1953 Valco-made Oahu Diana Lap Steel Guitar I've worked on plenty of older Kay-made Oahus and the related Kay products, but hadn't had the chance to look at one of these later fancy-pants 'Dianas' in the flesh. Find the current Blue Book value and worth of your new and used guitars, both acoustic, electric and amplifier. The number one source of guitar and amplifier pricing and information so you can find the price and value of your used guitars and amplifier. The Oahu Publishing Company (Cleveland, Ohio) was established by Harry G Stanley, and one of their aims was to wholesale guitars to schools. Electric steel guitars and amps were made by Oahu with Harmony, Valco and Rickenbacker also producing guitars for Oahu. The Company closed in 1985. Supro Valco NOS 1960's Bronco Pick-Up Covers Oahu US BIDDERS ONLY. 1956 SUPRO Valco National Lap Steel w / case - Clean - check it out. Serial number X49896. 1930s Oahu Acoustic Lap Steel Guitar. Square Neck, Smooth Sweet Tone! Up for auction is a 1930s Oahu square neck acoustic lap steel guitar built by Harmony for Oahu Publishing. The serial number is 680. Which probably indicates the early 1930s for production time frame.

Dating Valco Instruments

The most effective way to date a Valco guitar or amp is by its serial number. From the ‘40s until 1964, the serial could be found stamped into a small metal plate that was tacked onto the back of the headstock or the back of the cabinet. From 1964-1968, the serial was ink-stamped onto a silver foil sticker that is found in the same place. The following is a key for decoding the serial number, but keep in mind that the numbers are approximate.

'N' prefix: 1935

'S' prefix: 1935-36

'A' prefix: 1936-37*

'B' prefix: 1937-38

'C' prefix: 1938-40*

'G' prefix: 1941-42

'G' suffix: 1943-47

V100-V7500: 1947

V7500-V15000: 1948

V15000-V25000: 1949

V25000-V35000: 1950

V35000-V38000: 1951

X100-X7000: 1951

X7000-X17000: 1952

X17000-X30000: 1953

X30000-X43000: 1954

X43000-X57000: 1955

X57000-X71000: 1956

X71000-X85000: 1957

X85000-X99000: 1958

T100-T5000: 1958

T5000-T25000: 1959

T25000-T50000: 1960

T50000-T75000: 1961

T75000-T90000: 1962

T90000-T99000: 1963

G5000-G15000: 1963

G15000-G40000: 1964

Starting with '1-': 1964-68

Starting with '2-': 1968

Surviving mars: project laika crack free. *'A' and 'C' prefixes also occur in some pre-1936 serials.

However, some of these plates and many of these stickers have disappeared over time. Often the speaker codes or potentiometer codes can help, assuming that these parts are original and legible. Pot codes can be decodedhere, and speaker codes can be decoded here. For dating pre-Valco acoustic instruments,see this page.

The National String Instrument Corporation was formed to manufacture the first resonator guitars, known as resophonic guitars. National also produced resonator ukuleles and mandolins. The company was originally formed by John Dopyera, the luthier who invented the resonator, and musician George Beauchamp, a steel guitar player who had suggested to Dopyera the need for a guitar loud enough to play a melody over brass and other wind instruments.

In Los Angeles, the early 1920’s was quickly becoming the entertainment capital of the world. In this era, many guitarists sought instruments that could complete in volume with other instruments in the orchestra. Guitars were un-amplified string instruments in those days and were relegated to just adding to the rhythm section. It was not loud enough to be a lead instrument. Many frustrated guitar players that wished they could be compete with brass and reed instruments like the banjo did, but sound sweet like an acoustic guitar.

Musician and vaudeville promoter George Beauchamp, sought a louder, improved guitar to play at his gigs. Several inventors had already tried to build louder stringed instruments by adding megaphone-like amplifying horns to them. Beauchamp saw one of these and went looking for someone to build him one. John Dopyera, a violin repairman with a shop fairly close to Beauchamp’s Los Angeles home was asked to innovate and build a guitar that was louder and better than when was already available.

In 1908, the Dopyeras emigrated from Slovakia to California, USA sensing a war would erupt in Europe. In the 1920s, Dopyera founded his own store in Los Angeles where he worked making and repairing fiddles, banjos, and other wooden string instruments. Around this time, Dopyera patented several improvements on the banjo. John Dopyera was one of 10 siblings.

John Dopyera, a Slovak-American took up the challenge. Dopyera was already a recognized inventor that had several patents for various ideas. Some were for improved Banjos, that Dopyera and his brother Rudy were building in the small shop. Beauchamp wanted his own idea built that featured an Hawaiian guitar that sat on a stand; a Victrola horn attached to the bottom and pointed towards the audience. The Dopyera’s did not think much of the idea, but built it for George Beauchamp as requested. It was a failure as it did not sound great.

John Dopyera had been thinking about resonator guitar for some time, so the Dopyeras then started experiments with thin, cone-like aluminum resonators attached to a guitar bridge and placed inside a metal body. The early prototype utilized a large aluminum single-cone resonator, but working through the issues John Dopyera found that using three smaller cones produced a smoother more balanced guitar sound. They called this the tri-cone resonator, sometimes referred to a triplate.

John Dopyera had experienced with several prototypes using from one to four resonator cones. He found that as one cone was a bit louder, three produced a nicer musical tone. He had also tried several materials including paper, pressed fibre, glass, tin and other sheet metal to make the resonant cones. Thin Aluminum that looked like a loudspeaker worked he best. He used a cast aluminum bridge and an inserted wood saddle as he saw it transmitted the sound from the strings to the resonator cones best.

Beauchamp, impressed with the tri-cone design, suggested forming a manufacturing company with the Dopyeras, who had already started making the tri-cone guitars in their small workshop. The Dopyeras called these guitars Nationals, the same name they used on their Banjos. They probably made about 40 or more guitars before a factory was established.

Beauchamp, trying to find investors, took the tri-cone prototype and the Sol Hoopii Trio (a world-famous Hawaiian group) to a lavish party held by his millionaire cousin-in-law, Ted Kleinmeyer. Sol Hoopii was a top steel guitar player and was being paid $500 to entertain the guests. The guests were mesmerized by the sound of the new tai-cone in the hands of Sol Hoopii. Kleinmeyer was so excited about the guitar and the prospects for a new company that he gave Beauchamp a check for $12,500 that night. That was quite a lot of money in the 1920s.

National Tri-cone

In 1927, National produced the first resonator instruments and sold under their new National brand. They had metal bodies and a tri-cone resonator system, with three aluminium cones joined by a T-shaped aluminium spider. Production of the metal-body guitars began almost immediately. Beauchamp, acting as general manager, hired some of the most experienced and competent craftsmen he could find, including several members of his own family and the Dopyeras. They were quite popular in the days before electric guitars, but were relatively time consuming and expensive to manufacture. Many of these guitars are quite ornate and engraved with scenes like palm trees. Art-Deco meets superior and innovative design that made guitars louder in the era before electric guitars. Nationals not only sounded great they looked fantastic.

Sol Hoopii was the first musician known to record using a National Tri-cone. He was a top Hawaiian steel guitar player.

Tampa Red was the first African-American Blues player to record with a National. He developed a clean bottleneck style on his gold-plated style 4 Tri-cone. With three resonator cones in this model, he hits us with a lot of single-string s

Oahu Lap Steel Serial Numbers