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Topic: The Grand Letar in Vintage Guitar(New Lap Steel History) |
Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2012 11:10 am |
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J. Wilson posted this in another thread...a great article that I think needs it's own post. This one story calls for a rewrite of Lap Steel History and the timeline of events when talking about the Lap Steel timeline and development of the instrument.
http://www.vintageguitar.com/7684/7684/
Last edited by Terry VunCannon on 18 Feb 2012 11:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 17 Feb 2012 12:49 pm
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| Interesting history note of the steel guitar. The Grand Letar should have had wheels under it! |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 17 Feb 2012 12:53 pm
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Deleted
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 10:09 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mike Anderson
From:
British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 17 Feb 2012 1:28 pm
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| That is a truly wonderful and moving article, thanks so much for linking it Terry! |
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Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 23 Feb 2012 9:55 am
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From the piece in Vintage Guitar...
"In early 1937, Kandle’s father worked on the Grand Letar to his daughter’s specifications. A large console was made, with its top cast in aluminum and sides made of wood covered with a chrome-plated steel wrap. This was the first steel guitar that would not be played sitting in the lap, so it was a radical construction for the time. Previously, no steel guitar had ever had more than two necks. Kandle’s Grand Letar appeared to have four – three six-string and one eight-string neck – but in reality it had three six-string necks and two four-string necks!
Kandle’s father built the console, then went to see Louis Dopyera at National Guitars. Kandle had been playing National Resophonics with The Kohala Girls and knew the Dopyera family. National installed pickups and a 20-watt amplifier with two 12” JB Lansing field-coil speakers. It holds the distinction of being the first guitar amplifier to use two speakers, a full 10 years before Leo Fender made the Dual Professional, and 20-odd years before Leo began offering the Twin with JBL speakers as an option!"
...History has a new chapter for Lap Steels and Amps!!! |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 23 Feb 2012 11:13 am
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Deleted
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 10:09 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 23 Feb 2012 12:50 pm
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| "The Big Four"...now that is cool. THanks Michael... |
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Jerry Overstreet
From:
Louisville Ky
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Posted 23 Feb 2012 1:35 pm
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Here's an old thread concerning the rebuild of the Grand Letar. A labor of love initiated by forumite Paul Warnik. Some of the photos have since expired, but there are many comments from folks knowledgeable about the history.
It was on display at the '08, I think, International Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis. I've forgotten the gentleman's name that was manning the display, but he went through the entire history of the guitar with me and the acquisition of the most miniscule parts to restore it to original condition. I believe there were only a couple items that could not be restored to original.
A piece of steel guitar history that I knew nothing about until Paul posted this thread. http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=120173&postdays |
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Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 26 Feb 2012 11:19 am
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I see that Lyon & Healy are still in business...
http://www.lyonhealy.com/
...I wonder is the Big 4 is still around....? |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 27 Feb 2012 11:26 pm
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What a great story. I would have loved to be at the convention when they fired that baby up for all to see. Just freakin' incredible. Too bad there are no real recordings of her playing it.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting. |
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Dom Franco
From:
Beaverton, OR, 97007
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Posted 28 Feb 2012 3:00 am
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" One of her ideas for the Grand Letar was the tuning of its necks; lap steels and doubleneck lap steels were usually tuned with one or two standard tunings, such as the low-bass A for Hawaiian playing or the C6 tuning for jazz. Kandle envisioned being able to cover all harmonic and chordal bases in a style that necessitated switching between the necks during each song. The chord inversions she devised were later utilized by pedal-steel players, with their pedals achieving the same result as switching between necks. The first neck was tuned to an A-major (high bass) tuning – A-C#-E-A-C#-E. The second neck had the standard E7 tuning – B-E-D-G#-B-E. The third was an A minor tuning which could also make C6th inversions. The fourth – an eight-string – was arranged in two small clusters, with four strings for each. One was tuned to an augmented chord (F-A-C#-F) and one was tuned to a diminished chord (F#-A-C-E)"
WOW, I guess I was sort of on the same wavelength, with my 12 string tuning!
I have A6/A7 E6/Gm6 E Diminished, D Aug5, and E Half Dimished all open:
Hi to low F# D Bb G E C# A F# E C# B G#
Dom 
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYG9cvwCPKuXpGofziPNieA/feed?activity_view=3 |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 28 Feb 2012 10:12 am
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Deleted
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 10:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Matthew Carlin
From:
Lake County, IL.
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