Prewar Hawaiian steel guitar learning materials?

[Ryan Matzen]

Hi everyone,

Thanks to the likes of Chris Ruppenthal and Sebastian Müller (via their YouTube videos), I have fallen in love with prewar Hawaiian steel guitar. I have become a big fan of players like Sol Hoopii, Sam Ku West and King Bennie Nawahi. While on the lookout for an instrument, I have been picking up some learning materials. So far, I have Bob Brozman’s Hawaiian DVD and his Slide Guitar Blues for Lap Style DVD’s. I also have Fernando Perez‘s Lap Steel Guitar Video Tutorials and Stacy Phillips‘ The Art of Hawaiian Steel Guitar books. Are there any other instructional materials that I should be looking into?

Any input would be appreciated.

All the best,

Ryan

[Ryan Matzen]

Hey Sebastian,

Thanks for your input!

I will definitely be getting your TABs and backing tracks.

I believe the materials that I currently have use G Low Bass. Would I be able to get into the tunings that you mentioned using a set of John Pearse Phosphor Bronze Wound G Tuning strings (gauges are .016, .018, .027W, 039W, .049W, .059W.)? Or, would I need a lighter gauge set?

Thanks for your help,

Ryan

[John Burton]

I just want to second the recommendation for Sebastion's tab and backing tracks. Really good stuff. Just got a few the other day.
Stacy Phillips books are great. I kind of skipped over the first volume and just started working through some of volume 2.
I have an old square neck Oahu acoustic; but I keep it strung up open D. I need to string it up for A C# E A C# E. I've just been using a lap steel tuned open A.
I use software called "Replayer" that lets me bring the G stuff up in Stacy Phillips book to A.
I think most of the original material was in A, and that seems to work much better on shorter scaled lap steels (though acoustic seems the way to go for this stuff)

[Lloyd Graves]

I'll third Sebastian's material. I've got the Stacy Phillips books (and also use a program to shift the pitch up to open A), and while it's good, I feel that Sebastian's arrangements/tab give a bit more variety for arranging each tune. His Hilo Hanakahi (excuse my spelling error) offers 4 separate ways of playing the melody.

Also, I did a few Zoom lessons with Sebastian and found then very useful, in that he was able to correct some of my techniques. A book just doesn't do that. Sebastian also helped me figure out better ways to arrange the one or two songs I had tried out on my own.

It was also very therapeutic to talk to him face to face (via Zoom) in these pandemic-times.

[Ryan Matzen]

Hi Ryan, some Dobro players use like a .059 for Highbass G, I find that quite heavy.
When I used Highbass G on my Tricone I used this set:

https://www.ghsstrings.com/products/114 ... tor-guitar

A 0.054 sounds more reasonable for a G than a 0.059.

Which steelguitar do you want to use ?

I just got a National single cone steel guitar. It sounds better than I thought it would. But, it is very loud!

Ideally, I would really like a Tricone. And, would really like an electric to be able to practice quietly. I wasn’t on the look out for a single cone square neck. But, this one kind of fell in my lap! And, I don’t have any income at the moment. So, I figure it will do for a while.

I had asked about the strings because I already have purchased a few more sets of the John Pearse Phosphor Bronze Wound G Tuning strings. And, since all the learning materials (DVD’s and books) that I have seem to be in Lowbass G, I wanted to make sure that I would be able to tune to Highbass G without having to switch string gauges in order to not damage my guitar. According to your last post. It sounds like the strings that I have, though most likely not ideal, will work in either G tuning for the time being. Is it safe to leave a square neck guitar with heavy gauge strings in an Highbass A tuning? Would the gauges that I already have also work for tuning to the C#minor tuning (I am guessing not. But, I though I’d ask)?

Thanks for your help. I will be in contact shortly about some of your TAB’s and backing tracks.

All the best,

Ryan

[Ryan Matzen]

I just want to second the recommendation for Sebastion's tab and backing tracks. Really good stuff. Just got a few the other day.
Stacy Phillips books are great. I kind of skipped over the first volume and just started working through some of volume 2.
I have an old square neck Oahu acoustic; but I keep it strung up open D. I need to string it up for A C# E A C# E. I've just been using a lap steel tuned open A.
I use software called "Replayer" that lets me bring the G stuff up in Stacy Phillips book to A.
I think most of the original material was in A, and that seems to work much better on shorter scaled lap steels (though acoustic seems the way to go for this stuff)

Hi John,

Thanks for the info and tip about the Replayer software. I’ll look into that.

All the best,

Ryan

[Ryan Matzen]

I'll third Sebastian's material. I've got the Stacy Phillips books (and also use a program to shift the pitch up to open A), and while it's good, I feel that Sebastian's arrangements/tab give a bit more variety for arranging each tune. His Hilo Hanakahi (excuse my spelling error) offers 4 separate ways of playing the melody.

Also, I did a few Zoom lessons with Sebastian and found then very useful, in that he was able to correct some of my techniques. A book just doesn't do that. Sebastian also helped me figure out better ways to arrange the one or two songs I had tried out on my own.

It was also very therapeutic to talk to him face to face (via Zoom) in these pandemic-times.

Hi Lloyd,

Thanks for the info. I may have to see about taking some Skype lessons. I have had an issue with getting a Dunlop bullet steel. I had two lost in transit. The third one is supposed to arrive tomorrow. So, hopefully it will actually show up and I can start working through some of this stuff!

All the best,

Ryan

[Ryan Matzen]

If the “original” Hawaiian steel guitar tuning is just a higher pitched Dobro tuning. Is there a reason why Bob Brozman and Fernando Perez would teach Hawaiian steel guitar in a Lowbass tuning? I had assumed that Stacy Phillips did this as well. But, after looking through one of his books, it looks like he did use the standard Dobro tuning. This makes sense to me since there are already many people setup to use this tuning. I don’t understand why people would choose to teach in the Lowbass tuning though. Am I missing something?

All the best,

Ryan

[Chris Templeton]

I like Bob Brzman's teaching courses.
Scotty hired me to record both of Jerry Byrd's Hoolaulea's in '85 & '86. I believe it was the first year that Bob Brozman played.
He absolutely tore it up and got two standing ovations. Biggest response of the shows.
While I'm on the subject, here's my picture of the great Hawaiian steeler, Billy Hew Len at one of Jerry's shows:

Billy worked as a mechanic and also played guitar. He was working on an engine and it fell and that was it for his hand.
He was going crazy because he couldn't play guitar.
His doctor or friend went to a saddlery and had them make a leather attachment with a steel bar, and he became one of Hawaii's revered steelers.

[Ryan Matzen]

I like Bob Brzman's teaching courses.
Scotty hired me to record both of Jerry Byrd's Hoolaulea's in '85 & '86. I believe it was the first year that Bob Brozman played.
He absolutely tore it up and got two standing ovations. Biggest response of the shows.
While I'm on the subject, here's my picture of the great Hawaiian steeler, Billy Hew Len at one of Jerry's shows:

Billy worked as a mechanic and also played guitar. He was working on an engine and it fell and that was it for his hand.
He was going crazy because he couldn't play guitar.
His doctor or friend went to a saddlery and had them make a leather attachment with a steel bar, and he became one of Hawaii's revered steelers.

I agree that Bob’s lessons are good. I just don’t understand why he used the Lowbass tuning that he did on his Hawaiian DVD.

I came across Billy Hew Len form the “Billy Hew Len - Hal Smith Archive” via the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/LenThree03

[Ryan Matzen]

Ryan, I think Bob Brozman used the Lowbass tuning because he plays a lot of self accompaniment style , be it Hawaiian or Blues. This is the main advantage that I see in Lowbass vs HiBass. Hibass layout is super logical, therefor learning the fretboard is easier, and you have some very nice slant positions that you don't have in Lowbass.

I disagree with Bob's statement in the course that G was the most prominent tuning in the early Hawaiian style, the biggest chunk of available recordings is in A, most probably because the steel guitar was cutting better through the mix with that higher pitched tuning, listening to the latest Bennie Nawahi Interview that appeared last year he even tuned up to C Hibass.

That makes sense.

Where can I find this Bennie Nawahi interview you spoke of?

[Ryan Matzen]

Ryan, I think Bob Brozman used the Lowbass tuning because he plays a lot of self accompaniment style , be it Hawaiian or Blues. This is the main advantage that I see in Lowbass vs HiBass. Hibass layout is super logical, therefor learning the fretboard is easier, and you have some very nice slant positions that you don't have in Lowbass.

I disagree with Bob's statement in the course that G was the most prominent tuning in the early Hawaiian style, the biggest chunk of available recordings is in A, most probably because the steel guitar was cutting better through the mix with that higher pitched tuning, listening to the latest Bennie Nawahi Interview that appeared last year he even tuned up to C Hibass.

That makes sense.

Where can I find this Bennie Nawahi interview you spoke of?

I think that I just found it?: https://eastriverstringband.com/radiosh ... rong-pt-1/ and https://eastriverstringband.com/radiosh ... rong-pt-2/

Thanks for bringing this up! I was unaware that it existed. And, I am very excited to listen to it!

[Andy Volk]

What an astounding find!