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Topic: Any Idea When Cylindrical Steels Became Popular/The Norm? |
Anthony Lis
From:
South Dakota, USA
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Posted 2 Jun 2019 6:57 pm |
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| For some research I'm doing into the very early steel guitar, I just wonder if anyone has read, heard from sources, etc. about when the cylindrical steel overtook the flat bar as the steel-of-choice? Some folks have said Joseph Kekuku invented both the flat and cylindrical steel, but I don't know about that . . . the flat bar certainly subsequently appeared in steel method-books around the time the US entered World War I, but I've not seen any mention of a cylinder-shaped steel in any method-book I know of through the 1920s. Some method book cover-photographs do appear to show a player holding a cylindrical steel, but it's hard to tell, and blowing the photos way up doesn't always yield much in the way of definitive answers. Just curious. |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Bill Groner
From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
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Posted 3 Jun 2019 7:19 am
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My Dad built an acoustic guitar while in High School. He later converted it to Hawaiian Lap Steel. After he died I opened up the case and found a pair of finger picks, thumb pick, nut riser and a flat tone bar with knurled sides like in the link Bill posted.
He built the guitar in 1936.
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Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40 |
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Robbie Daniels
From:
Casper, Wyoming, USA
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Posted 3 Jun 2019 9:13 am Tone Bar
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I started playing steel guitar in 1946 through the Honolulu Conservatory of Music in Oakland, CA and they were teaching 6 string C6 with round tone bar. I have never used the flat bar version.
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Carter D12, MSA S12, 12 String Custom Made Non-Pedal, Evans FET 500LV, Evans SE200, Peavey Nashville 400, Fender Steel King |
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Guy Cundell
From:
More idle ramblings from South Australia
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Posted 3 Jun 2019 12:46 pm
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Gibson 1934
Gibson 1942
Epiphone 1944
This is National, I believe. The image was gathered from the Forum but with no date, unfortunately.
This is Bob Dunn in 1939. It looks to have a bevelled edge but it is clearly not a bullet.
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Anthony Lis
From:
South Dakota, USA
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Posted 3 Jun 2019 5:05 pm
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| Some interesting comments (and graphics!) here; thanks. Yes, thumb- and finger-picks get mentioned in the earliest method books I've had a chance to personally peruse (from 1916-17), so they were de rigueur early on, apparently, but a cylindrical steel wasn't. |
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