The Steel Guitar Forum

What Chris said - I don't think a reso is more "tuning flexible" than a Weissenborn-style guitar. The right string gauges are essential, and different guitars respond differently to different tunings, so it is hard to know in advance how it will work before trying it on an actual instrument.

I think the reason people associate Weissenborns with tunings with a low D in the bass may be because Weissenborns have much more low end than resos, so you get a fuller bass sound. Resos tend to have their strength in the mid to high register, but Weissenborns have this too, but they also have rich bottom end, which may seem to be lacking when one uses a tuning with a higher pitched 6th string, if one is used to the "Weissenborn sound" including a rich low end?

Anyway, hope you find a guitar you are happy with!

Cheers,

Fred

When I want the 6th sound on resophonic or Weissenborn I do exactly what Chris said ... use the same intervals as ECAGEC tuning but tune down to Bb, A or G. Being lazy, I'll do almost anything not to restring!

One example; If I decide to tune my weiss to a highbass "dobro" G, I simply move the 5th string down to the 6th, and use a 040 or 042 for the 5th. Like this:

Three lowest strings of lowbass G and D:

4th - 036 - tuned to D
5th - 046 - tuned to G or A
6th - 056 - tuned to D

Highbass G:

4th - 036 - tuned to D
5th - 040 - tuned to B
6th - 046 - tuned to G

Tom Gray wrote:

Rickey Mitchell wrote:
Tom, Are your Weissenborns solid necks?

Rickey, one is a Kona, with a solid neck to the seventh fret. It has a brighter sound, with less low resonance. If I were to put any of them in C6 it would be that one.

Thanks for your reply Tom.
By the way Delta Moon is one of my favorite groups these days.
I've just about wore out your live cd.
I have spoke to David Dart a couple of times over the last year or so and I definitely thinking about a Dart Weissenborn .
Checking out people that have used his guitars was how I discovered Delta Moon.
Any way, the first thing I notice about was that you stand while you play.
when I spoke to Dave, he said not only can you stand and play one of his instruments you tune them too any tuning you want,something you can't do on most Weissenborn's new or old,due to the stress on the hollow necks.
Could you please give us some feed back on this?
Thanks Rickey

A builder who has as yet gone unnoticed in this conversation is Carroll Benoit. I have several Weissenborn-like guitars currently in the shop (just sold an original last week) and, while it is difficult to compare the models to each other- like apples and oranges, the Benoit is a marvelous guitar. Left to right- Vineyard, Asher, and Benoit.

I have a Benoit resophonic and can second that Carroll's guitars are fabulous instruments. Haven't seen or played his Weissenborn-style yet.

Hi there, Sarchar Amos in Melbourne Australia does a great Weissenborn copy for around $2500 Australian using blackwood etc. You can see and here it at the myspace link below. I've tuned them to open G with an E instead of 4th string D to get a G6 tuning. Cheers, Joel

There is too Richard Wilson weissenborn. Reaaly cheap!
http://www.rwguitars.com/Weissenborns-F ... ent_Model/

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Handmade-Weissen ... 0499226823