Here is something cool on GBASE. That is one early pick-up.  
 
http://www.gbase.com/gear/rickenbacker-bedpost-fretted-upright-d-1935-b#

That is really cool. I know someone who has an old lap steel  made by Rickenbacker  that has a similar pickup.

Those old Rick bakelite frypans just scream! Wonder what the bass sounds like!

Last month I got a lead on a pre-war Ricky Silver Hawaiian which I could not pass up..... So after about two years of no laps, pedals only, I'm back in the lap steel game!!!! Everything they say about these old horseshoe pickups is true. One of my last lap steels was a frypan reissue where the horseshoes were not magnetized~ there for aesthetics only...What a difference! I let that one go for a third of what it was worth, so when I found this one, the karma came full circle...  
 

 
When I was dating mine, I came across a funny story re: Adolf Ric, and his patents: When the bakelite B-6 panda was released, patents for the bakelite construction and horseshoe pickup were applied for, but no patent for the method of attaching the neck to the body~ the original bolt-on...