1930's Recording King Roy Smeck

April 1, 2019 • Geronimo "Geri" Valdriz • Instruments and Luthiers

The Recording King brand was marketed by Montgomery Ward, a large mail order sales catalog company. Their guitars and lap steels were manufactured by the Gibson Company.

The model AB 104 has a pear shaped body made of curly maple with a tobacco sunburst finish. It has a bound rosewood fingerboard and a single coil "Charlie Christian" blade pickup.

Roy Smeck was a famous musician and steel guitarist who endorsed this model. He started off playing on the 1920's vaudeville stage and then brought the lap steel guitar to early recordings, radio, cinema, and television.