Tenor, Harp, Hawaiian, Sacred, Steel Guitar

Darrell Urbien · From: Echo Park, California

I've been lurking about in the old closed No Peddlers section and came across these old threads by Bob Stone:

Tenor Hawaiians
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/002245.html

Hawaiian to Steel Guitar
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/004910.html

Don't know if Bob already got answers to these questions, but in the course of my Knutsen research I may be able to add something.

As laid out in George Noe and Dan Most's excellent book, Knutsen was involved with a music teacher in LA in the early teens named CS Delano. Delano was the driving force behind the production of Kona guitars (which most now consider Hermann Weissenborn's first foray into Hawaiian instruments). Delano also published arrangements of songs for the Hawaiian guitar that sometimes listed "Tenor GTR Acc." I too wondered whether this meant four string tenor or a higher pitched steel. The Noe/Most book pictures several 7/8 to 3/4 sized steels, including one by Knutsen. They propose these instruments were used to play Delano's tenor arrangements. Some of this sheet music is shown in the book, and you can see two parts - one for steel and one labeled specifically for Tenor STEEL guitar.

Just to cloud things up again, I've also found several pictures of (white) Hawaiian groups that clearly feature four string tenor GUITAR players. Some of these players appear to be playing LAP STYLE, with bars. ??? Anyone know anything about this?

As far as the Hawaiian-vs-Steel name thing goes, I find it interesting that when Knutsen lived in LA, he was a very active member of Aimee Semple McPherson's Angelus Temple. He was playing church music both on the radio and in various Foursquare churches around town. "Sister Aimee" would have been well known within Pentecostal sects across the nation. There were also several Hawaiian guitarists playing religious music on her radio station, including the great Sol Hoopii. This might just be a coincidence (or simply tied to a tradition of playing music in churches), but "Sacred," "Hawaiian," and "Steel" have been around together for a very long time.

Of course Knutsen didn't only play steel, he played HARP steel. When Gregg Miner was classifying Chris Knutsen's instruments for his Knutsen Archive website, he coined the term "Harp Hawaiian Guitar" for acoustic guitars played lap style that had extra sub-bass and/or super treble strings. However in looking up old church notices and classifieds, it became evident to me that during Knutsen's time they referred to them as Harp Steel Guitars. Of course after Gregg spent all that time cataloging he left the old name on his site (I keep bugging him about it, however. Smile

) Now how Knutsen played these wacky multi-stringed instruments is anybody's guess.

Here's my favorite Knutsen of All-Time (um..so far Smile

). It was made just a few blocks from my childhood home in Echo Park, and also supposedly has a colorful history of being played in local churches:

Bob Stone · From: Gainesville, FL, USA

Hello Darrell,

Thanks for the info. It is interesting to hear that there were some tenor Hawaiian guitars built.

For my specific Sacred Steel research, the question remains: How likely was it that Troman Eason's musical partner Plummer played a tenor instrument (vs a tenor part on a standard size guitar)? Also, we are almost certainly talking about electric instruments in this case. Has anyone seen photos of tenor electric steels?

Holy cow, that post was six years ago!

I am aware of Aimee Semple McPherson and that Sol Hoopii played for her church, but have never heard reference to either one of them among the House of God folks. But that doesn't mean that they weren't somehow influential.

By the way, the Sacred Steel book manuscript is nearly done. I expect to submit it to Univ of Illinois Press by the end of the year--or sooner. Once the manuscript is submitted I am told it will take a mere 15 months (barring any difficulties) to produce the book.

Thanks again Darrell. And keep up the great work.

All the best,

Bob

Darrell Urbien · From: Echo Park, California

Thanks Bob. Really looking forward to your book! Do you still sell CD/DVDs? I think I saw some old posts of you selling VHS copies of the Sacred Steel stuff, but I don't do videotape anymore...

I didn't realize he had to be playing an electric tenor. What years are we talking about again? If they're already playing short-scale lap steels, it wouldn't be hard for one person to be playing a tenor part in a higher tuning, no?

I don't think there were very many electric spanish tenors in any case... One that comes to mind is a Bakelite one Rickenbacher made (I think that one's pictured in the Ricky book by Smith). I think Vega and Gibson may have made some archtop tenors with pickups in them.

Coincidentally, one of the members of the Tenor Guitar Yahoo group, Rob Dick (Jupiter Creek Guitars) experimented with four string electric tenor lap steels and was selling them on eBay.

Bob Brozman does a lot of duet/harmony playing with multitracked steels - using his Nationals, Weisses, and his Bear Creek Kona Rocket (which I believe would be considered a tenor today - short scale, high tuning). Don't know if he's done this on electric steel, though.

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