I kept asking myself, ?What's the problem? You've built a 42 foot yacht, learned to fly a plane, learned a smattering of languages, became a marine surveyor, but this one's got you beat!?
It puzzled and irritated me and I thought it was beyond my skills but great things were to happen. Some time ago I went to see one of my guitar heroes, Jeff Lang play. Little did I know but this event changed my whole life. Stunned, amazed and totally dumfounded I watched this guy take a strange fig shaped guitar, lay it across his lap and bring forth some of the best guitar slidin? howling dog blues sounds that ever slid out of the Delta. My amazement continued as Mr Lang tuned and retuned for more whiny, Orientally inclined Celtic and Asian megarythyms until I was numb. You CAN'T get that sound from a guitar?not possible?.guess what, you can, and he did! I wanted one of these Weissenbourns real bad!
I was hooked, I slunk home now thoroughly depressed. My guitars hid in shame, we ignored each other for days. The die was cast. Come hell or high water, I was gonna get me a Weissenbourn slip ?slidin? lap top steel guitar! Three to five grand was out of the question?.dare I try to make one?
Here good fortune struck. Thanks to the great kindness and encouragement of my good friend and incredible Luthier of Tamborine Mountain Kim Hancock and his two boys Sean and Dane, I decided to take the plunge. With Kim's further help and assurance and the supply of some really beautiful timber in a long box and a great book on how to build guitars, I started the impossible dream.I decided, once and for all to build that damn guitar and what's more, write a book about it at the same time! Having visited many websites and read a few interesting books on guitar making I realised there were a few different methods of building a guitar from scratch. However, I decided that the safest method for me was to build a mould, an actual replica of the guitar and a work-base that the mould may be constructed on.
The basic job of the mould is to give you a real live 3D model of the guitar you intend to build, literally, around the mould itself. The other function of the mould is to have a very handy and immediate reference to work out front, back and sides dimensions of the precious timber you are about to cut. The work-base is exactly what it says. It's a flat base constructed from MDF board, two pieces ?? thick each glued together for strength to form a mini ?strong back? to build your guitar on.
The work-base has handy slots cut into it around the perimeter and these are used to slide small clamps into when gluing on the back fitting the sides or even keeping the mould or guitar still.
So, the work-base is your bench, your mould is the basic pattern that your Weissenbourn guitar will be built on and around. Once the basic body of the guitar has been constructed, naturally the mould is then taken away and the build continued?..are you with me so far? Good, we'll slide on (pun intended) to how this was to be achieved......In fact the whole thing was going to be really awkward for me as I live on a forty two foot yacht in a marina...So what? It was going to happen come Hell or high water, literally. For any of you interested in taking a look at my new guitar you can take a visit to www.buildaweissenborn.com and clicking on the 'Photos of the build" button. I hope a few of you fence sitters out there can take heart from this ...It was so much easier than I thought..just goes to show!
Some people may be familiar with the different styles of music being played on guitars, one of these wonderful styles of music comes from what is called the slide guitar. Everyone has a different style that they would prefer, the one that just makes their heart melt. The sounds that come from a slide guitar are unforgettable and just so enjoyable. The slide guitar has such a unique sound to it, that it truly can not even be described. This style of music has actually been around for many, many years, although the actual instrument has changed quite a bit.
You have got to remember though that back in the days it was made differently and went by the name of the jitterbug. This was one of the very first blue instruments ever made. The jitterbug had to ability to create such a sound that most people had never experienced hearing before. Once the sounds got out there, it became extremely noticed by its listeners and aspiring musicians.
Having the ability to use a slide guitar would definitely save your fingers from being hurt or worn out. Some of these are made from glass or metal. Slide guitars have been known for being used with some types of Hawaiian music. This type of music being played on slide guitars had a very huge influence on others attempting to choose this type of guitar for their instrumental music purposes. This became very popular all around the world actually. Once it hit, it hit hard and strong, everyone was talking about this new incredible sound.
The manufacturers were working day and night creating more and more of these types of slide guitars, for everyone anticipating being able to play them. They became so popular so quickly because once this sound got out there, to all of its listeners, word of mouth became the true making, for more of these musicians evolving their original sounds and turning their old sounds into the new sounds coming from right from their new slide guitars.
The variety of techniques now being offered when playing the slide guitars became recognizable by early, famous, blues playing musicians. These types of techniques were new and unique and caught the eyes of every upcoming musician awaiting their turn and to all of the old school, already famous musicians. Nothing can compare to the sounds of a glass bottleneck, brass, or metal pipe, sliding up and down the strings of the slide guitars.
It is really an unbelievable sound and if you have never experiences listening to these sounds, you have got to check into it, once you have heard these sounds, you will know no other sound like this. The slide guitar sounds have literally captivated all of its listeners and musicians, showing them that this style is not going anywhere, it is only improving constantly giving new hope for new types of music being played all around.
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Terryb has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Boating and Guide Guitar. Terry Buddell is a freelance author and lives on his boat in Australia.Terry recently finished building and designing a weissenborn acoustic slide guitar. He has written a book about the guitar called 'How to build a weissenborn"and you can check out m. Terryb's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.
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