Her Highness The Lap Steel

Noah Miller · From: Rocky Hill, CT

Instead of offering several National lap steels at different prices in the late '30s, National-Dobro had one National, one Dobro and one Supro model. But when the Dobro brand was phased out around 1940, it made sense to broaden the National line and relegate Supro to budget-brand status. Thus, the New Yorker was joined by two less expensive National models, the Princess and the Chicago. The Chicago - soon renamed the Chicagoan - would endure into the 1960s, but the Princess was replaced after the War by the Dynamic. Since production ground almost to a halt in 1942, few Princesses were built.

Most had the same black and white metal fretboard as a contemporary New Yorker, but a few were built with wooden boards like this one. I've also seen one with a later multi-colored metal board which was probably a floor-sweep instrument. Some of these are said to have left the factory as late as 1947, and National never had qualms about assembling random parts into a working product.

This steel is remarkably clean, with only a little wear to the chome hand rest to indicate that it was ever played. I've had a bunch of these cases, but never one this immaculate. As usual, the tuner buttons are crumbling, but I have replacement buttons on order. The steel sounds much like a contemporary New Yorker, which isn't surprising as they shared the same pickup. However, the Princess has a simpler tone control that provides less variation but more clarity. This, and the simple pearloid wrap insted of the New Yorker's mutli-layered plastic, allowed a $20 cheaper list price for the Princess. The hard-wired cord was considered a feature of convenience in the '30s, though modern players may disagree.

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

That one looks like a keeper, Noah.

David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

One of the bonuses with the steel guitar is that design possibilities are open to imagination. To my taste, this one is outstanding.
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Charles Stange · From: San Francisco, California

Nice Case !
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Charles 'Skip' Stange

Bob Womack · From: Virginia, USA

That was such an interesting period, because wartime production was required of all companies and they were actually prohibited from making guitars or restricted in the materials they could devote to guitars. The result was a bunch of guitars in the period that were a hodgepodge of parts built from whatever was on hand.

I've got a Supro Supreme Hawaiian Model 1400 that appears to be from the late-war period, probably around 1945. I've seen three different versions of the thing, some with rosewood boards, some with some sort of composite, some with chrome finished control plate and pickup, some with unfinished metal, some with painted metal. And extra metal? Mine doesn't even have the little aluminum serial number plate and appears to never have had one because there aren't marks from the little nails they used to hold hem on the back of the headstock. It also features the captive cord. It looks amazingly like the National shown above, just with Supro features. Many of these guitars were just re-badged Valcos. Nationals and Supros were. By the way, the "L" in Valco was from Louis Dopyera, interestingly enough.

Bob
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Noah Miller · From: Rocky Hill, CT

That's a 1410 Comet, built 1947-51. It was identical to the Chicagoan save for some cosmetic details. All of them were built by Valco, which was reorganized from the National-Dobro Corporation in 1942 and continued to own both brands. The new name came from the first initials of the owners (Victor Smith, Al Frost and Louis Dopyera), thus V.A.L. Co.

During the '40s, many of the serial tags were attached lower on the back into the felting rather than at the headstock.

Andy Volk · From: Boston, MA

Thanks, Noah! I never knew the origins of the VALCO brand name.
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Robert B Murphy · From: Mountain View, Arkansas, USA

Very nice guitar, Noah. Nice case too.
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Bob, small o.

Glenn Wilde · From: California, USA

That's a looker, I've never seen one before.

Noah Miller · From: Rocky Hill, CT

I learned something today, though it's more practical than historical.

This was the first time I've re-buttoned old tuners myself. Heating the first three with a soldering iron took a solid half hour and it was still a pain to get the knobs on. Then I got a $27 heat gun from the hardware store and the other side took 5 minutes with no struggling at all.

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