A new NS in the family!

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 7:33 am

Hello all
Very interesting forum plus very informative. How I came to use it is as follows:
One of the guys in our group mentioned last week that should dig out an old lap steel he has and bring it to practice. I noticed that night that someone advertised in our local paper that they had a Leslie amplifier and a lap steel for sale so being curious and never really seeing a lap steel before, went and checked it out. I was kinda disappointed as this looked like an oversized metal ukelele. It did say Rickenbacher on it so I told him I would give it some thought and get back to him. Checking the internet (and this forum) when I got home I discovered it was a greyburst NS from the late 40's in near mint condition with case. I then figured that the $100 he was asking for it was quite reasonable so zipped back and got it. Somewhere I read that they stuffed newspaper in the bodies so after delicate surgery of removing pickup and gently sliding out the first blob of paper (which was stuck to the bottom - maybe wet paint when they put it in?), I found it was from a paper called the Wave and was dated April 21st, 1949. So cool. This thing sounds fantastic through my Mesa Boogie and I have picks from my banjo playing days so once I get some rudimentary "how to play" info, I see a long relationship. One question - the knobs on this are white and all the others I see are black - would these be original? Thanks
PS My buddies lap turned out to be a well used Dickerson from probably the same era (mother of Toilet seat blue)

admin · Post by **admin** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:43 am

Welcome to the Rickenbacker forum Heididog. What a great story. thanks for taking us back to the the 1940s.

I would love to see some detailed photos of your instrument. I believe that the white knobs are original.

I would also be most interested in a soundbyte of this instrument. I would also like to know the width of the pickup.

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:19 am

Hi Peter
Thanks for the welcome. I'll snap a few pics tonight of the old gal. I read about adding images and files so we'll test my IQ with that. How do you normally do a soundbyte? I imagine there is a few different ways. How accurate a representation do you get? When you ask about the pickup - is the width of the bars that arc over top the measurement you were wondering about?

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:00 am

Ok, this will be my first attempt at photos. Bear with me. Couple of notes - the width of the pickup is 1-1/4 inches - that is the bar across the top as well as the plate right on top of the coil. The other thing is the picture of the decal on the back - does this mean anything to anyone - nothing found when googling B & J New York - assuming it was a music store or something.

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:02 am

Ok, this will be my first attempt at photos. Bear with me. Couple of notes - the width of the pickup is 1-1/4 inches - that is the bar across the top as well as the plate right on top of the coil. The other thing is the picture of the decal on the back - does this mean anything to anyone - nothing found when googling B & J New York - assuming it was a music store or something.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:02 am

Heididog: Remember no more than 500X500 pixels and 36K for each photo.

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:20 am

Thanks Peter - got it figured out now - being Friday and all...
Neil

rshatz · Post by **rshatz** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:24 am

Neil,
What a great find at the lowest price I've heard of in a long time and in almost pristine condition.

The white "flying saucer" knobs are almost certainly original and were produced from the late 30s to the early 50s. Black was the most common color, but they also came in white and red (extremely rare). It's unusual in my experience to find an instrument with two white knobs. The usual configuration is two black or one black and one white.

Looks like the tuner buttons have shrunk and might start to deteriorate or break with some use. If they do, good replacements of the buttons are available at Stewart McDonald.

If you like the sound of this one, you should start looking for a Model B. They sound even better.

Just as an aside, what kind of case came with the steel?

Enjoy

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:28 am

Thanks Richard. Here is a picture of the case - it looks too good to be original - what do you think? The guy had added the string to hold it open also. I can get better pics if it helps with the ID.

Neil

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:47 am

Looks great, Heididog.

Richard: You appear to be the resident expert around these parts. Could you have a look at the Rickenbacker steels here and let me know if you think there are any bargains? I'm guessing NOT!!

www.northcoastguitars.com.au/steelguitars.html

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:03 am

Hi Howard
Funny you mention that website - it was the first hit I saw for the almost identical one I have except for the knob colour. Thats why I ran to buy it when I saw their $1200 price tag. Scouting around afterwards I have seen a few similar ones but more in the $350 to $500 range so I'm thinking this place might be the top end of the scale. See what Richard says...

Neil

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:23 am

Thanks, Heidihog. I hope my post didn't imply that others in this place didn't have any knowledge on the subject. Richard does a lot of posting on this topic and therefore I thought......

I think you're correct in regard to the price scale. I'll be looking for one soon (I'd love a Rickenbacker!) and I definitely want one with the horseshoe pickup and probably 60s to 70s vintage but I'm not keen to pay the sort of money they're asking at that place. Maybe one that needs a bit of TLC and restoration - that'd be a cool little project! That 60s Model 100 at $750 AUD might just fit the bill.

heididog · Post by **heididog** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:47 pm

No prob Howard - thats what these forums are about - tapping into the resources of all the other members. Everything I know about them is contained in my last 7 posts.
Is that North Coast guitars in Australia? I never paid attention to that detail. Hows does the Australian dollar compare against the Canadian buck?

rshatz · Post by **rshatz** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:57 pm

Howard,
I've been to that Aussie site. Some beautiful steels, but way high even though the AUD is only worth $.75 USD and that doesn't include shipping and insurance. That will cost another $75 minimum if you want it to get to you in less than a month to six weeks. (Trust me I've bought lap steels from Australia and NZ.)
If you want one of the 100 series steels, you can find them on Ebay all the time for $400 and sometimes much less even in very good condition. If you are interested in an auction item, post it here or on the Steel Guitar Forum on the No Peddlers section. You'll get plenty of help.

Neil,
The case could very well be original to the instrument, since the NS was a student model and they seldom had hard shell cases.

rshatz · Post by **rshatz** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:31 pm

Howard,
Check this out.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41439&item=7326976072&rd=1