Bottleneck Delta Blues

[Sid Barone]

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"Originally Posted on: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:01 pm

HI.. can anyone please help me find an OO/OOO style slotted head preferably burst in tobacco/vintage to buy?.. Thanks!

[DarwinStrings]

G'day Sid....Ebay....http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Vintage-Harmony- ... ?pt=Guitar

Jim

[Pete Howlett]

Good recommendation but don't buy it - it is not one of their btter examples like the Sovereign. Look on ebay for a Lakeside parlor guitar like the one Blind Lemon Jefferson sports in that famous publicity photo. Take it to a luthier and get him to replace the tailpiece, fit a bridge plate and put on a pin bridge. Many of these early parlors with their oak bodies, alder necks and Adirondack spruce fronts are killer bottleneck guitars but need some modification to make them more robust and acceptable to modern playing. You can keep the tailpiece if you want it authentic but it is very flimsy. Often the neck is bent so ripping the fingerboard off and inserting a graphite rod under tension is the fix there. While I lived in America I converted a couple of these guitars - unique bracing patttern like a half cross-brace with a half ladder. Great stuff... mmmmmm

[liam_fnq]

great ideas there Pete.

How do you glue the graph rod under tension?

[Pete Howlett]

Not sure if he still has a description at Stewmac but Dan Erlewine did it on a Stella !2 string. Basically you make two end stops at the nut and heel ends then cut the graphite very slightly longer so it has to be flexed into the routed channel. This puts a small bit of backbow on the neck. Glue the fingerboard as usual and then when you string it up it pulls flat - usual luthier mojo Smile You could also try some 12mm box section steel - those necks are often fat enough to take such a channel. I have a mate who has a 1979 Steve Phillips 00045 style guitar (#7 I believe but don't quote me) that is all hand made. It has a box section in the neck and has not required a neck set in the 41 years of its life! Same guy playing here one of my Stella 12 string repros with its box section in the neck...



youtu.be/


Sounds great after 12 years of constant playing doesn't it? And like it should with its ladder bracing which to me is the best configuration for blues guitars. Sad there are many who have never heard IRL what this does to that particular genre and how it forces you to play in a certain way...

[Taffy Evans]

I still play two of my early guitars '76 and '80 both have solid bar neck reinforcement, the best actions still after 34 years, at 5/64" on the bass side, and no buzz.

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