1955 Oahu (Valco) "Symphony in White" Lap Steel

This was bought from Indiana USA in October 2015, serial number X55131. It's a Valco made lap steel very similar to my Supro Supremes. I sold it to a local guy in February 2020 to help fund my new Rickenbacher.

Oahu was a publishing company in Cleveland Ohio that also had a range of musical instruments. From what I can tell, most of them were manufactured by Valco. I believe that for a minimum order quantity Valco would manufacture their usual models but brand them with another company's logo and accessories. More info about Valco and their lap steels can be found on the Supro page.

I liked it because of the treble clef on the pickup cover, and the music notation on the fingerboard. I suspect that the old style screw on jack was replaced by a modern guitar jack because there is a small tear in the MOTS covering just near the jack, and it looks like there is a screw on jack in the catalogue photo below.

This model is listed in the 1953 Oahu catalogue as a "Symphony in White electric guitar outfit" with a matching 12 watt 10-inch combo amp. In 1953 the guitar was $69.50 plus $12.50 for a case, and the amp was $105.00. Surprisingly, in the same catalogue the almost identical National Chicagoan was listed slightly cheaper at $67.50 although nowadays they would be far more expensive simply because of the National badge.

It was tuned in C6 when I got it, with string gauges especially for that tuning but there were problems with the volume balance between strings especially on the 4th string. Unfortunately the adjustable pole pieces were rusted in place so they were no longer adjustable. As a last resort I tried an open G set of strings and it worked OK with those strings and in that tuning but I ended up spending over AU$100 getting the pole pieces replaced.

More Info

• Valco Serial Numbers
• Brad's Page of Steel
• Greg Cutshaw - Steel Guitar
• String gauge guide
  This is intended for pedal steel but is also useful for lap steels.
• My string gauges