The Steel Guitar Forum

I would like to recommend Rance White's work (Lazy River Guitars) regarding his luthiery skills and the affordability of his basic Weissenborn style guitars. I purchased a spruce/walnut standard model. The abalone inlays and curly maple binding comes standard as do the inlaid maple position markers (instead of frets).

For $1415 shipped to your door (with a case), the price was very reasonable. I have had it four days and played it three hours a day now. It has opened up a bit already. Thanks to Steinar Gregertsen who advised me to put a lighter gauge on the highest string to get a sweeter tone out of the very highest notes, it sounds great.

After reading many post and web sites, I found many professionals prefer lighter gauge strings on these rather than heavier gauge. Heavy is louder but does not produce the sweetest tones, at least to my ear and many others as well.

To conclude, for the price and quality, I call it the 'Working Mans' Weissenborn style guitar.

I have had the same model as yours for about a year and am very satisfied with mine. It just gets better with time.

Hey Gary, congrats! I just got the same model as yours about a month ago.
It's a beautifully crafted instrument, a pleasure to play.




RA
BIG STEEL

Gary Lynch wrote:Thanks to Steinar Gregertsen who advised me to put a lighter gauge on the highest string to get a sweeter tone out of the very highest notes, it sounds great.

Glad it worked out Gary!

"Working Mans Guitar" - I like that term, the basic Lazy River models are affordable no-nonsense guitars with a low "bling" factor. But don't let the plain looks fool you, as these instruments mature they develop a harmonic richness that rivals far more expensive instruments.

Steinar

Man at work...

...and loving it!!!
A Lazy River is a great instrument.

Classic......

Okay, I'll play....



I sold this one after I got the LR Teardrop model, but will call Rance later tonight to see what he can cook up for me. I need another full bodied in addition to the Teardrop..


Steinar

Yes you do!




We should start a club - the Happy Hollowneckers, or something . .

Steinar...You must stop selling so many instruments...quit eating, quit making house payments, anything...but keep all your toys(LOL's)...

Here, me and my Lazy River in Paris, France!

Great photo....nice color

About a month from now I'll have a brand new spruce/walnut model......

Gary,- did you take that photo of your Lazy River? It's a great photo, really shows the simple elegance of these instruments..

Steinar

Aloha Steinar,

Rance took it just before he sent the guitar to me. If you can get a large piece of black felt, and hang it down a wall and onto the floor, it really makes a great background as it absorbs the light with no reflective glare causing the instrument to pop out in the photo, almost 3D like. A good digital camera with it's small flash also enhanced by a skylight and/or window light can produce excellent photos. One does not have to buy expensive equipment to take photos of your instruments. An inexpensive tripod keeps the camera still and allows you to get 100% of your cameras ability

I have a background as a photojournalist and used to haul around a ton of equipment with me. But in my later years I've figured out ways to use simple quality equipment and very little of it.

By looking at Rance's photo, I see he has an area set up with a backdrop that enhances the subject, absorbs unwanted glare, and a light source that provides nice all around lighting without any dark shadows on the instrument.

Rick Aiello gets some nice close ups of his work using available outside light in his yard.

Gary

Great news about your new LR full body guitar. The 'new' smell is already leaving mine.

Add my voice to the chorus of satisfied Lazy River Weiss owners. Had my spruce/walnut instrument about a year and a half and I couldn't be happier with its tone. I play it at a local coffee house and I always get compliments on its sound. Rance is the Man! I researched the purchase a long time before ordering it and am still convinced that for the money, this is a great value. If you can't afford Bear Creek, Asher or Celtic Cross, give this guitar serious consideration.

Consider me a happy LR owner as well!
I got my spruce/walnut weiss a few months ago and I am very pleased with it.
Unfortunately, that results in me playing my dobro less and less these days

I'd say spruce and walnut seem to be the "ingredients of choice" in this thread.

Personally, I chose this wood combination because of the woods being non-rainforest, because Steinar and Terry kindly had sent me some sound samples that sounded great, and because talks with German luthier Manfred Pietrzok (of Manzanita Guitars) had convinced me of the benefits of a Sitka spruce top.

It seems this wood combo has made many happy!

(In fact, I think Steinar has led many a lap slider down to that Lazy River, especially the part of said river where Walnut trees and pines grow.

Steinar will know what I mean with "Näcken" - it was a Nordic folkloric (not really "mythological") charachter who sat in the river, playing his violin so beautifully that young women became spellbound by the sound and waded into the river and drowned. Substitute the young women with GAS-suffering steel guitarists and we have a modern lap steel update on this cautionary tale, where Weiss-bug-bitten musicians in droves pawn their priced possessions, beckoned by that melancholic sound eminating from the Lazy River of the Nordic bard. )

Maybe it's time for me to go to sleep...

Steinar Gregertsen wrote:About a month from now I'll have a brand new spruce/walnut model......
Steinar

Way to go big guy...Welcome back to the club you started.......TV.

“I chose this wood combination because of the woods being non-rainforest”

Fred,

I live in one of the rainforests were Sitka Spruce comes from, I regularly watch the exports of raw logs on foreign flagged ships and barges. Do you think old growth Sitka spruce comes from a farm in the new world?

Regardless, that’s still one very fine looking guitar you have there! I really like your choice of fret markers.

Hi Bill!

You are right - no matter what wood, a big lovely tree will have to be cut somewhere in the world. Having lived in Brazil and being aware of how preservation of wildlife can take a back seat in poor countries where corruption and bending of the rules run rampant, I felt that going for North American woods would probably do less damage than exotic tonewoods.

I discussed this with Rance in depth, about how hard it is to get wood that for sure is from a sustainable forest.

Thanks for your comment about the fret markers!



They are my own design, mother-of-pearl, and Rance - being a gentleman - stood by his initial quote although they were much bigger than he initially had envisaged.

Cheers,

Fred

Bill Blacklock wrote:I live in one of the rainforests were Sitka Spruce comes from, I regularly watch the exports of raw logs on foreign flagged ships and barges. Do you think old growth Sitka spruce comes from a farm in the new world?

Bill,

There is a very intersting thread about this at the IGS forum now (with a link to an article about Sitka spruce supply):

http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum ... 18056.html

Fred, great link. Thanks.