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OHIO-HAOLE
Akahai
USA
86 Posts |
 Posted - 11/22/2005 : 12:20:56 AM
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 Aloha ohana...been off line awhile..good to bounce back...hope all is well with everyone. Just picked up a CD called "Beyond Six Strings"...WOW...beautiful stuff from different artists on Harp Guitar. Does anyone know if anybody has done some slack key with these beautiful instruments?...If your not hip to harp guitar go to
www.harpguitar.com ...later all, Aloha...Ken (Ohio-Haole).
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2165 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2005 : 04:46:46 AM
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| Haven't heard of one yet. There was a guy in Seattle about 100 years ago that made them. I tried a variant of one, larger wierdly shaped body with 6 strings. Great tone! From what I understand, the extra strings can resonate like on a Hardanger fiddle, or one could play the appropriate string for bass. |
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chunky monkey
Ha`aha`a
USA
1019 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2005 : 06:00:07 AM
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Tom Owen on Kauai builds harp guitars, as well as resonators and weisenborn-style steel rigs. He does gigs where he plays about a dozen different instruments that he's made. Not a slack-key player, but an interesting guy. Check out
www.wailua-instruments.com for his stuff. |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2005 : 08:27:41 AM
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My friends Tone and Dave build harp instruments and do some local (Idaho) gigs. You can hear them play at www.rexjames.com
Dave, on guitar, often plays in taropatch, but the style leans more towards Michael Hedges style or celtic perhaps.
I think the era of the harp instrument, around 100 years ago, was a time of experimental and novelty instruments. They were used to play the folk music of the day, but never caught on around the world because of cost or complexity.
Jesse Tinsley
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2005 : 08:34:16 AM
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I've fooled around with playing other people's harp guitars from time to time.
Slack key sounds amazing on 'em -- enough so that I've been toying with ordering one. A bud named Joe Morgan has one by an English luthier named Stephen Sedgwick: www.stephensedgwick.co.uk. It's flat out amazing. I'm still undecided about dropping three to four grand on a new instrument when I can't really play the one(s) I have yet, tho'
Hard to play? Well, it's like learning to play all over again. But then, I only got about an hour on Joe's last year in Texas. Seems I couldn't pry it away from Paul Oorts...
BTW: The relatively inexpensive Dyer copies sold at Lark in the Morning and a few other places are, ummm, problematic. As in: caveat emptor nui loa.
cheers,
Mark |
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OHIO-HAOLE
Akahai
USA
86 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2005 : 3:55:39 PM
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| Thanks for the feedback...all these years and even seeing him in concert never knew Michael Hedges dipped into a harp guitar..but now it makes sense to me after hearing some of the tunes with such a full sound. I'll stick to six strings..got enough trouble with them!...Also wanted to ask if anyone has heard Kaki King...I saw her live and she was sweet...makes up her own tunings!..wonder if she knows about slack key!...aloha..Ken.(OHIO-HAOLE) |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2005 : 09:01:00 AM
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quote:
I think the era of the harp instrument, around 100 years ago, was a time of experimental and novelty instruments. They were used to play the folk music of the day, but never caught on around the world because of cost or complexity.
Actually, harp guitars and similar weird-os with extra bass strings have been around forever. David Rogers from Ashland, OR, plays and records with a 6 foot monster called the Arch Lute.
You can see a picture, and listen to some audio clips here: https://www.indiana.edu/~mrktpl/focus/08.shtml9
The kind of harp guitars we're talking about were actually quite common in their day -- you can find tons of old pix of all kinds of ensembles, including Hawaiian ones, with one or more of 'em. The reason there aren't zillions of old instruments around is that they tended to fall apart -- just like the old Weissenborns.
cheers,
Mark |
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Larry Goldstein
Lokahi
267 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2005 : 06:54:35 AM
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A couple of months ago I had the great pleasure of seeing Pat Metheny at the Cellar Door in Las Vegas. He played a harp guitar on one of his opening tunes and it was just amazing. I looked around to see if others were as blown away and the house was mezmerized. Pat got an ovation for that number, and he was just warming up!
Larry |
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Sarah
`Olu`olu
571 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2005 : 05:37:20 AM
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Stephen Bennett has to be one of the best harp guitarists... you can hear some samples at http://www.harpguitar.com/ (same link as OHIO-HAOLE posted initially).
He doesn't play slack key, but he's been devoted to the instrument for ages. He had an old one from his ?grandfather but had it duplicated so he'd have a sturdy instrument.
We heard him live on a tour with Tommy Emmanuel, and Tommy's "pyrotechnics" really set off Stephen's equally accomplished quiet style.
-Sarah
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Mknut
Aloha
USA
6 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2006 : 08:51:37 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mark
The kind of harp guitars we're talking about were actually quite common in their day -- you can find tons of old pix of all kinds of ensembles, including Hawaiian ones, with one or more of 'em. The reason there aren't zillions of old instruments around is that they tended to fall apart -- just like the old Weissenborns.
cheers,
Mark
Just wanted to chime in and agree here.. During Hawaiian music's early popularity in the teens-20s, there were MANY groups that used Harp-Guitar - and not just the really strange looking Dyers and Knutsens. I've seen several photos of groups with "regular looking" guitars that just have one or two extra bass strings. I'm guessing the HG was used to simulate string bass..
I'm having trouble finding actual recordings of HGs in Hawaiian settings, though.. Anyone here know of any? In Bob Brozman's Hawaiian Guitar video, there's a picture of a record label that lists as instrumentation something like:
String bass - ukulele - guitar bass - steel guitar
I wonder what "guitar bass" meant? |
Darrell Urbien
Research Assistant for the Knutsen Archives
Member, Echo Park Historical Society |
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Podagee57
Lokahi
USA
280 Posts |
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Kai Kane
Aloha
USA
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2006 : 5:49:51 PM
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Aloha Kakou:
I live in eastern Virginia and had the pleasure of sitting in on harmonica with harp-guitar master Steven Bennett and Pat Donohue.
I think that Steven would be open to some nahenahe.
Let's get him on Taropatch!
A hui hou,
Sandy. |
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