l Hi there! terry Buddell back again. I just wanted toanswer some questions about the Weissenborn Lap slide steel guitar that I built a few months ago using only simple hand tools whilst living on my boat! I have had lots of enquiries about these type of guitars and I thought I might take the time to explain basically why if you are considering building a guitar for the first time its a great way to cut your teeth on because it's such an easy build compared to an acoustic guitar with a very specially shaped neck and demanding thorough and exact fret spacing As a few of you know I also built a website which features slide guitars, lap steels and a host of other interesting stuff all about the fascinating World of slide guitars. For those of you who are interested the guitar was built from a modified plans of a Style 2 1920's Weissenborn using Australian Maple timber and the only difference from the original is that I made the neck 2.
5 inches deep instead of 1.5inches and the body 4.5 inches instead of 2.5 inches.
the sound is wonderful as is the volume and the rich tones. what makes the weissy sound so good? I have written a whole series of articles and posted them onto the net in a few places and there is a whole world of info to explore there for free! the sound is absolutely fantastic and no one was more surprised than me! It had taken me many years to pluck up the courage to actually start building a guitar and basically I don't know what I was worried about! The choice of timber, Australian Maple had a great deal to do with the good results and its not surprising really, as Maple is a cousin of the famous Koa wood that most slide guitars are constructed from. I also made the body of the guitar a lot deeper than the original Style Two plans and it worked out around about two inches deeper overall. The plans come on CD rom and it is possible to get the plan printed out onto AO or A1 architects paper.its probably a lot easier to work from for most folks . All the basic instructions are in there, step by step and everything is explained very carefully indeed bearing in mind that for many people it will be their first guitar build.
Why did I choose the Weissenborn slide as a first guitar to build? Well, in a way, It's cheating because as most people are aware, the chords are never played but the fingers of the left hand only with a glass or steel or brass slide Therefore, if the frets spacing is very slightly out of true it really wont notice! you would never get away with that on a proper acoustic guitar where you have to play the chords with your fingers!!! Basically I also wrote a book called How to build a weissenborn and drew out the plans and they are for sale on my site where you can also hear a soundclip of the guitar itself! Cheers for now.watch out for more articles for tips and free hints on building your own slide guitar for a fraction of the cost! Did you find the tips in the article useful? You can learn a lot more about How to build a weissenborn slide by visiting the site shown below .Associated with this article are weissenborn guitars, lap steel, slide guitars, Dadgad guitar tunings, blues slide, guitar plans and Weissenborn lap slides More articles and info about these guitar can be found out at www.buildaweissenborn.com.
Terry Buddell is a freelance writer, boat builder and marine surveyor who lives a board his yacht the "Nicky J Miller" in , Queensland Australia. Terry has designed a series of boats that he sells from his website on the net and also built his own 42' yacht which he refers to as "his filthy old lugger'. Terry writes for several boating magazines and he is is only too happy to help people who wish to build their own boat from a dinghy to a yacht and his contact details can be found on his website http://www.dolphinboatplans.com
