Who Knows Ohana Weissenborn?

Bruce Thorstad · From: Wisconsin, USA

This is my maiden voyage on this site, after eavesdropping for some time. Feels odd having the name my mother gave me as a user name -- but she called me a few other names too.

The Ohana company, in Long Beach CA, importer of a line of ukuleles in a great span of sizes and price ranges, brought in from China their own Weissenborn-style guitar a few years ago, although they quickly sold out all they had. I see Ohana ukes are offered by Elderly Instruments, and Elderly doesn't sell junk, So I'd expect Ohana's acoustic lap steel to have been at least decent. I'm wondering who bought one, who saw any, who plays one... all of that. At least one model was all solid mahogany.

Bruce Thorstad ("Riley Stokes" on some other forums)

P.S. I think "Ohana" means family in Hawaiian. Nice.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Welcome, Bruce/Riley. My experience with the Ohana weissenborn-style acoustic lap steels is that they are the same as the Vineyard and Enorez guitars seen on eBay - made in Vietnam or China, relatively low priced, relatively low quality. The one I played was a laminated mahogany model, and like most of those guitars was unexceptional. (Note this is based on a short time playing one in a store - your mileage may vary.)

There's a solid mahogany Ohana on eBay currently that looks pretty nice. If the price doesn't go too high, it may be a good value.
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Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Bruce Thorstad · From: Wisconsin, USA

Thanks, thanks. As I say, I've eavesdropped from time to time, but I got here most recently via the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum, where guys were talking about $99 Weissenborns, and there was a link to a multi-page thread here at the SGF. Unfortunately, I showed up too late.

In acoustic lap steels, I guess I want to toe in, see if it's something I'll stick with. So if the $99 specials are gone (what were they called -- Wish-n-bones?), the Enorez, Vineyard, Ohana level might be for me. But I wish somebody offered a kit. I would think a Weissenborn would be far easier to build than a standard acoustic guitar, with its ticklish neck angle and truss rod and the need for high-quality fretwork.

It appears you are the man himself, the famous Brad, Man of Steel. Glad to meet you, if only via a forum. Your site was a big help 3 years ago when I built an electric lap steel, just winging it, using materials I had on hand. Is there another instrument that's so wide open to different designs, different materials, and to pure whimsy? I doubt it. My workmanship is nowhere near what I see in these pages, but my chamgagne-cork volume knob may be an original contribution to the field. I'm particularly happy with my choice of pickups. I set my string spacing at the bridge to match that of a couple of dobros I measured, and then I worried (maybe too much) about finding a pickup wide enough. I settled on the $21 EMG Select. It's a single-coil size with a bar magnet, and it easily spanned that string spacing. I don't know what builders use for 8-stringers. Wind their own pickups?

Hm, it appears I've highjacked my own thread. I'll go Google Enorez. And thanks again.

Bruce

Doug Freeman · From: Los Angeles, CA

I don't think any of the Ohana, Vineyard, et al. Weissenborn guitars are all solid mahogany, though some have solid tops. I have a solid top Ohana and it's a very nice guitar. Doesn't have the spank of the real deal but it does the job. Mine's taken a back seat these days to a square neck Beard resonator guitar, just for sheer volume when playing with other people, but the Ohana's great for banging around solo.

George Piburn · From: The Land of Enchantment New Mexico

Ray Shakeshaft · From: Kidderminster, Worcs, UK.

My main instrument is the uke and Ohana have earned an excellent reputation amongst players for their quality. Ohana seems to be one of those Chinese made brands that always meets the description and they would appear to have a stringent quality control in force. I know many players who have bought mail order purely on the description alone and no one has ever been disappointed.

Edit. I also own a GeorgeBoards LS - you cannot go far wrong with his stuff either.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

My apologies to George - he would definitely be the person whose guitar I'd recommend for you, Bruce.
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Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Bruce Thorstad · From: Wisconsin, USA

The man I spoke with at Ohana (by phone), evidently the boss, said his LG-300 was all solid mahogany, but that it and at least one lesser model sold out two years ago. He didn't mention Vineyard or Enorez. He admitted his guitars weren't up to GoldTone standards in construction and detailing. (I'm not sure original Weissenborns were up to GoldTone standards either, were they?) The Ohana guy further mentioned that he might have another batch made and hold to higher standards this time. Sounds good; right now I'm looking for something I won't lose too much on if resale time ever rolls around. So what if my guitar was made in a factory that also makes bicycle tires and Barbie dolls?

It beats me why importers who are more or less copying originals insist on the "improvement" of a slanted bridge saddle. With a straight saddle, creating a lefty would be as easy as switching the strings around. 'Born-style nuts aren't even grooved, are they?

All the information you guys offer here is really appreciated. After reading all I can find so far on Weissenborn-style guitars, I'm going to stick my neck out with a generalization: no matter which 'Born players have -- lowly Asian-factory lams to custom made beauties -- the owners seem delighted with them. There must be some magic in the basic Weissenborn design.

Now I'm going to click over and learn about the GeorgeBoard. Shameless self-promotion can be good, George. Have I mentioned my western novels? They're entirely hand-crafted.

Bruce

Jim Sallis · From: Arizona, USA

I own one of George's prototypes for his acoustic Hawaiian. It's a fine-looking, fine-sounding, fine-playing instrument, and I'd recommend it in an instant.

Doug Freeman · From: Los Angeles, CA

That one Rick's playing in the video definitely sounds better than mine! Pic of mine, though, just for the record. I think it's the LG-300, so who knows, maybe it's all solid mahogany. Bought it barely used for $300 last June and it was my introduction to playing lap steel. Been a non-stop ride ever since.

Darrell Urbien · From: Echo Park, California

Are all of these things (GB, Vineyard, etc.) coming out of the same factory? They look almost exactly the same, except for perhaps the quality of the materials.

Bruce Thorstad · From: Wisconsin, USA

To Doug Freeman: I would think the model number would be on the label inside, but apparently not. Your case appears identical to the one accompanying the Ohana LG-300 I just made an ebay bid on. On the guitars, the rosettes are different, and it appears yours has chrome tuners as opposed to the gold tuners with amber plastic buttons on the LG-300 I'm stalking. So yours is either all solid mahogany or it has a solid mahogany top, and -- a heretical statement -- I'm not sure solid wood for the backs and sides is necessarily so-o-o much better than quality laminates. As I pondered above, the basic Weissenborn design may be fairly forgiving when it comes to materials and construction.

The phone # I found for Ohana in Long Beach is 626-922-2848. I presume they'd know which woods went into which models. Their website of uke listings is pretty impressive, as we might have guessed from reading Ray Shakeshaft's comment.

Anyway... permit me to say: Holy mackerel! Look at the figure on the Doug Freeman guitar! I'd hang that one on the wall just for the sheer joy of looking at it.

Bruce

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Obama is building guitars now!!!
Oops! Sorry! My eyesight isn't as good as it used to be. Whoa!

Bruce Thorstad · From: Wisconsin, USA

All I've got to go on are photos, but I do see differences -- white nut vs black, two bridge bolts vs none (the W-born originals and GoldTones have one) black binding vs ivory binding, various rosette and purfling schemes... Some of these differences can be seen between models within the same brand name. I suppose it hardly matters if it was one factory or ten. Think of them as being made by China Inc. (although apparently some came from Vietnam [?]).

So yesterday I made a substantial bid on one. It was sufficiently close to the BIN that I'm thinking hell, I should just pony up the additional 10% and make it mine.

Doug, I keep admiring that dramatic wood. You can get great effects with laminates, of course, but if that's the case here it might be worth accepting laminated wood as a tradeoff for that swirly figure.

Bruce
from behind the Cheddar Curtain

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Doug Freeman · From: Los Angeles, CA

Ancient thread, but for the record I still have this Ohana guitar (and will be selling it) and now see the top is in fact laminated and the model number is WSB-200.

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