Year: 2014

Though today they are viewed as little more than curious relics of a lost era, during the Great Depression, “mother of toilet seat” Hawaiian lap steels were one of the most popular types of guitar. You could argue that these little electrics blazed the trail for the later popularity of electric Spanish guitars. There were almost unlimited choices – a cheap lap isn’t that hard to make – and a whole infrastructure was built up to market guitars like the Dickerson Standard.

The Dickerson family was involved with the Los Angeles music scene during the Depression, if not before. The Dickersons also owned a factory known as Dickerson Brothers, and Delbert J. Dickerson began producing Hawaiian lap steels and small tube amplifiers branded with the family name in 1937 or ’38 and sold through the American Hawaiian Teachers Association (AHT) in Los Angeles (and likely elsewhere). Dickerson also contract-manufactured guitars and amps for Varsity, The Southern California Music Company, The Oahu Publishing Company, Bronson Publishing Corp., studio and store owner Roland Ball (father of Ernie Ball, who began performing on steel in the ’30s), and Gourley, plus others, carrying the purchaser’s own brand. Almost all, if not all, of these were covered in mottled sheet celluloid, or pearloid, which Dickerson called “Lumarith.”

The infrastructure that supported the Hawaiian music scene was a fairly sophisticated nexus of music publishers, instrument manufacturers, and music education conducted either by teachers or through the mail. The publishers were numerous; some thrived on the music, but others were heavily involved in pedagogy, including National Institute of Music & Arts (L.A.), Oahu (Cleveland), Bronson (Detroit), and Eddie Alkire (Easton, Pennsylvania). All offered instruments – primarily through the mail – made for them by manufacturers including Supro, Kay, and Dickerson. Much of the music published by these firms was clearly pedagogical – that is, often consisting of songs in the public domain arranged in simple, beginner-level melodies. This music might be part of a mail-order course or used by a music teacher.

In L.A. and other larger cities, teachers often joined a larger organization such as the AHT, which would send salespeople door-to-door to recruit children for Hawaiian guitar lessons. They might also offer instruments that the family could either rent or buy. The hawker got a fee and the organization no doubt got a cut of the teacher’s pay. A second crew would circle by to pick up the kids and transport them to the AHT for lessons. This is the kind of infrastructure that fed Dickerson, or vice versa!

Dickerson appears to have offered three Hawaiian guitars and four amps, sold in sets. Hawaiian guitar wizard Sol Hoopii, who was teaching Dickerson’s daughter, Belva, reportedly consulted on the design of these guitars – the Student, the Standard, and the De Luxe – all of which had a single-coil pickup mounted underneath their top in a design he patented (filed 1938, awarded 1940). The Student was pear-/paddle-shaped and had a handrest with a Volume control mounted on it. The Standard sported top-mounted controls and added a Tone. Pre-war Dickersons had a relatively heavy cast tailpiece, whereas post-war models used the metal rod combined with the through-body grommets. Both had decal fingerboards and were covered in a silver-grey pearloid; they are the most commonly seen. The De Luxe guitar is much rarer. It was dressed in “pearl Lumarith” (a tan-colored pearloid) and sported “tinsel” (sparkle plastic) fingerboard inlays and trim. All had a headstock that was sort of like a simplified mini-Gibson design, with a center peak at the top.

The guitars were typically sold in combination with a matching amplifier. The Student Model came with the Student guitar and a small amp with a 6″ speaker ($49.50). The Standard Model had the Standard guitar with an amp featuring an 8″ speaker ($59.50). The Semi De Luxe Model came with the De Luxe guitar and an amp with a 10″ speaker ($89.50). The De Luxe Professional outfit featured the De Luxe guitar and an amp with a 12″ speaker ($129.50). Cases were extra. A $90 and $130 pricetag during the Depression probably explains why almost no De Luxe guitars ever show up!

Despite their apparent simplicity, these little Dickerson lap steels are pretty sweet, if this example is representative. It has a full, round tone that’s redolent of the Islands. The Tone control takes a bit too much off when you dial it down to zero, but the drop off is rapid, so if you just back down a quarter-turn, you get a good bass tone.

Dickerson went on to patent an amp-in-case design (filed 1939, awarded 1940), and one of his employees, Art Duhamell, developed an early push-button Hawaiian guitar tuning changer called the Dickerson Multi-Matic.

There are conflicting accounts about what happened next, but Dickerson apparently tired of making instruments. In ’44 or right after war’s end, he seems to have sold the company to former AHT crew chief Gaston Fator. That probably explains the post-war design changes like the rounded head and wire-and-grommet tail. Fator seems to have continued making Dickersons, but in 1947, he sold the company (possibly by then called Fator Manufacturing) to Art Duhamell and it became Magna Electronics, which would go on produce some very cool guitars (including designs by Paul Bigsby and Paul Barth) and some of the greatest amps (with True Vibrato) ever. The move meant the Dickerson brand disappeared, replaced by Magnatone.

So, while Tiki bars are on the comeback, this pearloid Dickerson Standard remains a curious token of a lost time – and yes, they actually did make toilet seats out of the same celluloid back in the day!

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This article originally appeared in VG September 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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It’s an extraordinarily rare event to find a high-grade, historically significant mid-1800s guitar in a pawn shop, but that is indeed where this Martin was discovered.

When found in Nashville in the mid 1970s, it was recognized as an exceptional instrument with ornamentation far in excess of any typical Martin of that time, but only recently has documentation surfaced to provide detail about it – and its depth is seldom encountered on any instrument of this age.

There are three remarkable letters in the Martin archive related to this instrument. A letter from Peters & Sons, a music-instrument retailer, dated October 12, 1852, makes the following query:
“N.B. Please write us at Cin(cinnati) the cost, or supposed cost, of a Guitar of the following description: A Guitar of the very finest make (same shape as the fine one we have on con(signment)) with rosewood inside case. The Patent Head to be of Plated Gold and end of screws etc to be pearl tiped (sic). Frets to be Gold (18 carat) and the fingerboard to be covered with pearl, instead of ebony. The man is not particular about the price but wants the best in the country.”

Another letter, dated November 8, 1852, continues; “The gentleman who wants the elegant guitar is at our elbow. He wants as good a guitar as you can make for $100 wholesale. The head to be patent head – the metal part of the head to be galvanized with gold. The fret to be 14 carat gold – worth 50 cts per pennyweight. The spaces between the frets to be made of pearl.

“There must be an extra case, of rosewood, such as the one we have of yours. Also, the shape of the instrument to be the same as the one we have. Above all, the gentleman wants to know soon he can have the instrument, as it for a lady who is about to be married.”

The final letter, dated November 24, 1852 fixed the specifications:
“Make the fine Guitar, with a black neck veneered with ebony. Make the sounding board or top – pale yellow.

“Make the Guitar, same size as the one we have on con(signment)

“Make the neck a little narrower.

“It must not cost us more than $110 dollars, but the frets must be gold as we last wrote you.

“You must cheapen it a little on the Rosewood case and above all, don’t forget to send it away within three weeks from the receipt of our letter.”

In the mid 1980s, an article [co-authored by George Gruhn and Suzy Newton] on this guitar in Guitar Player identified an interesting feature not mentioned in the letter in the Martin archive: on top of the rosewood case, the name “Lula” is inlaid in script letters. Likely the name of the lady who received the guitar as a wedding gift. The article suggests the material for the inlay was brass, but it is more likely that leftover gold fret wire was used for the inlaid letters.

The pictures reveal a very unusual headstock, one not seen on any other Martin guitar of the period. The type of tuning machines used resulted in very narrow peghead slots. Martin selected these peculiar machines because the dealer specified “the Patent head to be of plated gold.” The external mounting plates of these unusual machines would have been much easier to plate than those Martin normally used.

This guitar has what is commonly known as the “renaissance” shape. Until the connection could be made between this guitar and the archival material, it was a matter of conjecture as to when these guitars were made. C.F. Martin did not record this different shape in the day book, but we know from correspondence that W. C. Peters & Sons had at least one more in stock with the same “renaissance” shape. This guitar is one of the few “milepost” instruments from the period because it can be accurately dated. We now know that the “renaissance” shaped guitars were made from about 1843 to 1860.

Martin’s Ledger 1852-’57 records this guitar as being shipped on December 27, 1852. For some reason, it is not recorded in the day book, so we do not have the full description Martin usually noted during this period. Since Martin couldn’t have received the last letter (dated November 24) before November 25 or 26 at the earliest, it is incredible that he was able to make such a stunning instrument in only one month!

This instrument exhibits an extraordinary level of craftsmanship combined with great historical significance and collector’s appeal. At the time, it was one of Martin’s costliest creations. While today $110 wholesale cost will barely buy a good student-model guitar, in 1852, a $20 gold piece, weighed almost 1 ounce and of course represented vastly more buying power than $20 in today’s money. The wholesale price of this guitar was equivalent to 5 1/2 ounces of pure 24-karat gold. While it is difficult to make precise comparisons of the buying power of a dollar in 1852 versus today (since many products available today were simply then unavailable at any price), 5 1/2 ounces of gold today would have a market value $7,150. The cost of musical instruments and other commodities available then and today indicates that would be a very conservative inflation-adjusted price to build a replica today.

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This article originally appeared in VG January 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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