hawaiian guitar

In the 1890's people on Hawaii started playing the guitar in a different way, laying it flat on their lap, and not fingering chords, but shortening the strings with a straight (steel) object. As they already used an open tuning on a guitar, it was not difficult to play like this.
In the early 1910's Hawaiian music became a craze in USA and with it the hawaiian guitar became very popular, together with the acompanying small guitar: the ukulele (see AmericaNorth).

In fact any guitar can be used as an hawaiian guitar (although often it was a kind of spanish guitar model) as long as it has steel strings, which are tuned to an open tuning. The main difference with a normal guitar is a slightly raised nut, so the sliding steel does not touch the frets. Some instruments were made of the beautiful koa wood.

As you play it horizontally, the round neck was not necessary, so often the instrument got a square neck - which was also good to avoid warping due to the high action of the steel strings. The tuning is usually open, like : E A e a c#' e' or : A c# e a c#' e' or : G B d g b d'.

The sound of the (acoustic) hawaiian guitar is not so strong, compared with resophonic guitars.

Note that on the Hawaii islands this instrument is hardly used anymore : they play the slack key guitar (a normal guitar in open tuning).

weissenborn guitar

During the craze of the hawaiian music, the USA maker Weissenborn designed a special type of hawaiian guitar.

As an hawaiian guitar does not need a roundneck, his design has a square hollow neck, as an extention of the body, in an attempt to increase the sound volume. His instruments became rather popular among hawaiian musicians. Although many of his instruments were quite plain (type nr.1), the usual decoration was a black/white rope binding around the edge of the body and the fingerboard (type nr.4).

The sound is not so strong, compared with resophonic guitars.

an original Weissenborn nr 4, from Frets.com

tricone

A tricone was the first type of resonator guitar. It was made in the 1930's by the National factory in USA, of thin shiny metal (nickel plated bellbrass), in a stylish art deco design. Tricones were made with different amounts of decoration : from style 1, which was plain, up to style 4, which had chrysantimums etched around the front, sides and back.

Inside the (lower half of the) body are 3 round aluminium cones, on which the bridge rests via a tripod. The 3 cones are covered with diamond shaped grilles. In the top half of the body are 2 large sound holes, covered with thin metal strips (usually part of the body). Pity the neck end does not follow the lines of the grills, but stops squarely.

The tricone was popular with both hawaiian players (they played it flat on the lap with a steel) as with (Delta-)bluesplayers (they played it normal, often with a bottleneck). The guitar therefore was available with either a square neck or a round neck (see also dobro).

You have to play quite strongly to get the proper sound out of it, so the use of finger picks is necessary.

For lots of information about these instruments see Nationalguitars.

Around 2000 the bellbrass tricones became popular again, but the original factories did not have the moulds anymore to make them. So small firms started making copies, and finally the National and Dobro factories started up their own production lines again. The Continental is a small workshop in Germany.

triolian

The triolian is a type of resonator guitar made in the 1930's by the National factory in USA.

Although a number was made with a wooden body, it usually has a multi-hued painted steel body. In spite of the name, this type has only one (large) cone. Its opening is to the back, with a small round wooden "bisquit" on the front, on which the bridge rests.
The cover plate has a decoration 9 diamonds of pierced holes. On the top of the body are two stylised f-holes, like on a violin. Often the body is decorated with stencilled pictures of Hawaiian scenes.

The duolian is a cheaper version of this type of resonator guitar, also made by National. The trojan (or El Trovador) is another similar resonator guitar, but with a wooden body. A more expensive version was the style 0, which had a bell-brass body and Hawaiian scene etchings. Later coverplates had a so-called "chickenfeet" design.

The triolian sounds a bit like a banjo, and it is quite loud. It is used both for bottle neck and normal picking.

For lots of information about these instruments see Nationalguitars.

dobro              

The dobro is a type of resonator guitar which was designed in the 1930's by the Dopyera Brothers in USA - hence the name "dobro". The construction of the cone is different from the earlier made tricones and triolians (see above) made by National.

The cone of the dobro has the opening to the front, with a spider-like construction resting on the edge of the cone, and the bridge resting on the "spider". The cone is covered by a round metal plate with many cut-outs in 4 halfround patterns. Above this big coverplate are two separate round soundholes, which are covered with small grills. Between those grills are 3 small open soundholes.

As most players play the dobro laying flat (with a steel), it often has a square neck, and a high nut to get the strings high off the fingerboard. The tuning machines are often turned around (to the front) to make tuning easier.

However, some dobros maybe made with a normal halfround guitar neck and a low nut (and real frets), to be played like an ordinary guitar.

Tuning is nowadays often : G B d g b d'.

The sound of a dobro is a bit nasal, but highly recognisable. The dobro is mainly used in Bluegrass Music, played with a steel.

For more information about dobros see : resoguit.

delvecchio

In Brazil the guitar factory of DelVecchio (or "Del Vecchio") made a local version of the dobro. This instrument was officially called the "Dinamico", but players often refer to it just by the factory name. The factory in São Paulo had stopped (officially) making these instruments, but on its new website they are still mentioned : DelVecchio (the viola - the 5 course version).

It is quite rare outside Brazil, but a player like Chet Atkins played on one. The fretting was usually not very well done, so they are known to be slightly out of tune on some notes.

Inside a DelVecchio guitar is a dobro-type aluminium cone with a wooden cylinder on which the bridge rests. The cone is covered with a round thin wooden plate, in which usually 5 small round soundholes, covered with metal grilles. Some instruments have 6 holes and up to 10 can be found. The type of the grilles varies, and sometimes they are made of plastic, or just a V-shape. In the top of the body are two (usually bigger) soundholes with similar grilles. Often beautiful Brazilian woods are used for the body.

Note that this resonator guitar is not played with a steel or bottleneck, only as a normal guitar. But I have put it with the resonator guitars anyway. The sound is usually quite "dark" (not at all like the sound of Chet Atkins' instrument), but marvellous for single-note jazz picking.

A similar looking guitar, but with 5 double metal string courses is called a viola caipira or viola sertaneja and used for Brazilian country music (see Brazil).

A similar resonator instrument is nowadays also made by McGill.

The wood used for the example is quite dark, making the instrument looks like it is made of bakelite. Probably there was a shortage of grilles at the time of building, as the 5th hole (on the top of the circle) is missing.

frypan

Probably the earliest production electric guitar was a 6-string steel guitar, made in the 1930's by Rickenbacher from solid aluminium. As the shape (and material) resembled a fry(ing) pan, it got its nickname. It was played laying on the lap, that is why these steelguitars are often called lap steels.

The entire body is made from a solid piece of aluminium, making it very heavy (5 kg), but giving it a lot of sustain. It has a horseshoe pickup, by which the strings go directly through the magnetic field, to the bridge at the end of the body.

The buttons of the tuning machine face upwards, for ease of tuning.

There are very many tunings in use for steelguitars, but a wellknown one is :
the C6 tuning : c e g a c' e'.

Since the 1990's Jerry Byrd (and others) designed a remake of the aluminium frypan, with some models made with 8 strings. See for more info on this frypan : Fuzzy.

The lapsteel is just a big plank of wood with strings on it (6, 7, 8 and sometimes even 10) with some decoration to show the "frets" for orientation. The sound comes via the electric amplifier.

The shape often is indeed just like a plank, but you can also find vague (solid body) guitar shapes, or an art-deco type body.

Often the steel guitars are not played on the lap, but they are mounted on 3 or more legs, and sometimes 2, 3 or even 4 steel guitars are joined together, each one tuned in a different tuning, so the player can easily change from one tuning to another (only rarely during a song).

Not always are all the notes of a chord in the straight line of the steel, so the steel often has to be slanted (both ways) to get the proper notes on different strings. It demands quite a lot of exercise to get those notes in tune...

Another important part of the lapsteel (and even more so for the pedalsteel guitar) is the volume pedal. By lowering the volume at the moment of picking the strings, and then - when the sound of the strings decreases - the volume pedal is pressed in such a way, that the resulting sound stays on a more or less even level - often giving the impression of an organ.

For more information see Brad's Steel.

On a normal (lap) steel guitar it is hard to play in tune while trying to make chords with a slanting steel, so people devised a way of retuning the strings during playing in such a way that chords would always fall in a straight line under the steel. Eventually this lead to quite complicated machine-like instruments : by using a number of floorpedals (pressed with the left foot) and some knee pedals (moved by the left or right knee : up, left or right) one or more strings are raised or lowered in such a way that plucking a full chord in a straight line under the steel is possible. The mechanism works via cables or via rods, invisible (for the public) underneath the (usually) metal body. The volumepedal is worked with the right foot.

Soon players discovered that it was fun picking the strings just when they were pressing pedals, which gave the pedalsteel guitar (together with the use of the volume pedal) its unique sound.
A particular playing technique is "blocking" : immediately after picking a string, the side of the right hand blocks the string, giving a short guitar-like string picking sound.

The pedalsteel guitar usually has 10 (sometimes only 8) strings and is tuned in E9 or C6. Some players use a double neck pedalsteel guitar, so they can use both types of tuning during the same session.
To combine both tunings nowadays also 12-string instruments are made, with 7 floor- and 5 kneepedals. The "copedants" (the set-up of tuning and specially which pedal moves which string) can be quite different between players.

E9 tuning for 10 strings : B d e f# g# b e' g#' eb' f#'
C6 tuning for 10 strings : C F A c e g a c' e' g'
Universal tuning for 12 strings : Bb Eb G Bb d f g bb d' f' g' e'

For more info see pedalsteelguitar.net.

Strings on the examples :

France : épinette des vosges
2 melody strings, 3 bourdons

Hungary : citera
5 melody strings, 3 long bourdons, 3x2 shorter bourdons

USA : (Apallachian) dulcimer
2 melody strings, 2 bourdons

On some East-European instruments there is a second row of frets between the main frets, giving the full chromatic range (like on the citera).

For some information on the dulcimer see Folknotes, and for lots of different German instruments, see Museum (in German). And about the hummel see Ulricus (in German)

Left : the USA mountain dulcimers often have the shape of an ellips (or teardrop) or a double eight (or hourglass). The example is a triangular dulcimer.