The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone got or played any of the Weissenborn copies, like Gold Tone or Clearwater or whatever?

I'd appreciate any info at all.

Cheers

Bob

I had a Gold Tone solid top guitar that was nice but the general consensus is that they are spotty. The best I have heard about are the Superior and the Lazy River. Lindley seems to like the Superiors a lot, and his opinion carries a small amount of weight....

I've played a variety of different Weissenborn and Weissenborn style guitars and have posted sound clips of a few different models on my web site (click on guitar comp section) www.robanderlik.com

If you search the blogs you will find some diversity of opinions of the various "new" Weissenborn's available. I've never played the Superior's, so I can't comment on them. I have played 8-10 different vintage Weissenborn's, as well a variety of newer models, including Bear Creek, Clinesmith, Lazy River and the Gold Tone Solid Mahogany. All are good guitars at their respective price levels.

If you are looking for something in the $650 price range the Gold Tone's are a good starter instrument. If you can afford to spend around $1400 or so, the Lazy River's are a professional quality instrument at a very reasonable price. The Clinesmith is a great guitar as is the Bear Creek!


Regards,
RobA

If price is less of a concern, Lindley was happily playing not one but two of these beauties made by Paddy Burgin from New Zealand in his recent appearance in Portland:

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/pgburg ... enborn.htm

He said that he acquired one, and then immediately started worrying about what would happen if anything happened to it, so he ordered a second one! Beautiful tones...

Here is a Lazy River:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=105062

Keith - spotty as is 'patchy' or 'variable quality' rather than aesthetically spotty?

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated

Bob

I have just seen some negative reviews about the tone and sound. Mine was great, I thought, it was an early one and had a nice voice to it.

I have a solid spruce (solid mahogany back and sides) Gold Tone. After the change of strings (thanks to the forum for the informations about)the guitar sounds very good. I am not an expert about weiss but I can compare the sound with my martin 000.
Aesthetically the low level quality appears in the bad sunburst finish, not perfect bindings and in some dribbles of glue.
Regards,
Andrea

I play a Superior Weissenborn and it is a great guitar. The only drawback when I bought mine was the wide string spacing. I had a luthier install a different bridge and nut. This took care of the problem. I notice on their website now that you can get a guitar with a tighter string spacing. I installed a Sunrise magnetic pickup in the sound hole and a Baggs iBeam transducer under the bridge. I run these into a two channel acoustic amp for a wonderful sound.

Thanks Erv, I'll take a look.

Wide string spacing may suit me.I have the issue in reverse with my Fender 3X8 - too close!

Cheers Bob

Bob Bowman wrote:
Wide string spacing may suit me.

The Superior I owned had a string spacing of 70 or 72mm at the bridge - that's almost like playing a harp, and it also makes it hard to get good balance from a magnetic soundhole pickup if you want to use one.

I also did like Erv and had a new bridge and nut made for it, that helped a lot. The Superiors are otherwise very fine instruments, probably the best of the factory made models. But you're only $2-400 away from a custom made Lazy River or Celtic Cross....

Steinar

I have a John Pearse-Weissenborn made by Musicalia in Italy. Fine quality, fine sound. Mine was listed at about $2000, but it had some cosmetic damage, so I got good discount. The wood I think is what is called Afromosia(sic), like dark, highly figured rosewood. Nice 'rope' binding.

String spacing is pretty close to my resophonics.

Thanx,
Jim

What Erv and Steiner said. With the additional comment that everybody talks about what great tone my Superior has.
I was very disapointed in the Gold Tone I had. The gent who described it as a good starter guitar had it right.

Edward Meisse wrote:What Erv and Steiner said. With the additional comment that everybody talks about what great tone my Superior has.
I was very disapointed in the Gold Tone I had. The gent who described it as a good starter guitar had it right.

Did you get the feeling the guitar was overbuilt or overbraced? Or the reverse? I ask because the originals are often said to be very lightly built and I was wondering if the newer ones were the opposite...

BTW if anyone has a Gold Tone Weissenborn that has some damage (like cracks or a detatched bridge) and they'd be willing to part with it, please let me know. I'm trying to learn repair and I'd like to experiment with something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The worse condition (and cheaper ) the better!

Now that you mention it, overbraced is probably the word. My understanding is that Gold Tone has bought the original Weissenborn design as well as the name and that they are using that original Herman Weissenborn design for their guitars. So, If I understand right, these are brand new guitars with a vintage design. The superior tone of the Superior .......and other weissenborn style guitars is almost certainly due to advances in design since the, what was it, 1910's.....and I'm sure there have been many.

From what Bob Brozman says, the Bear Creeks come closest to the original Weissenborns - superlight build, etc. But he's said very good things about other builders, too - the folks like Neil Russell, Rance, etc., who are building fine guitars as well.

Bear Creeks look like amazing instruments!!!. BUT for the price of one Bear Creek I own three amazing Celtic Cross weissenborn copies. A baritone, Kona and a regular, couldn't be happier with the instruments and the sevice. Im sure Lazy River and a few others fall into the same quality and price range. Support are local Luthiers.

I cannot find a web site for Celtic Cross guitars?

I cannot find a web site for Celtic Cross guitars?

Neil's new site should be up by the end of the month at www.celticcrossinstruments.com

here's my lovely Celtic Cross "instrument that resembles a Weissenborn"

http://www.telusplanet.net/~gsimmons/weissenborn

Neil can be reached at

neilscelticcross@shaw.ca

Hes just finishing up a couple of great looking teardrops, one regular scale and a lovely baritone teardrop that I beleive is going to Ben Harper