The Steel Guitar Forum

Dana Blodgett wrote:I was in Waikiki about three weeks ago and saw Greg Sardinha play an old Fender stringmaster for a couple of hours. The very next day he was playing a beautiful "Sunburst" Canopus with a Hibiscus on the front! Both guitars sounded very good and I would say that the "Canopus" sounded awesome, very similiar to a Stringmaster! Casey Olsen was playing a "green" Canopus that reminded me of the color of an "LDG". I am guessing these are Custom finishes.I can't say how good they sounded to me other than awesome. Casey and Greg are both great talents.
My guess about the scale length is (22.5")that it might be easier for bar "Slants." Their guitars were NOT lacking in sustain either!

My understanding is that most of the Canopus steels you see being played in Hawaii - Casey's and Greg's, to name two - were "endorsements" - gifts from Yasu for the delight of having his masterpieces played by masterful players. But rumor has it that Yasu was reluctant to make a sunburst for Greg because he had not done sunburst before. So Greg said he wanted sunburst and didn't want a Canopus unless he could have it in his color choice - and walked away from a free guitar. Yasu could have chosen to be insulted, but I'll be darned if Yasu didn't make him one in sunburst.

Or so the story goes, anyway.

Casey played the green Canopus on the CD he did with me. (I will have to post a clip here.) And I saw Jeff Au Hoy playing the same green Canopus at the Alfred Apaka memorial concert last summer. When I asked him why he was playing Casey's guitar, he indicated he had had some kind of technical issue with his Rickenbacker fry pan - like leaving home without strings or something.

The guy get's mad if you don't play his gifts exclusively in public.