Though today they are viewed as little more than curious relics of a lost era, during the Great Depression, mother of toilet seat Hawaiian lap steels were one of the most popular types of guitar. Circa-1946 Dickerson Standard lap steel. Dickerson Standard Lap Steel.Please enter the rifle serial number without prefix (ie.Premium six string lap steels were sold as well, like the 'Varsity' of the mid fifties or or the G-65-W6 Troubadour of 1956-1959. This month, the MOTS requirement has been totally thrown out the window to make way for more amps from this important (and often ignored) company.Flange, cast integral, will be galvanized-bonderized steel and extend not less than one inch. Last month, the alligator-attired Professional amp was allowed space, due to its close association with the MOTS Hawaiian guitars. What started out as a one-time pictorial on mother of toilet seat (MOTS) covered amplifiers has turned into a running Dickerson/Magnatone history, covering both the amps and the Hawaiian guitars.109, top right of group shot). However, the grille “cloth” is not the heavy wire mesh expected, as seen on the Dickerson amp pictured in Richie Fliegler’s Amps, The Other Half Of Rock ‘N’ Roll (pg. This is an early post-WWII amp, with a speaker dated 1945 and the more rounded-edge shape and generic black handle of the small pre-WWII models. : 131 Experimenting with.Note: the section on “Dating your MOTS Hawaiian” slated to run this month has been expanded to include all the Hawaiian/steels and will be in a future issue, along with closeups of the remaining six-string, eight-string, doubleneck, tripleneck and quadrupleneck sliders, not only in MOTS, but metal, wood, and lucite!The author’s three-tube, 8″ permanent-magnet speaker 1946 Dickerson amp (discussed last month) that was lost in the mail ended up safe with a neighbor (over 10 days for priority mail, Merry Christmas!). Magnatone made double neck eight string guitars from maybe 1952 through 1959.The tuning used determines the notes that the player has available in a chord, and affects how notes can be played in sequence. An eight-string G-65-W8 was available as well.’98) had three stripes (call these Style 1), the amp in GP has only two stripes (Style 2), pointing to early ’40s. Serial # 0010 from the cover of VG, Jan. While the earliest models (e.g. 90) with the original stencilled Dickerson logo, first seen in ’38. ’98 issue of Guitar Player magazine (pg. Unfortunately, attempts to track the amp down have been futile.A similar (but earlier) version is pictured in the Feb.
Unfortunately, the mohair-like base coat apparently blocks the passage of air, as in sound pressure, and gets literally blown out if the amp is played at “high” volume.Visible deterioration around the speaker opening on many of the grillecloth scenes supports this theory, although normal wear and tear from the outside is also a major contributor. The majority of these grilles were covered in two-tone “fuzz” (black or purple on greyish brown). These were available with the Dickerson brand name, as well.Both post-WWII Dickerson and early Magnatone used an interesting material to cover their speaker openings window screen, just like on your back porch door. 115), the five-tube, single 10″ Melodier is described as possibly the largest MOTS amp known to man, with reference to the larger Troubadour and its covering as “unknown.” However, a five-tube, single-12″ speaker Troubadour Model M-192-5D has turned up in original alligator, as seen on the eight-tube, twin-12″ 1948 Professional Model M-198-8D. The pot code dates this three-tube, single 8″ permanent-magnet speaker beauty to late 1948.By the mid ’50s, MOTS had lost its appeal, as had Hawaiian music, so Magnatone discontinued its use on all the amplifiers and offered it only as an option for the new bottom-of-the-line “Steel” guitar. Even the control panel is the same, save for the missing “Mfg. Compare it to the palm tree/coconut climber, musical staff, and purple Leilani amps on pg. Excel analysis toolpak for mac 20111955, and no other covering was used in between. While lacking any official literature from the era, an educated guess suggests the Troubadour went from early-period Magnatone alligator to mid-period Magnatone light brown leatherette, along with with all the MOTS amps ca. As for the letters, your guess is as good as ours…Unfortunately, too much has been changed on this M-192’s insides to trust the 1951 pot codes or the 1953 speaker code, although the speaker looks original in brand and model, being similar to those in the ’48 Professional. Magnatone Lap Steel S Series Was SupercededThe midsized amp with the slant front was followed by the five-tube, single-10″ Melodier Advanced Model 110 in MOTS, also with brown grille (it’s possible an interim early-’50s version in MOTS exists). Gone was the graphically-enhanced windowscreen grillecloth, replaced with acoustically transperent cloth in brown, similar to what Fender would use on its tweed amps starting in ’55. Perhaps there’s a catalog or price list out there somewhere? The slant-front Magnatone inherited from Dickerson undoubtedly had an M-190 series number, as well.The 190 series was superceded by the 100 series by 1954 (probably earlier) here’s a look at the transition.The bottom-of-the-line AC/DC model became the Starlet Model 107 in MOTS, and the slightly more powerful three-tube M-199/M-197 became the Varsity Model 108 in MOTS. The smaller AC/DC model probably had an M-190 series number in company literature, although the bare bones construction lacked any markings on the amp itself. 114) included the Student Model M-199-3T and the slightly larger M-197-3V, as used by Gretsch for their Rex Royal. The M-198 Professional probably (due to its rarity today) was discontinued well before the change to the 100 series.Magnatone released its amazing 200 series amps (213, 260 and 280) with pitch bending vibrato in ’57, but these are a story in themselves (next month!). Light brown leatherette became standard issue for all these amps ca. Finishing out the amps, with direct ties to the original line, the alligator Troubadour M-192 became Troubadour Model 112, as mentioned above. However, the author recalls playing through more than one ca. Suffice it to say, the 260 and 280 were outrageously progressive and Hi-Fi, as the Professional had been in ’48.So, there you have the near-complete story of Magna Electronics Amplifiers from the ’40s and ’50s. The 190 used a single 12″ plus a 5″ tweeter and boasted 40 watts. A high-powered amp without vibrato, the 190, was suggested for use with bass guitars. ![]() In the first few years, it was paired with the M-199 Student amp, as well as the larger M-197 Varsity and smaller AC/DC Starlet amp. Both instruments had volume and tone controls, the hidden pickup and “Seamless Pearl Plastic covering in Grey, Blue or Black.”While Dickerson had referred to their guitar-shaped MOTS Hawaiian as the Standard, Magnatone used the name Student for their version. ’51 at the bottom of the line and, like the teardrop late-’40s Dickerson Student model, its body lacked a traditional guitar shape.Straight sides made for ease of construction, but the price difference was minimal between the Starlet and the guitar-shaped standard model (Magnatone’s Student model). The short-lived Starlet was added ca. ’98, but a few missing links have turned up recently…A transition-era purple Leilani (ca.
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