Keoki asked about Choy and fry pans.

He was employed/associated with Rickenbacker at some post WW2 point and it seems there was what some old timers called 'The Choy Fry Pan'.
The open back models may be what they are talking about as this is what he had in his Piikoi St. shop and showed to me. Mint condition short scale solid necks with the bakelite cover for the open back for $1000 in 1980!, no student discount for me...
We know that long scale models of this same type were also produced during this time but he chose the short scale for himself and his students.

That's about all that I have heard of concerning these particular steels.

It's a shame that he and his wife are long gone now to answer any questions, and few know of him and his long history with the guitar industry in America during it's pre and post war glory days.
As a Korean American it's astounding that he sought to be and did become a very valued employee at most of the great guitar companies of the time, especially Gibson.
With massive desire and talents he plowed thru the tough times of rampant bigotry and such to advance high up the shop ladders and become well respected by his various bosses.
But that had to have been a rough road.

He knew ALL the guitar/banjo/steel giants and they were glad to know him.

The years did take a toll on his personallity however and in his latter years he had no desire to be nice to those who dared cross his shop threshold unless you passed the acid test.
I was one of the lucky few.
If he liked you, he REALLY liked you.
He'd stop everything and spend the whole day with me if he could.
As Byrd sed years later when I asked what he knew of Choy, "YOU KNEW HIM? Gees, he didn't like..., he didn't like..., HE DIDN'T LIKE ANYONE!"

An incredible book/movie could and should have been had covering his musical exploits, but like most, his story may now never be fully known.

One of the treasured pix I have of him thruout his years is a 1936 Honolulu Star Bulletin clipping that shows Choy w/banjo jamming with 2 other Asian men on guitar AND the enigmatic MK Moke on accoustic steel at Choy's 1191 Bethel St. studio.

You mentioned that your pancake had the translucent gold wash (or is it the gold paint?) which may make it an early version of this particular style, but the last few he had in store were clean of that and instead were factory pristine polished aluminum with the classic colored fret dots and the latter issue white decal on the headstock instead of the gold badge. It also had only 1 knob, typically on the starboard side of the face, and the old 2nd version PU w/strings thru.
Sure was cute.

He also made mention that some of the earliest pans had tungsten wiring.

His steel teaching style was to play a 78 of Dick McIntire for the sweet stuff and then Sol for the fast stuff and work you thru it as he accompanied on standard.

[This message was edited by Ron Whitfield on 05 June 2006 at 06:27 PM.]

Those were walls to remember, eh?
I lucked out and got about 1/4 of those great pix from Dantz (who has no real info to offer) years later for free and I treasure each of them, including the one of Sol and his indian ink autograph where he wrote "Aloha Pumehana, Sol Hoopii"

On the two different and very cool 3X5 business cards I have of his, he spells it with the Y, which I imagine was to make the pronounciation easier on us white folk and less hassle for himself.

I only got to hang at his shop for about a year in 1980 before I retired to the country side of Oahu. But I'd catch him strolling thru Ala Moana Center now and then and he'd bust out that cool smile that few ever saw.

He'd usually try and give me half the shop when I'd stop in and would be disappointed each time I'd decline out of respect. Now I wish I hadn't been so prudish.

He used to have a bunch of instruments in his front window until some ---- busted it and stole them all.

A couple of years ago Rick Aiello's friend made up a small batch of repro Ricky decals and I gave one to Bobby Ingano for one of his pans from that era which had worn off. He then 'antiqued' it by using a yellow marker, a little flame and some grub making it look very age appropriate, no doubt much like yours Keoki!

A non-SGF member e'd me saying that Frank Miller might have some info on ol' Choi. He's been coming to HI for decades and may have visited Choi with Barney and/or Byrd.

[This message was edited by Ron Whitfield on 07 June 2006 at 10:00 AM.]

Hal had the fine foresight to tape his conversations with him and it includes some banjo playing as well.
I'll happily be recieving a copy and will post any info gleaned from it.

This keeps getting more interesting.

[This message was edited by Ron Whitfield on 07 June 2006 at 04:39 PM.]

Per the 'second' tape mentioned above, which unfortunately does not exist, I just got this:
Jerry and his very good pal Al went to Choi's shop one day. Al did all the talking with Jerry never saying a word, and Choi had no idea it was Jerry Byrd standing there. When Byrd's name came up in conversation, Choi said he had years earlier sent some Hawaiian music charts to Jerry in Nashville because Jerry didn't know how to read music!
Jerry kept quiet and when they left the shop, obviously, had quite the laugh between the two of them.

As I mentioned to my friend Wally who sleuthed this info out,
'now I really wish that tape existed!'

[This message was edited by George Keoki Lake on 12 June 2006 at 07:20 AM.]