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  #31  
Old 10-22-2015, 05:43 PM
welshruss welshruss is offline
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Weissenborn's are great instruments. I have a Tim Kill Mahogany Weiss (Timkillcustom.com) that predominately lives in Open D though I like CGCGCE as well. I play mine with John Pearce Open D strings and a Tribo tonebar and Diamond slides glass tonebar.

When I moved to Australia I really got into Jeff Lang and his lap slide and that lead me to Tim's guitars. I also really like Michael Messer, Jack Rose and Harry Manx.
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  #32  
Old 11-16-2015, 04:07 AM
wcap wcap is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by syrynx View Post
Here's another gift to the world from Dan Schwartz, just uploaded today.



With regard to bars: I wrote a lengthy treatise with lots of video clips on another forum a couple of years ago. TL;DR: It's personal. But there are two principal styles utilized by the vast majority of players:

Cylindrical bars with a hemispheric (bullet) nose are favored by a majority of Hawai'ian and Western Swing players, a lot of Country steelers, and some Blues and Rock players. Brand names are legion; materials include stainless steel, various chrome-plated metals, various plastics, glasses, and ceramics. Some of them get pretty pricey. There is good reason for their popularity (and the passion of their proponents): They're excellent for forward and reverse slants, and if they're large enough in diameter they permit bending strings behind the bar.



Most Bluegrass, most Sacred Steel, many Blues and Rock, and some Country players favor (also with good reason) so-called ergonomic bars with rails for gripping, and with squared or even sharpened ends which permit rapid hammers and pull-offs. Brand names include Stevens, Dunlop, Shubb-Pearse, Tipton, Scheerhorn, Swallows, and others. Some of these get pretty pricey, too. Depending on the individual player and the specific bar, they may also work well for bending strings behind the bar and for forward slants, but in most instances inhibit reverse slants.



Personally, I have one foot planted in each camp. All of my acoustic lap steel playing is accomplished with a Shubb SP-2, a rail-style bar which has one end rounded and the other squared off. On my electric lap steels, when playing with other musicians and not obliged to supply accompaniment with my thumb, I use a cylindrical, bullet-nosed Dunlop 919--the same one used and recommended by the late Jerry Byrd, which by pure coincidence happens to fit and suit me as well.

If you have special physical needs, or a really strong desire to use multiple slides simultaneously, I invite you to check out my original post.

In the two years since I wrote that post, there's been a new development called the Pedal Slide, which in the right left hand can address the "single straight metal finger" issue. Here's a demo...



And a couple of informative discussions of the bar on the Steel Guitar Forum:

Pedal Slide?

Pedal Slide

Regarding the neglect of other instruments in favor of the Weiss, I didn't have a problem dividing my time. I found that, while I used the same muscles to play both steel guitar and fretted instruments, I used them differently. I actually could play longer without fatigue when a steel guitar was part of the mix.
I was away from the forum for a little while, but thanks so much for all this great information!
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  #33  
Old 11-16-2015, 04:11 AM
wcap wcap is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by syrynx View Post
......
Regarding the neglect of other instruments in favor of the Weiss, I didn't have a problem dividing my time. I found that, while I used the same muscles to play both steel guitar and fretted instruments, I used them differently. I actually could play longer without fatigue when a steel guitar was part of the mix.
In my case recently though...

Limited time to spend playing music + fascination with Weissenborn = barely playing my other guitars = losing my callouses!

We were just preparing a bit for some music we are going to be playing in chapel this week, where I'll be playing one of my standard steel string guitars, and I now have hurting fingertips! I need to not let this happen again!
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  #34  
Old 11-16-2015, 06:25 AM
spock spock is offline
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Congratulations on your new acquisition. It is gorgeous. I too jumped on a deal to purchase one of these beautiful instruments a while back. Mine is 1927 and all original and while I can't play it well at all yet, even the amateurish attempts sound hauntingly beautiful.

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  #35  
Old 11-16-2015, 07:52 AM
hat hat is offline
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Very nice. I would love to add a Wessie to my collection..but alas you only have time for just so much. A word of caution - they will not stand up to a lot of string tension, so be careful what gauges and tunings you use.
BTW - I have an older quite thick book of Hawaiian songs that was published for Dobro (Mel Bay I think) That I would sell quite reasonably if one of you is interested in Hawaiian style music.
It this one I think. I don't think I have the CD with it though....

http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Hawaiian-S.../dp/0786660872
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  #36  
Old 11-16-2015, 09:40 AM
JonHBone JonHBone is offline
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Awesome! I would love to have one. Jack Rose played an all koa model that sounded amazing.
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  #37  
Old 11-16-2015, 10:07 AM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Congrats on the new Weissenborn. I love those guitars and wish I had the time and discipline to learn to play one. Every December we go to a Christmas concert by local boy Ed Gerhard and he always plays a song or two on his Weissenborn. The show is held in an old church all decked out with Christmas decorations and candles and the vibe is just incredible and the Weissenborn's tone just rings out like a guitar/church organ. It's really quite something. If you've never seen Ed Gerhard in concert - especially his Christmas shows - do it!

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  #38  
Old 04-17-2016, 03:14 AM
wcap wcap is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
I know W, but pretty soon you'll be posting stuff in Show and Tell. That's a neat instrument.
Well, the learning curve has been steep, and I was convinced this was going to take me years to make much progress with, but gradually my sounds with this thing have started to sound more and more like music. I'm still not landing the notes or incorporating vibrato as well as I'd like, but things have gotten good enough to take the plunge and actually perform with this instrument.

So, the other day my wife and I performed together in chapel at the college where I teach, on violin and Weissenborn, respectively.

We played three waltzes: Midnight on the Water, Ashokan Farewell, and The Lover's Waltz. I just accompanied on the first one, but played full arrangements that I put together for the second two, and my wife had nice variations that she played on violin.

We were dangerously close to crashing at times, since we had not rehearsed all that extensively, but this all came off pretty well. Actually, folks raved about our music (even though I was cringing over some of my intonation issues!).

A colleague in another department even e-mailed me to tell me that another person in his department who had been at chapel had said to him: "Hey, did you know that Bill is an outstanding guitar player? I had no idea!"

Well, I don't think I'm an outstanding Weissenborn player by any means, but it was fun having others enjoying our music, and I was pleasantly surprised that they were not bothered by all the flaws in my playing that sort of drive me nuts!
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Last edited by wcap; 04-17-2016 at 08:04 AM.
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