Thanks for joining up, Rick. It's good to have you here. When you've got a moment, tell us how you came to the Weissenborn. And let us know if there's anything we can help with.
16 Comments |
RickW says:
6/3/2013 10:08:49 AM
Thanks for the welcome. I'm pleased to be here.
I've played slide in one form or other for about forty years, starting with bad renditions of Leo Kottke tunes in college. That led to lap steel, which in turn led to dobro. It was definitely David Lindley, though, that hooked me on the weissenborn. I've become a complete pleemhead.
I own three weissenborn repro's...I have a Goldtone solid mahogany that was the second one Elderly sold, a laminate "Vineyard" which is the only one of its brand I've ever seen, and a deep-bodied solid mahogany that was imported by Imperial Guitars. It looks a lot like the ones that are all over Ebay, but was built to much higher standards with some really good wood. The Goldtone loves open D for some reason, the Vineyard is most at home in G. The Imperial has of late been in F, which is just open G tuned down two half-steps.
As to help, I am constantly trying to figure out which tunings and/or pitches Lindley's recordings are in, so if anyone has ideas or info I'd love to hear from them.
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 | Liz Williams says:
6/4/2013 11:07:37 PM
"...bad renditions of Leo Kottke" really takes me back. I remember countless hours hunched over the record player picking up, then dropping the needle.
I'm especially interested to know about your Weissenborns. I had a Gold Tone myself for a while, but have no experience with the others you mention.
There are several Lindley fans in the group; perhaps one will chime in with the info you seek.
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RickW says:
6/5/2013 9:24:55 AM
We date ourselves, liz, when we confess to owning record players :)
The Goldtone was my first repro, and I got an early-production specimen from Elderly. It's solid mahogany, and I've had it for probably ten years, so it's pretty "played in". The Vineyard is definitely an economy model, but the wood [laminate?] is nicely figured and finished, and the tone is surprisingly good. Several people, including my brother who has no guitar knowledge whatsoever, have described it as sounding more "Hawaiian" than the Goldtone. My favorite, though, is the deep bodied iImperial. With the Pearse 'heavy D" set, and tuned low, I refer to it as "if not the voice of God, at least that of one of the archangels." If I can find one, I am planning to buy one of the teardrops that Imperial made at the same time. It seems that all of the repro's I see on the internet or on ebay are the same Chinese styles, whether they be from Anderwood, Bediaz, or whoever, and the only differences are whether they're all wood, solid top/laminate body, or all laminate. Even Superior now has a second line being made in China. The Imperials, though, were made in a small run very early on, and are all solid sapele.
I use Seymour Duncan mag-mic's in all three, and brass bridge pins. I love the Duncans, but I was having a tone issue with them which David Lindley set me straight on. I was talking with him after a show he did in Green Lake, WI last month, and I told him that I was getting a strange tone on all three instruments, on the second string between the fifth and tenth frets. I described it as "flute-y", and he immediately knew exactly what I was talking about. He asked where the pickup was positioned in the sound hole, and I said in all three, they were flush against the end of the fretboard. He told me to loosen the screws and rotate the pickup in the soundhole about a quarter inch so that the treble end pointed more toward the bottom end of the guitar. He then said I should not be able to "ping" a harmonic over the polepiece. I've only had a chance to try it on one guitar so far, but it seems to have done the trick. I since have looked at the weissenborns on his website, and in one of the photos you can see that the pickup is rotated as described on one of his weissenborns. I use the Duncan on full magnetic for playing live, and mix in some acoustic when recording.
David, by the way, is an incredibly friendly and accessible person, at least when you're asking him about guitars. He then wanted to know what kind of weissenborns I had, what they were made of, etc. He also recognized the Imperial, having heard of or played on someplace.
David has a beautiful baritone made by Larry Pogreba, and he tells a hysterical story about visiting Larry's place in Montana, which is next to Ted Turner's. Apparently Larry has a thing for cannons, and uses a black powder Civil War-era cannon to shoot bowling balls for approximately a mile onto Ted's property.
Do you have any experience with a baritone? I'm very intrigued by the lower tone, and am feeling a gathering urge to have one.
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 | Bob Blair says:
6/5/2013 4:25:46 PM
Hi Rick, welcome. I'm a huge Lindley fan, though I can't say I have any knowledge of what he used on any particular recording. I've seen him live several times and met him backstage at the Edmonton Folk Festival last summer (I just turned around and there he was - .I knew playing the festival was going to be fun but I didn't know it was going to be THAT much fun!) I don't have a baritone yet but I'm working on it. I have a Benoit Cajunborne and a Celtic Cross. I still remember with fondness a very short-term girlfriend of my younger brother's who played me the first Kottke I ever heard. Over the years its mostly pedal steel that people have wanted to pay me to play, but the last few years have been full of weissenborn and the last couple of years dobro as well - I have a couple of Benoit resos. I'me starting to get to perform more on them . Great to have you aboard. I had record players too.
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| Liz Williams says:
6/6/2013 9:17:45 AM
Perhaps we should start a group on Resohangout for those of us who remember record players: The pain, the misery, the hard work of lifting up that needle and trying to put it down in just the right spot.
I've always wondered about the skewed pick-ups in some of Lindley's Weissenborns, and I'm glad to know about the Imperial line. As for a baritone, I'm definitely interested in one, but still exploring which kind of baritone instrument: a Weissenborn? A tricone?
There was a 1929 National Chrysanthemum tricone at Gryphon Stringed Instruments, made of German silver and tuned in D. The $7200.00 price tag was too hefty for me, but I used to stop by after work and play it. It bathed me in the most beautiful overtones...like being in heave....
I'm sorry, what were we talking about? Oh yes, a baritone Weissenborn. :-)
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RickW says:
6/7/2013 4:39:05 PM
Liz,
If we were to start such a group, they could make a documentary and call it "This is Vinyl Tap".
I'm working on finding the right moment to tell She Who Must Be Obeyed that I want to call Larry Pogreba and beg for a baritone. I'm originally from Montana, and my younger brother lives in his general neck of the woods [which in Montana is within a hundred miles.] Maybe that might give me a leg up, as I understand that he doesn't do custom orders so much as make what he wants and then sell it to you if he sort of likes you.
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| Liz Williams says:
6/8/2013 9:22:35 AM
I just spit my tea all over the table, Rick. "This is Vinyl Tap." I can SEE the movie...
Maybe you should just send Larry a bowling ball. He's probably running low.
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RickW says:
6/8/2013 8:27:29 PM
"Big bottom, big bottom,
Talk about low tones, my baritone's got 'em"......
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| Liz Williams says:
6/8/2013 10:25:46 PM
Not just a motion picture, but a cult!
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RickW says:
6/14/2013 8:50:15 PM
Well, Liz, as they say, 'I done did went and done did it."
Spent some time on the phone last night with Rance at Lazy River in discussion of the details of my [as it turns out] spruce and walnut baritone [with a little abalone bling around the soundhole and top purling].
If you feel like you're in the middle of an earthquake in about six weeks, it'll be because the guitar is finished, shipped, and in my hands in the living room.
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| Liz Williams says:
6/14/2013 8:57:40 PM
Welcome to the dark side, Rick. ;-) And congratulations. That sounds like it's going to be a beautiful guitar. I love that wood combination and abalone is a gorgeous touch. What scale is Rance using on it?
I'm marking my calendar and laying in supplies for the earthquake. Will there be pictures beforehand?
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RickW says:
6/14/2013 9:38:12 PM
I sent him an email this morning. I didn't know until I started poking around on his prototype of the new website that he does a 30-inch scale length. If he can come up with the right wood for a 30", I will be a calf in tall grass indeed.
I might be getting ahead of myself, but I'm thinking eventually a K&K under saddle, plus a Duncan mag mic, with separate outputs AND a stereo jack that combines both.
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| Liz Williams says:
6/14/2013 10:47:32 PM
30 inches! That's a big guitar. It's going to be magnificent! How low could you tune a guitar like that, I wonder?
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RickW says:
6/17/2013 8:22:24 PM
Rance talked me out of the 30, mostly because of obstacles like no cases that will fit, slower response time, and so on. He indicated that a 30 could be tuned to A, as opposed to the B or C for the 27.5. I think the bottom string on that 30 inch monster would be about the size of the cable that comes out of the wall and connects to my television receiver :) . I'm thinking that CGCGCE would be fun, or the same intervals pitched down one more to B.
If he sends pictures of the build underway, I'll happily post them.
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| Liz Williams says:
6/17/2013 10:45:31 PM
A friend of mine is converting his 000 kit guitar to a harp guitar and we were talking about the slower response time of the harp strings. I think Lindley's Pogreba baritone is 30" Whatever the scale, having a guitar built for lower tunings would be fantastic.
I look forward to pictures if Rance sends any.
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RickW says:
6/18/2013 4:22:09 AM
Liz,
If you like harp guitars, try tinyurl.com/yvkkhf. [youtube].
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