The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm thinking of building an 8-string Weissenborn-shaped guitar with a resonator. I believe I've seen photos of such an instrument on the Forum, but I can't find one. The nearest I could find was a resonator guitar with a lute-shaped round back.

Any suggestions ?

The Weissenator?

or

Single-cone Fluger?

Hi Alan,
Searching on "Weissonator" here on the the forum will turn up a couple of hits. You're favorite web search engine will turn up some hits as well.

Good luck.

Fred

Mike Dotson, Maricopa Guitars.

http://www.manzanita.de/slide.htm#


http://www.flugerguitars.com/hollow%20neck.html

Maybe not EXACTLY what you're looking for, but pretty darn close:
http://www.beardguitars.com/guitarbeard ... quare.html

I'm curious to know what a resophonic hollowneck sounds like? The ones in the links sure do look cool.

There's a soundclip listed on the manzanita site. click on the pic of the dark guitar on the bottom of the page.

Thanks, John. I sorta figured a reso-weiss would sound like a dobro and that's how I would describe the tone. The playing on that song sure is nice and I like the bit at 00:40.

Here's one developed by Tut Taylor & built by his son David. . .

http://webpages.charter.net/tutbro/tutbroinfo.html

Has links to Youtube video of the instrument in action, as played by Tut and others.

Vince

The real deciding factor in any of these is the type of cone(s) and the spider vs biscuit bridge. I'd sure love to have a Weissenator type wood tricone.

Eric Barker wrote:The real deciding factor in any of these is the type of cone(s) and the spider vs biscuit bridge...

I have a metal-bodied National Tricone, and also a metal-bodied guitar with a single resonator. I'm not sure they sound that much different. The tricone is louder, though.

Peter Wahl from Neustadt, Germany, builds Weissenborn-shaped resonator guitars using old "Teachers of Hollywwod" bodies. This combination sounds surprisingly good and has the common 22" lap steel scale. He also puts resonators into old Framus, Höfners and Harmony Stellas. He uses National resonators (9.5" and 8.25").
For more information contact him at:

pablo.wahl@gmx.de

Here is a picture of Peter Wahl's "Teachers of Hollywood" resonator guitar:

(duplicate posting)

Manfred Nabinger wrote:...He also puts resonators into old Framus, Höfners and Harmony Stellas...

I put a resonator into an 8-string fretless guitar a few years ago.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... conversion

Hi everybody, i am an italian luthier and in my production I have also a Weissonator that i call Weissdobro but it is the same guitar. The sound comparated to a dobro squareneck is like the sound of a weissenborn comparated an acoustic guitar. This means deeper and warmer, less powerful with a great harmony for fingerstyle.
Here are the pics
my website is www.lapsteelguitar.net

They've got one of Mike Dotson's original Weissenators for sale at Dream Guitars and they've got a couple of sound clips for it too.

http://www.dreamguitars.com/products/ma ... or_003.php

Cool unit.

Ermanno, your weissdobro is beautiful and I love the gold hardware. I checked out your website and I see that you make many different styles of solid body and hollow guitars. All look very nice and the prices seem very reasonable.

You can hear Paul Franklin playing a Fluger on this live Toby/Jewel clip at 1:55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo27s_TjPeQ

This clip convinced me to purchase a similar Fluger a few years ago. Still have it. It's unique sound is just right for recordings that don't need the sharp sound of a standard reso. It's halfway between a reso and and an acoustic slide guitar to my ears.

Joey, that Fluger sounds great in Paul's hands. Although I'm not much of a Toby fan I watched the video to hear the players and noticed who was playing bass: Dave Pomeroy of Three Ring Circle, Rob Ickes' other band we had planned to see at ResoSummit. Rob and Jim Hurst did not disappoint! To the contrary!

Good catch Greg. That's an all star band for sure.
I think it's Randy Scruggs on banjo.
His solo guitar arrangement of "Both Sides Now" on the first "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" album had to be the inspiration for Jim Hurst's beautiful rendition of the same tune we heard last weekend.

Thanks Mark, I put a quarterman cone with soundposts and the sound is full and rich. The sound run everywhere and the hollowbody allow it.
I am really satisfied!