How do you handle balancing your ensemble, or if you mostly play solo, what's your favorite amplification (and "none" is an acceptable answer!)
is it your main performance instrument or is it "another arrow in your quiver"?
What do you find to be the strengths and weaknesses of the instrument, or like/dislike about the design?
No ulterior motive here, just interested in other people's experience of the instrument.
18 Comments |
 | Bob Blair says:
10/19/2012 10:33:46 PM
I don't use my weissenborn-style guitars in ensemble settings - when I perform on them it is either solo or with one tasteful acoustic guitar player. My Benoit Cajunborne has a Baggs Element pickup and it sounds outstanding - I run it sometimes through an acoustic amplifier or just into a PA or whatever is handy. When I am playing out with those guitars (which seems to either happen at steel guitar shows or when I am doing a folksinger thing) I tend to use them to accompany myself while singing, with the occasional kinky little instrumental - for example I have a medley of old Anglican hymns I play (pretty much the only religious content you'll ever hear out of me) , and also a cowboy medley that I worked up. An instrumental Stephen Foster medley is also something I've done. Mostly I come up with arrangements of whatever music is running around in my head on a given day. I really like what Lindley does, Jon Fahey has I think been an influence. There is, as you can imagine, an extremely limited market for what I do with them - pedal steel is the thing that people tend to hire me for, though since I have gotten into resonator guitars in a big way recently I hope to play out more with them as well.
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x says:
10/19/2012 11:04:40 PM
I see, so you do ensemble work, but tend to use other instruments for that work, and like the Weissenborn to sing with. Makes sense to me!
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x says:
10/19/2012 11:35:13 PM
My turn, I guess.
I am a relative newbie to any slide-style instrument, though a long-time player.
I got an earful of myself on electric bottleneck back in the 70's, and that was enough to put me off anything to do with slides or steels for next 40 years.
I reconnected with some old player friends a few years ago, and there were too many guitar players, so I became the "utility player", and was asked to provide a slide texture on a particular tune. This got me hunting around for an instrument I liked, as the cheap reso that I borrowed from a band member wasn't my cup of tea.
A wise and crafty friend once told me that, "You should play a lot of instruments while shopping, then buy the one that makes your hair stand on end." That turned out to be a Gold Tone Weissenborn. Well, really it was 1929 tricone, but I didn't want to spring that much for an instrument I might not develop a lasting relationship with. But the Weissenborn- Wow what a surprising instrument! I do get goosebumps from the sound of it now and again.
That group was an acoustic ensemble, and I pushed very hard to keep it that way and use minimum amplification. I thought we sounded best in a small brick room, maybe 30x40, high ceiling, no PA. Just old school dynamics and player's courtesy. Of course, before too long we started playing venues that required PA, so I tried quite a few solutions and was rarely happy with the result. I have Fishman Neo D Humbuckers in both my hollownecks now, and am pretty happy with the sound of them- Of course, I'm not playing with those guys anymore, just shedding as much as time allows, and when I'm excited about it. Which is often.
I've been thinking about using it as another color on my regular Thursday pub duo, and may yet. I do think the Weissenborn is good with the human voice, and that'd be the place to do it.
weezy
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x says:
10/19/2012 11:36:30 PM
I'd also love to hear those Anglican hymns, the Stephen Foster, and the cowboy piece, Bob. Any recordings or Youtube-age?
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| Bob Blair says:
10/20/2012 7:08:57 AM
All there is is a youtube with a couple of the tunes I did at the Texas Steel Guitar Association Jamboree last March:
youtube.com/watch?v=W5jYLky36b8
My friend Jim Robbins from Toronto was playing rhythm guitar for me but you can't see him.
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x says:
10/20/2012 10:43:45 AM
Nice stuff, Bob. I especially like the second tune. What is the origin of it?
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| Bob Blair says:
10/20/2012 12:31:57 PM
The second tune is called "Blue Wing" and it was written by Tom Russell - check him out as he is a great writer. About a year after an old friend of mine passed away in circumstances where I was not able to attend his funeral, his wife found a letter to me that he had not mailed. Apprehensive though I was about receiving a message from beyond the grave, I was touched when I read it because it was basically a celebration of our friendship. It contained a request though - that I sing "Blue Wing" at his funeral and in the last verse substitute for the phrase "preacher and an old pine box" the words "preacher IN an old pine box" (my friend being a preacher, and probably the only preacher I've ever hung around with, at least knowingly). So I did that song at the TSGA to make up for the gig I'd unwittingly missed - I explained it all in a rambling bit of stage patter that Howard wisely edited out when he posted it. Anyway - it is one of my favourite songs. Check out Tom Russell - he wrote same great songs and is still writing them. He lives in El Paso these days.
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x says:
10/20/2012 1:09:31 PM
I will, thanks.
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 | Matt says:
10/23/2012 7:13:25 AM
I use my Weissenborn for solo playing. Hopefully once I've learnt how to play I'll find some others around here to play with, but for now I'm really happy with the quiet sound of my unamplified Weissenborn as I practice.
I haven't gotten the hang of these fingerpick things many seem to favour - I tried them on a couple of times and then threw them in the cupboard! And let's not mention my desire to pick up 17 different tone bars ... anyway.
I love the sound of Weissenborns. They evoke such emotion when played well. Since I got mine a few weeks ago I've felt more inspired musically than I have in the past 10 years.
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 | Seabass says:
10/23/2012 1:18:50 PM
Hi Matt,
have you tried the "Alaska" fingerpicks yet? They are the only ones that I sometimes like to play with but most of the time I don't wear picks at all...it just feels more natural to me playing without picks to have a direct connection to the instrument.
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x says:
10/23/2012 6:09:31 PM
I had the same feeling about fingerpicks at first, then found them useful (and got used to them) when playing in small groups to achieve a greater dynamic range. I love the Propik, and haven't had much success with other ones.
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| Matt says:
10/24/2012 6:29:23 AM
No I haven't tried the Alaska picks as yet Seabass. I'll give them a try if I come across them but I think I may just stick to playing without picks for now.
Weezy, I've got some propiks here but haven't as yet gotten used to the feeling of playing with them. To be honest, I haven't really given them much of a chance - after a few minutes I end up taking them off.
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 | CaseyHunter says:
10/24/2012 7:18:17 AM
I think along the same lines of Seabass. I think the weissenborn sounds the best when played without picks, especially if you have a pickup installed in it. I find the picks can reduce or over power some of the tones that come when playing without picks. (keep in mind, it may just be my experience with them, and I am not an experienced play by any means).
However, I have found that the ProPik Fingertones work pretty well, and give you enough of a pick to get the volume but still allows you to dampen with the pad of the fingers.
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x says:
10/24/2012 9:00:17 AM
Yes, the Fingertones are the ones I meant, also. I watched a couple of youtube videos about the aLaska picks, and may give them a try again too, now that I see what the idea is. All I have to do is let my nails grow a little.
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RobA says:
10/28/2012 5:14:15 PM
Great question!
I enjoyed reading everyone's posts!
It's a little embarrassing but I have to admit that the Weissenborn is an arrow in my quiver, definitely not my main focus. That said, I dearly love the tone and texture of playing my Weissenborns in D tuning, much more so than playing my resonator guitars in D tuning. Part of the reason for that is that my plug in guitar - a mid-1920s style 1 Weissenborn has a Sunrise pickup which sounds pretty amazing with amazing lows and really sweet highs. I've had the same pickup in that guitar for almost 25 years now and I've never ever thought about replacing it with something else...
Anyway, one of the main reasons that Weissenborn is an arrow in my quiver and not my "main" instrument is that I find D tuning much, much more limiting that G tuning. In G tuning I feel comfortable playing in any key, whereas in D tuning everything I play is in the key of D. I'm sure I could milk more out of D tuning if I spent more time playing with it, but I find G tuning so much more user friendly for playing a wide variety of musical styles.
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x says:
10/29/2012 9:09:40 AM
Hi, RobA-
I've heard good things about the Sunrise pickups. Do you use preamps and EQs and such with it?
I'm guessing you mean the Reso G (GBDgbd).
Do you use the "low G" (DGDgbd) at all on Weissenborn? Not quite as deep a sound as the D, but very useful for me.
Low G helped me overcome my reluctance to jump in to the slide world!
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| Bob Blair says:
10/29/2012 9:27:55 AM
My experience is a lot like Rob's in terms of the D and G tunings. I love my weissenborn-style instruments, but they are kind of a specialty instrument for me. As soon as I picked up a reso in the standard G tuning I could see the versatility - it was almost as easy to play in multiple keys with as pedal steel. Not so with the D tuning for me - though I note that Pete Grant (a legendary pedal steel player from California) always uses it for reso, and plays circles around an awful lot of people! The other thing about reso as opposed to weissenborn is that it is easier to use in an ensemble setting. Two years ago this coming March I was in the Benoit room at the Texas Steel Guitar Association jamboree, sitting around with a small circle of good players, and I was just not getting into the fray with an unamplified Cajunborne. I put it down and pulled a resonator off a stand, and immediately I was in the game, despite my lack of facility with the G tuning at that point. That was when I jumped into the resonator world - I got Carroll Benoit straight to work building me one.
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RobA says:
10/30/2012 2:49:58 PM
Weezy
Yes, the Sunrise is a passive pickup and requires a preamp to provide gain. I've used a bunch of different preamps over the years - including the Sunrise Buffer Box and eventually settled on the Baggs Para Acoustic DI. Works well, the EQ works pretty well, it's relatively cost effective and sounds as good or better than more expensive units that I've owned or tried.
I use high G tuning - GBDGBD -
Thanks,
Rob
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