The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone got any experience of these Clearwater (solid) Weissenborns?. According to the blurb they have a couple of P90 pups, solid maple with figured maple tops.

I have no experience. But this looks alot like the Chandlers but with better looks and an additional pickup.

The eBay price in the UK is £250 inc P & P. If it sounds good then it could be a good buy but I do not fancy being the one to find out

I haven't seen these for sale in the USA, so I doubt you'll get much of a response here. They certainly look nice. To me they resemble the Asher Electro Hawaiian Junior, but with different electronics and finish.

I've been using one of these for about a year now. This is the newer version of the Clearwater lap steel. The only difference between the one i own and the one pictured here is the placement of the control knobs. My Clearwater has the knobs positioned in a row just to the side of the strings. I've seen the newer version offered in blonde and sunburst. The two P-90s are overwound and are nice 'n hot! The form is basically a copy of the Chandler Lap steels and is comparable in construction. The sound is fat and warm. I payed about 250 Eurons for mine... much less than the offerings from gretsch and fender yet a much better lap steel. Mucho bang for the buck...at least for those living in Europe.

FB

Thanks Fontaine,

Okay I took the plunge and bought a Clearwater and it arrived today. It certainly is a nice piece of kit for the price. I suspect that the P90 style pups need to be set up a bit better but I am not complaining.

What should be the distance between the P90 pick up and the strings? I ask because whilst I seem to have plenty of volume the tone control does not seem to want to give me a great deal of bass and I am wondering if the action over the pup might rectify that though I don't understand the mechanics of why it should but it is the only thing that is adjustable.

Any Brits interested might want to give RUMC a bell. I was impressed with the speed at which they got it to me and the P & P charge at £9.95 was reasonable.

IMHO, the controls and pickup selector are in an awkward place.

Hi Ray,

I'm glad it worked out. Like you said, it's a great deal at that price. I just measured the distance from the string to the pickups on mine and its about 9mm. I get tons of bass out of my setup. Almost too much sometimes. The pickup height is easy enough to experiment with. Maybe they just need to sit a little higher.

On a side note, I'm a closet uke and harmonica freak as well. Maybe we could hook up for a jam sometime.

Fontaine

Thanks for all the info and for being a guinea pig there Ray. Every time I search 'Weissenborn' on Ebay these guys come up and I think the same thing: that is a good looking instrument for not much scratch. And then I feel tempted to buy one. Now I know succumbing to that particular temptation might not be such a bad idea....