19th (out of 27). Looking more closely today I realised the 19th fret is made wider than it should be so that the dot marker fits in (the maker only had one size marker, it seems). He seems to have decided he could get away with it once, but doing the same at the 21st and 24th was pushing things a bit...

So my current guess is it’s very nicely done but homemade, styled on something like a Guyanese or Teisco (from the 1960s?) with the two pickup slider switches.