Penthouse or Outhouse

[Paul Crawford]

I ran across another guy that has a couple of old lap steels and sees a quick profit in the making. Apparently they have been in the family for a long time and nobody knows the last time they were played.

First is an old 6 string Gibson. Best guess is it's from the late 30s or early 40s. It has numbered frets and kind of a brownish tan body. Kind of a pretty little thing cleaned up, in a vintage tacky kind of way.

Second is an old black and white National, wood body. It has a screw in type cord and a step style body. It still has the original owners manual with it.

Both seem to be in fair to good shape, all original. Anyone hazard a guess of what the things are really worth, what type of tone you might be able to get, and anything I should check before seriously considering them? The guy's price indicates he's rather proud of them, and depending one what I've run across here, I may let him hold on to them another 40 years and then try again.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

[Brad Bechtel]

My web site might be of some help in discovering which models you're talking about. A quick guess is that you're talking about a Gibson BR-9 or a Skylark,although both of these are from the 50's rather than the 30's.
The National could be any one of a number of models. If it's a New Yorker or a Dynamic, it could be a very nice sounding guitar.
Send me a better description and I'll see if I can help identify the models. Even better, send a photo.


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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

[C Dixon]

Paul,

If the National had black and white inlaid stripes for the body going long ways, it is what some of us called the "Empire State" model. If also, on the right end, there is a tone control that looks like the old pointed knobs Fender used to use on their amps in the 50's, it is definitely one of these models.

The tone is superb on these. It could fetch in the $300.00 range I think.

Don't know anything about the Gibson

God bless you,

carl

[Bobby Lee]

I hope they don't think they'll get big bucks for either of them. Remember that Carl's choice 30's Rickenbacher, the guitar that most of us can only dream of, cost him less than $1000. It's really hard to get "vintage prices" for lap steels.

[Paul Crawford]

You guys are remarkable!!! We seem to have a BR-9 and an Empire Model down here. And as b0b cautioned, he's too proud of them. Looks to be ebay fodder to me unless some reasonable compromise is reached.

Thanks so much for being here. Paul