I happened upon this fascinating instrument on eBay one night in 2008. At the time, I was fully immersed in both my alt-country band, The Jazz Funeral, and collecting (hoarding?) Rickenbacker guitars. This lap steel was priced to move and I knew it would be the perfect foil to my folkie tendencies.

It arrived in its original wooden case, which smelled of "moofah", as Dad would say (damp/mildew-y), and it played well considering its age, but the nearly 70-year-old electronics were DOA.

Fortunately, at a gathering of guitar geeks later that month, my pal John - an electronics whiz - offered to take a peek "under the hood". He fired up his soldering iron, and quicker than you can say "Chinese-made lead-free garbage" she was singing again!

I used it on countless recordings over the next few years, and though I don't play it much anymore, it remains one of my prized possessions.

David Stagno - "Baby, I Lost You", featuring my 1946 Rickenbacher B6.