1959(c.) Valco Tonemaster Lap Steel

This "Tonemaster" lap steel guitar was made in Chicago by Valco sometime around 1959. In that era, Valco manufactured a variety of solid-body electric instruments that were marketed under the National, Supro, Oahu, Airline, and English Electronics names. The Tonemasters were mostly branded Oahu and English Electronics, both of which focused more on Hawaiian-style lap steel guitars. That makes sense, too, because the Tonemasters feature a unique pickup that is particularly desirable for slide playing.  Sometimes simply called the "oahu pickup," the Valco string-through pickup gives this Tonemaster rich tone with wide versatility and depth. It utilizes separate coils for the bass and treble strings, and it has genuine AlNiCo magnets that help lend a responsive, touch-sensitive attack. When you roll off the volume knob, the tone is sweet, clean, and musical, but as you push the amp, the pickup gets hotter and hotter. With the volume wide open, it saturates nicely with singing sustain that