Garritt Steel

[Skip Ellis]

Anyone have experience with these? I think Rittenberry had something to do with them. There's one available within driving distance that looks pretty nice at a decent price.

[Jerry Overstreet]

LaGarritt. Built by Mr. Rittenberry several years back. Gary and these guitars have a great reputation. If it's all there and in good condtion at a resonable price, buy it.

[Skip Ellis]

Yeah - I'll pick it up Thursday. Got a great deal, I think. Checked with Derek Puckett who builds them now - said Gary only made about 30 of these - it's pretty much an LTD. Doesn't have the 'La' prefix though - Just
Garritt Steel Guitars. It's 4x5

Garritt Steel.jpg

[Jerry Overstreet]

No expert on these guitars but I've not seen that label on these.
All those I've seen had a LaGarritt decal, but I've not seen them all obviously.
Also appears to have a replacement Alumitone pickup, but that's common for used steels.

I just hope it is genuine.

There are some fuzzy pics in this thread of another one which includes the mechanics. Good Luck.
viewtopic.php?t=297084&hilit=LaGarritt

[Skip Ellis]

I sent Derek a photo and he seemed to think it was the real deal. Ad had a photo of the undercarriage and it looked legit. Don't have any experience with those pickups but I'm sure It'll be OK for my purposes.

[Dennis Brown]

I bought a Bobby Seymor made Garritt. Bobby used Sho Bud pro parts under the guitar that I had. It looked identical to the one pictured above. The knee levers look like the cast aluminum knee levers from a stock of parts Bobby bought. It played great and the sound was pretty darn good also.

[Jerry Overstreet]

Better pics of an authentic LaGarritt mechanics in this thread for comparison to the one for sale or bought by the OP. No Sho~Bud parts on this one.

viewtopic.php?t=257224&hilit=LaGarritt

[Dennis Brown]

That's a nice one!

[Jerry Overstreet]

Yes it is. I saw that when it came up back then. I've kicked myself over and over for not buying it at the time. Whoever got it made a good deal on a great guitar.

[Dennis Brown]

Sorry for the quality of the pics. But it's the Bobby build I had and sold. Maybe the same guitar. It was built on a D10 frame. It's a fun guitar.

[Skip Ellis]

Just did some further research and found an old ad for this guitar on Reverb from a steel shop in Ohio priced substantially higher than what I paid yesterday. Apparently rebuilt by Seymore with ShoBud parts and an MCI changer along with an Alumatone pickup. A little disappointed as I bought it thinking it was a Rittenberry built LTD type guitar which I was familiar with. Contemplating asking for my money back as the Marketplace ad specifically said it was built by Rittenberry. Since I built my first steel out of the salvaged back neck from a Sho Bud Pro II in about 1977, I maybe shouldn't be too upset. I doubt my seller was acting in bad faith as he knew nothing about steel guitar mechanics or working on the things.

[Dennis Brown]

It played well Skip when had it. I've been on and off steel for 54 years.
You'll always get your investment back, should you choose to buy it.
Sorry, I invaded your post with discouragement.

[Skip Ellis]

Hey Dennis! Not discouragement at all - I played it before I bought it and it's a decent instrument. I planned to redo everything and get rid of the Franklin pedal at the '0' position but think I'll just leave it alone . The thing I usually have to change is I lower my E's RKL and raise them LKL - the lower is already good and I can get used to raising them on RKR so I'm just going to leave it alone and play it. Did you buy it from Seymour?

[Dennis Brown]

I bought it in Northern lower Michigan. The gentleman I bought it from bought it from Bobby. Bobby built it for the guy but, he went back to the 6 string guitar.

[Jerry Overstreet]

I offer my apologies also if my initial post misled you. I should not have made comment without seeing a photo or at least a description.

It appears to be a good playing instrument with pretty much Super Pro mechanics. I hope you enjoy it if you decide to not return it.

Curious when it was built and how Bobbe came to use that name also.

[Dennis Brown]

Hey Jerry, the guy I bought it from mentioned he owned it 4 years. I had it a few years (3-4) sold it in 2024. I'd guess it's about 10 years old. Bobby told the original owner that he had a large variety of parts and pieces to build him a guitar and I'm also guessing he simply removed the "La" from the full name. Notice the offset of the words "steel guitar"? It may of said "pedal steel guitar" under the full name. Bobby did good on this one.

[Skip Ellis]

Yeah, I played it for awhile this morning and, despite it's somewhat sketchy provenance, it's a decent guitar so I'll just enjoy it. Now if I could just get rid of about half the weight. The case is one of those nice Thomas road cases with all the aluminum trim that weighs about as much as the guitar. I'm either going to build split cases for it or just a case for the guitar and use a gun case for the pedal bar and rods. I think the guitar itself is only about 38# so I can handle that but when you're 80, things get heavier - not sure why things work that way. Guy I got it from said he's had it a year and a half. The Reverb ad that I saw from Ohio Steel Guitars was from 2020.

[Dennis Brown]

I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Take care.