WHITE steel guitar

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 17 Sep 2000 8:13 pm

tonight a guy showed me a steel, had been a relative's, i think. a White 6 string lap steel (actually it had three holes for legs underneath).... said "White -- fullerton, ca."....looks a lot like a fender, had a great condition gray fender-like case and a small tube amp with matching gray covering and old style radio knobs......also great condition.....said 40 watts, which seemed like a lot for the size. didn't someone named White work for fender in the earlier days? does anybody know about this brand?...thanx!

mikey · Post by **mikey** » 17 Sep 2000 8:22 pm

White's are student/music school line made by fender as a token of appreciation for the late Forrest White, they ARE Fender Studio Deluxes, basically...the amp is the same as a champ....40 watts ac input to transformer...it's like a 5 watt audio output amp....
mike

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 18 Sep 2000 12:57 am

thanx mikey.....are these an older product, or newer reproduction item......and what would they be worth?

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 18 Sep 2000 8:16 am

White lap steels were made by Fender between 1955 and 1957. Real Guitars in San Francisco is offering a White lap steel and amplifier set in "very good" condition for $1500 USD. I put "very good" condition in quotes because all of the tuner buttons are missing from the guitar; I would characterize it as more of a "good" condition myself.

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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Mike Tatro · Post by **Mike Tatro** » 18 Sep 2000 11:31 am

White amplifiers are highly prized by some (David Hildago of Los Lobos for one). It seems that they are single 6V6 (like a tweed Champ) but with a 10" speaker (Champ has an 8" speaker).

Anyway, that probably explains the asking price on the set Brad mentioned.

Chris DeBarge · Post by **Chris DeBarge** » 18 Sep 2000 5:36 pm

About 6 months ago I saw just the White amp go for $1000 (and it WAS quite cute!). I think the rarity is the reason for the price - a Fender tweed champ rarely goes for more than $600.

Mike Black · Post by **Mike Black** » 20 Sep 2000 8:49 am

Mike Tatro · Post by **Mike Tatro** » 20 Sep 2000 1:08 pm

Mike Black, check the previous messages - no one said anything about "FIDELITY."

My definition of "fidelity" is accurate REPRODUCTION of sound. As far as I know the White amplifiers are prized for particular sonic PRODUCTION qualities - namely that the 10" speaker holds up better than the typical 8" speaker when the amp is cranked.

I know that no self respecting steeler would ever use something as plebeian as a distorted sound so the misunderstanding is understandable.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 20 Sep 2000 2:18 pm

Now, now...I'm a self-respecting steeler, and I happen to enjoy the sound of a distorted/overdriven steel guitar. (Think David Lindley's steel work with Jackson Browne for an example of the tone I try to achieve).

It's not a perfect sound for every occasion, but it works for the band I'm in and for the music we play.

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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A plebian web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
[This message was edited by Brad Bechtel on 20 September 2000 at 03:20 PM.]

Mike Black · Post by **Mike Black** » 21 Sep 2000 8:08 am

Mike Tatro · Post by **Mike Tatro** » 21 Sep 2000 9:15 am

Mike Black:

It is I that feels like a perfect fool. Thanks for clearing that up.

Brad:

Yup, I'm one of those "distorted tone" guys myself. My previous post was a bit (very little bit) of a joke.

I guess I just figured, with the prevailing bias towards western swing and hawaiian music played with brutally clean SS amps on this forum, that most guys wouldn't appreciate the sublime pleasures of making a small simple tube amp "misbehave" and cry for mercy.

I was wrong. There is hope after all![This message was edited by Mike Tatro on 21 September 2000 at 10:15 AM.]