The Steel Guitar Forum

I own a single cone National steel body square neck. I was very surprised to find how good it sounds (to me anyway) when tuned to A-Highbass. When I purchased the guitar, I thought it would be just fine for playing some old blues songs on. But, I thought it would be too brash and not have enough sustain to sound decent while playing Hawaiian. I must say, that in my humble opinion, it sounds pretty darn good. Way better than I ever expected. Thus, I am curious if any of the prewar Hawaiian players ever played/recorded on single cone National steel body guitars? I seem to recall that King Bennie Nawahi preferred a single cone National wood body guitar. If I remember right, it was a round Neck Triolian. But, I could be wrong about that.

I've got an old single cone Dobro which I've strung up in B11 tuning and it sounds pretty phenomenal for the Hawaiian stuff. I've got no idea about what the early folks were playing but I'd likewise be very interested to hear if anyone did get on board the single cone train!

check out "hawaiian touch" by barney isaacs and george kuo--sublime stuff, played on a single cone dobro.

I'm sure lots of people couldn't afford a Tricone and ended up with a Style 0 instead. My '36 Duolian came with a square neck, i wasn't into that at the time so i had a luthier make me a nice mahogany round neck (at least i had enough sense to not shave the original down), still have the square neck though and may be putting it back on now that its not my only reso.
I snapped this photo off a thread here cause i loved it so much.

"Lefty" Leppänen does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HoKs_y5ouA

Here's Jerry Byrd playing a single cone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0RvvAfcBtY

The aforementioned album by George Kuo and Barney Isaacs is a great example. Alan Akaka doesn't love that one because I think the contrast of styles...Barney doesn't really alter his playing style to match the style, he's just "Barney" still, and I think he finds it clashes a bit. I told him you can take Barney Isaacs out of Waikiki but you can't take the Waikiki out of Barney Isaacs . I still like it though!

I have a cheap Regal import dobro I bought when I thought I'd have a go at open G (thanks Meg Lovell). Everything I played still sounded hopelessly Hawaiian, so I gave in...and restrung it for open A high bass (one step up and a classic Hawaiian tuning). It works! I just think the tricones are at least more known for their sustain and a kind of "singing" sound that is very Hawaiian...

I used to have a squareneck Style 0 (‘37) that I had such high hopes for, but I could never get it to bark and bite the way I needed it to. I had a roundneck Duolian too that was as nasty as could be. I loved it.

Glenn Wilde wrote:I'm sure lots of people couldn't afford a Tricone and ended up with a Style 0 instead. My '36 Duolian came with a square neck, i wasn't into that at the time so i had a luthier make me a nice mahogany round neck (at least i had enough sense to not shave the original down), still have the square neck though and may be putting it back on now that its not my only reso.
I snapped this photo off a thread here cause i loved it so much.

That is a great photo. Thanks for sharing.

Jouni Karvonen wrote:"Lefty" Leppänen does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HoKs_y5ouA

That’s cool! I believe that I have a CD from that band. But, if I remember correctly, they are playing more jam band type tunes on electric instruments.

Mike Neer wrote:I used to have a squareneck Style 0 (‘37) that I had such high hopes for, but I could never get it to bark and bite the way I needed it to. I had a roundneck Duolian too that was as nasty as could be. I loved it.

Was it a brass body Style O? I believe they were brass at that time. But, I am not 100% sure. I was thinking that a brass body single cone might be a better than steel body single cone for getting a nice Hawaiian sound.

I have a 35 Style O square neck with a Beard cone it it that barks and is a joy to play.

Ryan Matzen wrote:

Glenn Wilde wrote:I'm sure lots of people couldn't afford a Tricone and ended up with a Style 0 instead. My '36 Duolian came with a square neck, i wasn't into that at the time so i had a luthier make me a nice mahogany round neck (at least i had enough sense to not shave the original down), still have the square neck though and may be putting it back on now that its not my only reso.
I snapped this photo off a thread here cause i loved it so much.

That is a great photo. Thanks for sharing.

Cool, there was a great thread and some of the story about them was told by the granddaughter iirc of the woman with the Triolian. I can't remember the thread title but it had several great old photos and was not very long ago.

I had a 37 or so "chickenfoot" Style O square neck that was pretty nice, but I really preferred the sound a wood bodied El Trovador single cone guitar I had for Hawaiian (round neck with an extender nut). Guess I was going for the King Bennie sound. Never got it though!

The single cones seem to have a harder attack and a quicker decay to my ears (compared to a tricone), which makes them perfect for some of the hot jazzy sounds that King Bennie was playing. A very clean, but fairly unforgiving sound.

The Style O was a little brash for my tastes, but still nice.

Dave

Mike Neer wrote:I used to have a squareneck Style 0 (‘37) that I had such high hopes for, but I could never get it to bark and bite the way I needed it to. I had a roundneck Duolian too that was as nasty as could be. I loved it.

As I recall, I sold you that Style O, Mike! I had the same feeling about that brass body. I tried a couple of steel-bodied National squarenecks — a ‘38 Triolian and a ‘36 Duolian—and even the solid-body “student model,” but none of them captured my heart, and my ears, the way my ‘31 tricone has. I bought it almost 20 years ago, and will let my sons flip a coin to see who gets it after I die.