The Steel Guitar Forum

Are there any good Vibe players still around or is this becoming a lost art ? The combination of Steel Guitar along with Vibes is really great listening. If some of you great players posting your music could find a good Vibe player the combination would be a great sound. Some of the old Hawiian music on the radio in the thirties and fourties had vibes in the group. Just a thought !

A fine sound, indeed. The only ones I know of currently are the group "Bonebrake Syncopaters," who play on occasion around Los Angeles. That group features Jeremy Wakefield on lap steel and on vibes D.J. Bonebrake, more widely known as the drummer for the seminal L.A. punk band "X," but who's made a serious study of the vibes over the past 10 or more years. Wonderful musicians and singers, playing great standards like "On the Alamo," "Three Little Words," and "Limehouse Blues," along with bop numbers like "Yardbird Suite" and "Sweedish Meatballs." They put out a CD earlier this year:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bonebrakesyncopators

and you can find some live performances on on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXSX0nfxWd8

You are so right. Two really well-matched instruments.

D.J. Bonebrake is all over JW's "Steel Guitar Caviar" too. And Tom Morrell uses vibes often on the "How the West Was Swung" recordings.

www.tikiyakiorchestra.com with Gary Brandin or Todd Weger on steel.

www.myspace.com/tikiyakiorchestra

And what was I listening to recently, maybe the Tex Williams air check CD, where Johnny Weis doubles on vibes alongside Joaquin Murphey? Brilliant!

Hi Billy , Back in the 1930s and 40s most of your Hawaiian instrumental music always included the "vibes" !! Was a great sounding combination !! I have some old "49th State" Hawaiian L.P.s that feature Benjamin Rogers on steel along with the Vibes and his sound was very pure and relaxing !! I haven't seen vibes around these parts since the 40s !! I guess it's too old a sound for todays young people !! Their loss !! Eddie "C" ( the old non-pedal no reverb geezer )

Jeff Au Hoy plays vibes. Some of the jazz combos used them in the 50s and 60s.

Is there anything Jeff doesn't play, and play it well?

Wish he'd put out some CDs!

Goggle Waitiki..no steel though but, they do exotica and uke

You want vibes, there's plenty at Berklee (relatively speaking)after all Gary Burton is a professor there.

L.T. Zinn and the vibes. It couldn't get any better. Electronics helps too.

http://www.hsga.org/membersrecordings/L ... tAloha.mp3

I have had a secret love affair with the vibes since I was a little kid; an elderly Foursquare missionary named Mom Lopp would play at the church I grew up in. She was simply amazing and the tone of it would give me gooseflesh.
One Sunday she invited a friend of hers to the church to play lap steel. I will never forget a note- it was a religious experience of the sort that rarely happens in a church these days.

Wow yeah,vibes are a fantasic sound..I once worked briefly in a pop/jazz group that featured a vibe player.No steel but I tried to get a steel sound with my Jazzmaster.Quite a bit of Hawaiian music.Now I have a Roland GR20 that has a good vibe sound that I enjoy using..PJ...

I've used vibes on all my albums since the early EMI Abbey Road ones.

Here's the "Shadow" With Barry Morgan of 'Blue Mink' on bongos and Vic Flick and Ike Isaacs on guitars, Walter J Ridley on Keyboards and the rest of the EMI Abbey Road Team..(Including Martin Benge)
REAL Instruments long before computer generated sounds and samplers.
Click Here

Enjoyed that Baz!

Yeesh, Baz. That was beautiful.

I've been trying to get my hands on a vibraphone for years. If you think steel guitars are expensive, check out the price of a good set of vibes.

Which raises the question, which is the rarer instrument, steel or vibes ? The high cost of vibes is obviously created by the dearth of players.

In the Tex williams Western Caravan Johnnie Weiss played hot lead guitarand Ossie "Pappy" Godson played piano and vibes. The two guys played some great interplay. Some of the best out of the west. Al

Ossie Godson was also a fine drummer. When I was on Jack Tucker's band, Jack would hire him to take Jerry Hamm's place when Jerry couldn't be there.

I use an old Roland U-110 with my Steel Rider and it has a really great vibe sample. Playing vibes with a steel as the initiator driving the synth, if your single string technique is reasonably good it is hard to tell the difference.

As a "Jack-of-all-Master-of none", I'm an erstwhile vibe player, an instrument I love almost as much as the steel. I have an old DEAGAN set, (now out of biz). YAMAHA still makes vibes but sadly, with the excellent 'vibe' imitation on many keyboards, the Vibraphone seems to be gradually losing ground.

I first fell in love with the Vibraphone sound when hearing DICK McINTIRE and his HARMONY HAWAIIANS on those old radio shows of the mid '30's called "HARMONY ISLE". Really beautiful stuff played by a young Dick McIntire. His show inspired me to produce a radio program in 1949 ("HAWAIIAN SUNSET") which featured myself on steel, and 4 others playing vibes, r/guitar, uke and bass. This show lasted from 1949 to 1952 about the time when Elvis came upon the scene and musical tastes changed forever.

Also, with the recent passing of Bruce Clarke, (Cumquat), I wonder if anyone will ever restore those old "Harmony Isle" radio programs ? The playing style of Dick McIntire differed slightly from his style in later years, yet he had that gorgeous tone.

I still enjoy listening to those old shows that were produced 75 years ago....gads, my show was first aired 59 years ago !!! Hard to believe !

Here........a little treat from me.

Kilima Hawaiians - Hawaii tatoo

Talk about outstanding musicians

Ron

This was some of the Hawaiian music I remember from the thirties and early fourties. This was "Happy" music and made you feel good listening to it.

Blonde Calderon used to play vibes and played at the T.S.G.A. Jamboree with Buddy Emmons several years ago, but he passed away a couple of years ago and I don't know if he made any recordings on the vibes.
I was able to get a tape of him on piano, and would love to know if he made any vibe recordings. I have been searching for months. Blonde played with Ray Price for about 35 years.

Michael Brewer wrote:...I use an old Roland U-110 with my Steel Rider and it has a really great vibe sample.....

I do a similar thing. I think more vibe sounds are created on the keyboard nowadays than on the real vibraphone. Synthesis is becoming better and better nowadays, what with the advent of wave samples, etc., but the problem is that, no matter how good the technology becomes, it's not possible to imitate the playing technique of one instrument with another. The swinging of the mallets and the bouncing on the keys is always going to sound different than tapping on a keyboard. Likewise, bowed instuments are always going to sound wrong when synthesized without a bow. You can play chords on a keyboard and use a trumpet sound, for instance, but you can't play chords on a trumpet, by its very construction.

Jim:

Blondie made an LP with Julian Tharpe 20 or 25 years ago called "Take Your Pick" for Dewitt Scott's Mid-Land label.

I haven't played it in 15 years or so and the liner notes are nil.

Here are the song titles:

Take your pick
Julie's dream
In the rough
Mexican sweat
Picks and mallets
Bucksnort stomp
Gentle on my mind
Seven come eleven
Watch what happens
Ode to Billy Joe

I can't recall how much vibes there is, but clearly there must be vibes on "Picks and mallets"; for all I remember, Blondie may play vibes on all tracks.

I do remember digging "Mexican sweat". I assume "Seven come eleven" is the old Benny Goodman tune, which would be great with vibes and steel.

Can someone please tell me what tuning L. T. Zinn is using? I love his playing. Thanks, Don