Tuner buttons have disintegrated (as usual with those guitars), tuning machine parts are bent and loose. The body, wiring cover, logo plate, "fretboard", string ferrules and jack cup are in very good condition. I recently bought an early 1950s Fender Champion Lap Steel that had been plundered for parts. Excellent Condition.Hi, everyone! Just signed up to share some information about my Fender Champion Lap Steel restoration project. This is a super cool and comparatively rare Champion from the Broadcaster era, a small chip off the Fender grail. The original early-style pickup and electronics are fully intact and sound fantastic. The only alteration is new buttons on the original Kluson strip tuners, and as noted above POSSIBLY the knobs. The blue-painted underside has some loss to the paint most of the light coat of flocking once applied there is long gone. The chrome parts and plastic body covering show some minor wear spots. This is a nicely clean and original Champion, showing just light wear overall.
(3.5 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. (19 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 3/8 in. It remains a truly superb sounding steel guitar with a bright, singing tone and a genuine early 1950s Fender instrument at a relatively reasonable price!
This one has fortunately avoided that fate, and its Broadcaster-style pickup and wiring are intact. Over the years many Champs have sacrificed their pickups to provide the engine for vintage Telecaster recreations - especially these earliest models. Those are usually brown, but it is certainly possible that a few cream-colored samples were around the factory and were used Leo and his crew never wasted anything! While we cannot absolutely guarantee these knobs are original to the instrument, they are certainly period and a Fender-used style. At first we assumed they had been changed, BUT they are the exact same pieces used on earlier K&F and some pre-1950 Fender steels. The knobs on this particular guitar are unusual…instead of the standard chrome knurled pieces they are radio-style knobs made of cream Bakelite with three deep grooves across the top. The original pickup is from the same period as the first Fender Broadcaster/Nocaster Spanish guitars and although the baseplate is different the coil and windings are the same as those now-legendary primal solidbodies. The slot-head screws used are also indicators of an early model.
Fender champion lap steel parts serial number#
It pre-dates the use of masking tape signature tags in the electronics cavity and the pot dates are soldered over so is not possible to date it exactly, but the serial number places it from mid/late 1950 to very early 1951. This example has a fairly low serial number 1398 stamped on the bridgeplate. The headstock has a metal facing with an integral nut stamped with lighting bolt logo and "Fender Electric Instrument Co. The flashy plastic-covered symmetrical two-bout body has a chrome bridge and cover plate, and a metal fingerboard pinned to the body with black paint screening to outline fret positions.
Fender champion lap steel parts professional#
Introduced in 1949 and marketed as a student instrument, the Champion Steel was - and remains - a great-sounding lap guitar fully suited to professional use. This Champion is a fine and very early example of Fender's "bread and butter" lap steel guitar from the 1950s, the instrument that kept the company afloat in the first years. Fender Champion Model Lap Steel Electric Guitar (1950), made in Fullerton, California, serial # 1398, yellow pearloid finish, hardwood body.