Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

hello everybody !
i'm a french music player and sometimes a young surgeon, i just have an old lap steel seems to be a b10 with the two knobs at the same side, number is : 1881229 . . . . . i hope it's possible to date it

do you know how to date it ?? do you know details about this rare 10 strings lap steel ? if you play it, which tuning do you use ??
thanks for all ??????

Pierre, It is too bad that there is so little response on this forum, especially when one considers how popular Ricky steels have become recently. You will probably do better over on the steel guitar forum but you will have to go through the registration stuff. It seems that musicians shun anything to do with what has become of the big names like Fender Gibson Rick etc due to the perception that the companies nolonger have any interest in music, just holding there own against 3rd world imports. The B10 is a remarkable find, as to tunings, that is a big subject. Lorene Ruymar's book on Hawaiian Guitar is a good start. It depends a lot on what you wish to play. Aloha, Matz

Pierre,
Is your B 10 like this one?
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/research/B10.jpg

hello david , hello richard !
thanks a lot for your answers !
i'll try to say more :
i'm musician and my passion is to write songs, and create music with this songs, so i play a lot of instrument ( piano, guitar, mandoline, bouzouki, oud, flute, bag pipe , banjo etc etc ) , a friend of mine talk me about lap steel, . . . and i had the luck to find this b10 on ebay; now i play lap steel everyday, it's so cool !!! when you ask me what i wish to play, i say i want my lapsteel souds hawaiian ! it's realy cool for my songs, i searched a lot on the web . . and i finish to play with my own tuning : bass to high : F G Bb D F A C E G Bb
what do you think about it ??
for the moment , i like it , ( just i think it's always the same pattern I III V ; it's a shame )
for richard : it's not really the same B10 , because on mine, the two knobs are on the same side,

what do youy think about this particularity ??
anyway i think it's sound great ! !

Pierre,
These were made in the late 30s and early 40s. The earlier ones had knobs on oposite sides. The later models had the knobs on the same side. They are essentially the same instrument.
I agree with David. You should definitely check the Steel Guitar Forum http://steelguitarforum.com. Go to the No Peddlers section to start. You don't have to join to enter and use the site, but it will cost $5 to be able to post questions. There is so much information about tunings. The forumites are very friendly and love to help people who are new to the instrument.
I am also a surgeon (plastic) but not so young.