'Other' acoustic instruments

Basher

stimpsonslostson said:

Watch Chris Thile & be amazed. 

One of my favourite gigs was just Chris doing a solo set - mandolin and vocals - in a club. One of the greatest musicians it's ever been my privilege to watch live. He's stunning technically but immensely musical too.

Lewy

TimmyO said:

..as in "other than acoustic guitars"

I've been developing a real hankering for getting to know some of the other folkier instruments.

I've decided that over the next 12 months I want to have got my mitts on at least:
- a Mandolin
- a Banjo
- a Resonator

other inklings include some kind of 3-string didley bow/cigar box kind of thing and a lap/weisenborn kind of thing.

I'm sure there are folk here who dabble in this darker side? 

I've had a crack at all of them with varying levels of commitment.

I've had multiple attempts at mando but have always given up in the end because it would appear that I am the world's greatest mandolin tone snob and only the sound of a high end mando in the hands of a master is pleasing to mine ear and everything else is like someone pouring ammonia mixed with pins directly into my brain.

Banjo - I got the basics of clawhammer/frailing/old time banjo together, and still have a fairly decent open back banjo knocking around. Having a good grounding in open G tuning made that come along quite quickly and being really into old rural blues I felt it gave me a more fundamental understanding of the mutation of blues from banjo to guitar music. Sadly the curse of my paper thin nails meant that I struggled to get a good strong tone for long before my nail just wore away to nothing. Never tried Scruggs style bluegrass banjo. During a CW Stoneking phase I also got a short scale 4 string tenor banjo, which I tuned to "chicago" tuning, which is basically the top four strings of standard guitar. That was fun.

Reso - extensive explorations in matters resophonic.

CBG - I have a 3 string one which is currently sitting next to a 1920s one string PhonoFiddle as part of a little curio arrangement in my downstairs bog, which is about where it belongs.

Weisenborn - such a lovely sound, but the cheap ones don't achieve it. You're better off getting a decent standard acoustic (something like an all solid Recording King) set up as a lap style guitar a la Kelly Joe Phelps imo than spending the same money on one of the cheap Weiss's you see on ebay etc. It's really just a case of having a nice high bone nut fitted. You can get metal nut risers but they don't sound as good and are usually too high.

Don't over look the noble (but albeit horribly hipsterfied) ukulele. There is so much chord inversion vocab you can learn on uke that then translates straight back over onto guitar - you'll never struggle to find triads on the top strings ever again.

BigLicks67

You could try the bandurria or laud or whatever the instrument is that is played by Javier Mas in Leonard Cohen's band.



 Whatever it is it sounds good.

fob

Does it need to be a stringed instrument? If you like the folkier side of things you could pick up a penny whistle for very little money. I think an instrument from a different 'family' would provide a more interesting challenge and a simple one like the whistle would provide a satisfactory achievement curve.

VimFuego

fob said:

Does it need to be a stringed instrument? If you like the folkier side of things you could pick up a penny whistle for very little money. I think an instrument from a different 'family' would provide a more interesting challenge and a simple one like the whistle would provide a satisfactory achievement curve.

that's an interesting comment. I recently picked up a melodeon (diatonic button accordion) and I really struggled with it. It was fine when I was using the box equivalent of TAB, however I struggle to make music on it (if that makes sense) even though it is, in theory, an easier instrument to play than, say, fiddle or guitar. I think years of playing stringed instruments have conditioned my brain, and I struggle if I step away from the safety of a fret/finger board.

Sassafras

I've got loads of banjos, far more than the half dozen guitars I have.
They're the ideal compromise between percussion and stringed instruments.

Jalapeno

Chris_J said:

I've a strong hankering for a Viellette, or something similar by Emerald guitars. In lieu of a 12 string.

Have a listen to what Kaki King does with the big brother of that ^^^^^



I will get a resonator again one day

TimmyO

Talking of Resos, I see that Busker guitars has closed its doors :-( 

Lewy

TimmyO said:

Talking of Resos, I see that Busker guitars has closed its doors :-( 

Messer guitars are still operating though and I have to say the product is a step up from what it was in the Messer/Busker days, especially the necks.

TimmyO

ah - for some reason I'd assumed that Messer piggybacked on the Busker production so wold also have stopped. Good to know. 

TimmyO

how come you don't see Resos used in Bluegrass that much? I'd have thought the volume welcome!

TimmyO

this Tenor Guitar sounds fantastic

Lewy

TimmyO said:

how come you don't see Resos used in Bluegrass that much? I'd have thought the volume welcome!

The guitar’s role in a bluegrass ensemble is first and foremost to provide a rhythmic foundation that ties the whole sound together - musical grout if you will -  and big fat bass runs for punctuation. Resos don’t do either of those things very well. Plus you got mandolins and banjos in there - enough clank already. Basically the bluegrass guitar style sounds bad on them.

The guy in the vid sounds great but he’s not really playing anything that would replace a flat top in a bluegrass setting. 

Dobros are resos that are common in bluegrass of course, but again they don’t replace the flat top guitar.

Fun fact: Bill Monroe was the architect of the sound that would come to be known as bluegrass. He had several guitar players over the years but whoever played guitar in his band played Bill's D28 on records and nothing else. That's the sound he wanted to hear and so that is what they played.

TimmyO

I see - it's a factor of the role of the guitar in that setting? Gotcha 

Chris_J

Jalapeno said:

Chris_J said:

I've a strong hankering for a Viellette, or something similar by Emerald guitars. In lieu of a 12 string.

Have a listen to what Kaki King does with the big brother of that ^^^^^



I will get a resonator again one day

Lovely playing

Lewy

TimmyO said:

I see - it's a factor of the role of the guitar in that setting? Gotcha 

Precisely. Closest equivalent I’d say is a brushed snare in a small jazz combo. You couldn’t do that with a washboard.

BigLicks67

TimmyO said:

this Tenor Guitar sounds fantastic

Sounds great, but there doesn't seem to be many manufacturers of Tenors out there, so probably you'd be looking at boutique prices.