Magnatone lap steel guitar serial numbers. Guitar Player Magazine Backissues. Hard To Find Magazine Backissues Good, Clean Fun. No Wait Period. No registration. Think about itWhere can you have. Magnatone MOTS Lap Steel Pickup Construction. Overall Images, Info and Diagrams of Factory Construction of Pickup Into the Steel Guitar. Ll Steels Inventory Index Page ll Guitars Inventory Index Page ll Inventory Main Page ll Homepage ll.Serial number: 12905.-Magnatone logo decal on headstock in Excellent condition.
From: Perkasie, Pennsylvania, USA Posted 12 Apr 2009 5:59 am I've got a mess of old MOTS Magnatones and their relatives and there are a number of keys to date them. Off-hand this is what I recall. Generally: Pot codes are often there but not always easy to see.
The headstock (after the tulip shaped early models was more rounded on the end (ca.' 47)and became squared off after a few years. The fingerboard was black, then became cream colored about the same time (around 1950).
Magnatone Guitar Parts
The cover over the pickup (hand rest) was angled before ca. 1950 and enlarged and mounted straight after.
There were originally round holes with ferrules to feed the strings through on the back that was later sometimes replaced with a stamped one-piece affair to feed the strings through on the last versions. There are bridge, nut, knob and tuner variations during different time periods as well but with all the brands they were offered in it can be hard to nail these down. Serial numbers appear to have some pattern but I haven't spent much time on them. Time flies like an eagle Fruit flies like a banana.