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Basil Henriques
Lokahi
United Kingdom
225 Posts |
 Posted - 12/25/2009 : 12:50:01 AM
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Here's one for the "Slack Key" fraternity to consider, It's certain that the 3 Mexican wranglers (employed By King Kamehameha to teach the Hawaiians how to manage the herds of wild cattle roaming the islands) used GUT String guitars.
So just exactly WHEN did the Slack Key style start to use steel strings, and moreover aren't steel strings departing from the originality of the SOUND and style ?
See this for more details
AND, to further cloud the issue of the Hawaiian guitar, were the first ones (Played by Joseph Kekuku, Gabriel Davion and others) steel strung or gut ?
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wdf
Ha`aha`a
USA
1153 Posts |
Posted - 12/25/2009 : 06:06:10 AM
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Well, when I sit down, I have a gut in my lap. Does that count?  |
Dusty |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 12/25/2009 : 07:45:20 AM
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All you have to do is use a steel on a nylon-strung guitar--less volume, less sustain--to see why a player would prefer a steel-string if one were available. Washburn was building inexpensive steel-strings in the 1890s, and early photos of Hawaiians with guitars show what look like Washburns (though they could be gut-strung Martins).
As far as "departing from the originality," one thing I've noticed about Hawaiian musical culture is its ability to embrace new resources and inspirations as they appear. Auntie Alice's first guitar could well have been a gut-string, but later in life the photos show her with a Martin (what looks like a 00). The slack key we hear now was composed on steel-strings (Gabby is pictured with a Martin dread early on)--or, in the case of, say, Leonard Kwan, on electrics. (Leonard's L-5 had been his Uncle Pete's before. That makes two generations playing Gibson electrics right there.) Hawaiian steel players used Nationals when they appeared, and took to electric lap-steel quickly as well.
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Edited by - Russell Letson on 12/25/2009 07:45:46 AM |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2009 : 09:13:17 AM
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quote:
“While steel-stringers often presented calm, reasoned arguments, the gut players just as often responded with vitriolic attacks and hysterical warnings that lumped steel strings with simplified (tablature) notational systems, alternative open tunings, and music of questionable value played by American minorities.” Noonan quotes one such gut string advocate who, in 1897, complained of “that class of plunkers whose ideal guitarist is a Negro armed with a steel-strung jangle-trap, tuned more or less Spanish, and which he manipulates with the second finger of his left hand, and a mandolin pick.
Now that's interesting! Notice the phrase "vitriolic attacks and hysterical warnings" - surely something we'd never see today on the Interweb.
quote:
It's certain that the 3 Mexican wranglers (employed By King Kamehameha to teach the Hawaiians how to manage the herds of wild cattle roaming the islands) used GUT String guitars.
One of whom had the very Hungarian name of Kosuth. Another mystery.
BTW: Steel strings, or at least metal strings, have been around for a very long time. The Irish harp, for one, was wire strung. As were quite a few Asian and European instruments. The guitar did not develop from the ud... lute ... a gut stringed instrument, but from a bunch of flat-backed guitar-shaped things. Some of which were wire strung.
It's a big subject, innit?
Happy Wren Hunting, everyone.
Said John, the Red Nose. 
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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a
USA
1051 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2009 : 10:02:21 AM
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quote:
BTW: Steel strings, or at least metal strings, have been around for a very long time. The Irish harp, for one, was wire strung.
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Of course, out here in the west, we use BARBED WIRE strings, which may be one of the reasons my progress is slow and painful.
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Edited by - Kapila Kane on 12/28/2009 10:02:47 AM |
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slipry1
Ha`aha`a
USA
1511 Posts |
Posted - 12/29/2009 : 08:40:49 AM
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| In one (or omre)of the histories (I can't remember which one) of Hawaiian music, it said that metal strings came in with the Portugese, in the 1880's, and after that, most Hawaiian musicians switched to metal strings. Since that's about the time the steel guitar was invented, I'd guess that the first steels had metal strings. You get a LOT more sustain out of a metal string, and a lot less bending when you put the steel down on it. It is rather peculiar that mose ukes have gut stings, and the ancestor of the uke is said to be of Portugese origin. Most vihuela's I've seen have metal strings, though. Hmmmm........... |
keaka |
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slipry1
Ha`aha`a
USA
1511 Posts |
Posted - 12/29/2009 : 08:45:00 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mark
Happy Wren Hunting, everyone.
Said John, the Red Nose.
I'm going hunting, said Fessel to Fose. Be sure you have your great cauldron ready! Happy New Year, pard! |
keaka |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 12/29/2009 : 12:35:45 PM
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"Tail-bone raw! said Billy Barlowe."
Unko Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2165 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2010 : 10:02:19 AM
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| I don't care which kind of strings a person uses, as long as the strings are in chune. |
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Volcano
Akahai
USA
89 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2010 : 09:52:00 AM
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| The first production electric guitar was the Rickenbaker "Frying Pan." The National company first produced metal body resonator instruments so that Hawaiian-style players could be heard when doing slide guitar lap style. Weisenborns were all steel string. Nylon strings don't really work at all with a slide. The sound is unappealing. You can hear slide guitar on very early cylander recordings - always steel string. |
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Were the first Lap steels Steel or Gut strung
