Short Takes: 1938 Model 59 Lap Steel

I don’t know much about Rickenbacker lap steels, but I know when I see something that shouldn’t exist. And this 1938 Model 59 shouldn’t exist.

Introduced in 1936, The Model 59 was the entry level “Rickenbacher Electro” lap steel (click here to learn about Rickenbacker’s famously inconsistent early branding), joining the aging “frying pan” A-Series and the Bakelite B-Series guitars in the lineup. Its decidedly “modern” stamped steel body was a defining characteristic—central to both its construction and its sound.

And therein lies the problem.

This particular Model 59 is not made of stamped steel. It’s a solid block of maple.

With my curiosity piqued, it didn’t take long to find a few more of them on the register—three, to be precise—but here’s the funny thing about that: two of them are labeled as follows:

Aftermarket wooden body with RIC parts attached; RIC did not make wooden lapsteels.

I just don’t think that’s right.

I mean, yeah, during this era Rickenbacker DIDN’T really make wooden lapsteels. But I’ve now found five examples of these guitars. Five instruments with the same “impossible” construction. At some point coincidence stops being a plausible explanation.

Now there are a few hard “facts” that point me in this direction.

One: as even the skeptical register entries admit—every component is legitimate factory-issue Rickenbacker: pickup, bridge, knobs, tuners—all identical to their stamped-steel brethren.

Two: all the guitars I’ve found have a consistent serial number format, clustered in a tight range, and they’re stamped exactly where they would be on the steel-bodied guitars.

Third—and this is the kicker to me at least—they all have factory decals on the headstock. In this day and age we’re used to counterfeits—we expect them. But who was counterfeiting an entry level guitar in the 1930s?

WHY do these guitars exist? That, I have no answer. We probably never will. But they do—and I’m convinced the factory built them. Improbable guitars? For sure. Impossible guitars? Nope.