National Lap Steel Guitar History

National had an electric guitar around 1934 right before the merger with dobro.

National lap steel guitar history. Rickenbacker s original lap steel guitar the frying pan is one of the most collectible lap steel guitars. In 1935 national and dobro merged to form the national dobro company. Within a year they moved the company s offices and production to chicago. Valco was formed in 1940 by three business partners and former owners of the national dobro company.

The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar which is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position on the performer s lap or otherwise supported. The model b series was made of bakelite and had many variations including up to ten strings. Dobro did release an electric guitar in 1933 but had little impact until years later. After ww2 national made many non resonator guitar models.

Victor smith al frost and louis dopyera the company name was a combination of the three partner s first initials v a l plus the common abbreviation for company co. If you re looking for something on say a 1960 supro resoglass i think you are out of luck. Brozman does a good job of covering a lot of the pre war resos though. The first electric lap steel was invented in 1931 by george beauchamp.

An unrelated company was founded in 1989 with. It was called the frying pan guitar because of its shape. The model a 22 22 1 2 scale and a 25 25 scale were introduced in 1934 and discontinued in 1958. It was played flat on the knees while sitting down and in the hawaiian style with a bar.

A while ago we looked at a 1962 national new yorker lap steel a double pickup version of today s catch. Click here to read about the guitar and some of national s very complex history i ve always liked the art deco look of the new yorker which is very stylish. Dave steve p member. The national string instrument corporation was an american guitar company that first formed to manufacture banjos and then the original resonator guitars national also produced resonator ukuleles and resonator mandolins the company merged with dobro to form the national dobro company then becoming a brand of valco until it closed in 1968.

Beauchamp enlisted his friend adolf rickenbacker to build the first fully electric guitar nicknamed the frying pan which was a hawaiian style lap steel. 1947 national new yorker lap steel. To understand the how and why of this a short history lesson in required.