Vega Console Electric High Steel Electric Guitar (1939)
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Item # 11146
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Vega Console Electric Model High Steel Electric Guitar (1939), made in Boston, Mass., serial # 35723, black lacquer finish, maple body, original tweed hard shell case.
This superbly Art Deco showpiece is simply one of the coolest-looking steels ever made, a feast of black-and-chrome style and no slouch soundwise either! This six-string console mounts Vega's original humbucking pickup (invented over 15 years before Gibson's) with wheel-operated tuners, a multi-pushbutton tone selector and sliding lever volume control. The heavy maple body is lacquered black with chrome trim and a fabulous Vega logo on the front. The brightly multi-colored fingerboard is another visual highlight.
This model was announced in a blaze of publicity in early 1939: "Entirely new...Years ahead in design, features and tone!...you will be far ahead in playing jobs to be one of the first to own one!" While intended as a high steel, Vega also offers that it can be used as a lap steel, though at over 16 Lbs. without the legs it presents quite a lapful. The 5-way push button tone selector offers settings noted as "Sub Bass, Bass, Normal, Treble and High Treble". The primal humbucking pickup is sweeter sounding than some steels, with less output than many but a nicely even sound.
Vega offered this Console model in 6, 7, and 8 string versions; this is the standard 6. They also suggested assembling a double neck as a custom option. All are extremely rare, and the model does not appear to have been in production for very long. The list price with the case but without the matching amplifier was $145 in 1939, a fairly expensive proposition. This is one of the few examples we have seen, and a very well preserved one at that. This is one of the most "of-its-time" instruments ever designed: Perfect for gigs at Radio City, and if Flash Gordon's rocket had needed a console steel, this would have been the choice! This one even includes the original February 1939 magazine advertisement introducing the model.
Overall length is 35 in. (88.9 cm.), 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) width, and 2 in. (5.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 23 1/8 in. (587 mm.). Width of nut is 3 3/8 in. (86 mm.).
This sublimely striking steel survives in all original condition with some moderate general wear, but fully functional. This is mostly seen on the lower body edges with some finish is missing, with some checking and random dings and debts overall. The plating on the metal components shows wear but is mostly intact. Some chrome has flaked in spots on the decorative panels but mostly they still look pretty sharp.
The instrument is original and complete and everything works as intended; the sliding volume control is a fiendishly complicated device (it operates a long lever that turns a pot mounted at the center of the body) so can be a bit finicky in operation but mostly does the job fine. The original tweed hard case is a bit battered but fully functional, and the original February 1939 ad page from Metronome magazine announcing the instrument is included. Excellent - Condition.
This superbly Art Deco showpiece is simply one of the coolest-looking steels ever made, a feast of black-and-chrome style and no slouch soundwise either! This six-string console mounts Vega's original humbucking pickup (invented over 15 years before Gibson's) with wheel-operated tuners, a multi-pushbutton tone selector and sliding lever volume control. The heavy maple body is lacquered black with chrome trim and a fabulous Vega logo on the front. The brightly multi-colored fingerboard is another visual highlight.
This model was announced in a blaze of publicity in early 1939: "Entirely new...Years ahead in design, features and tone!...you will be far ahead in playing jobs to be one of the first to own one!" While intended as a high steel, Vega also offers that it can be used as a lap steel, though at over 16 Lbs. without the legs it presents quite a lapful. The 5-way push button tone selector offers settings noted as "Sub Bass, Bass, Normal, Treble and High Treble". The primal humbucking pickup is sweeter sounding than some steels, with less output than many but a nicely even sound.
Vega offered this Console model in 6, 7, and 8 string versions; this is the standard 6. They also suggested assembling a double neck as a custom option. All are extremely rare, and the model does not appear to have been in production for very long. The list price with the case but without the matching amplifier was $145 in 1939, a fairly expensive proposition. This is one of the few examples we have seen, and a very well preserved one at that. This is one of the most "of-its-time" instruments ever designed: Perfect for gigs at Radio City, and if Flash Gordon's rocket had needed a console steel, this would have been the choice! This one even includes the original February 1939 magazine advertisement introducing the model.
Overall length is 35 in. (88.9 cm.), 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) width, and 2 in. (5.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 23 1/8 in. (587 mm.). Width of nut is 3 3/8 in. (86 mm.).
This sublimely striking steel survives in all original condition with some moderate general wear, but fully functional. This is mostly seen on the lower body edges with some finish is missing, with some checking and random dings and debts overall. The plating on the metal components shows wear but is mostly intact. Some chrome has flaked in spots on the decorative panels but mostly they still look pretty sharp.
The instrument is original and complete and everything works as intended; the sliding volume control is a fiendishly complicated device (it operates a long lever that turns a pot mounted at the center of the body) so can be a bit finicky in operation but mostly does the job fine. The original tweed hard case is a bit battered but fully functional, and the original February 1939 ad page from Metronome magazine announcing the instrument is included. Excellent - Condition.