Wish you were here, version with weissenborn guitar

[Jean Pierre]

No one suggested him for the 1975 song festival?

...so I'm going, but this time with a version featuring my Weissenborn guitar.

The Weissenborn guitar is a lap steel guitar, a little cousin of the Dobro Guitar, two guitars I love to play
...and my Weissenborn sounds great!

technical note about Weissenborn guitar
Weissenborn or H. Weissenborn is a brand of lap slide guitar manufactured by Hermann Weissenborn in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s.

These instruments are now highly sought after, and form the base for most non-resonator acoustic lap steel guitars currently produced. It is estimated that fewer than 5,000 original instruments were produced, and it is unknown how many now survive. The signature feature of Weissenborn guitars is the hollow neck, effectively a highly adapted body chamber that runs the entire length of the body, making conventional playing completely impossible.

The name Weissenborn is now commonly used to describe this style of instrument in general, with H. Weissenborn and modern factory or luthier reproductions being referred to as Weissenborn or Weissenborn-style guitars.

[Pru]

omg! that guitar sounds so sweet JP. and you play it so expertly. i know my uncle loves to listen to your playing and i can see why. i've never really listened to pink floyd as they are not my cup of tea as the english say. nevertheless this sounds beautiful and again love the guitar playing.

[the physics teacher]

Nice one JP that weissenborn sounds terrific.
I am working on codering it myself but that will take more time.

[Pete C]

A great song well covered ! Beautiful guitar work, I love the sound of that Weissenborn.

Pete

[Ted]

Really nice, JP!

It seems like you are going to earn your commission from Weissenborn this month since Pete C and Corné are each going to buy one!

I didn't know that some steel guitars and dobros had playable frets – I thought they were just visual markers. But I heard you hammering and fretting. What the fret!? I searched and learned.

[StephenM]

wonderful JP

[TPB]

Always sounds so nice one of my favorites
Tim

[Jean Pierre]

thank you guys

answer for Ted

I didn't know that some steel guitars and dobros had playable frets

no, Ted, the Weissenborn guitar has no "playable" frets, the frets on the neck are merely visual markers...the strings are raised with an action of more than I cm,...and on the other hand the neck is hollow, square, an extension of the resonance box in a way...so it's impossible to play it other than on your lap, with a tone bar

I'm in a period of re-love with this marvellous quitare and I think I'm going to do a little series...tomorrow I'm publishing Gerschin's Summertime with guirare and weissenborn

[Ted]

the Weissenborn guitar has no "playable" frets,

Okay. This one does.

On your recording, some of the notes sound very "hammered" – very fretted. It's interesting that you can get that sound on a "slide" style guitar with no playable frets. Skills.

[Jean Pierre]

yes indeed Ted, I understand now what you mean indeed a process used on both the dobro and the weissenborn is to attack an open string and then hammer with the tone bar which causes an effect quite comparable to the hammer of the guitar

Likewise, the tone bare has a rounded end and a sharp-edged end, so that once a note has been played, the string can be hooked like with a mediator and the equivalent of pulling of the string can be done.
...you are very attentive and perceptive!

Il y a beaucoup d'autre effets interessant sur ces lap steel...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWkCKpkJkNg