A Couple of Lap Slides

[Bob Connor]

A few pics of the completed lap slides. This was an interesting experiment in using alternative top woods both of which have turned out to be a success and I'd use both of these woods for Weissenborn tops in a heartbeat.

The first one is Tas Myrtle with a Huon Pine Top and Brazilian Rosewood bridge . It sounded fairly ordinary when I first strung it up but after a week of playing I'm picking this one up in preference to the others. Quite a few people had a strum of this at Port Fairy and were pleasantly surprised at the sound of it. I must say that I built this as an experiment and didn't have a lot of faith in the Huon as a soundboard material. Whether it works on a normal guitar I don't know yet but it certainly seems happy enough attached to a Weissenborn. There's some nice whitebait figure in this top

It's almost impossible to photograph the figure in the Myrtle with a flash so I chucked this one in sans flash. It's a little dark but you'll get the idea.

The next instrument is Blackwood back and sides with a Celery Top Pine top. Although the Celery Top Pine is a conifer it's more like a hardwood so I thought it would work on a Weissenborn given that the original instruments had Koa tops. It sounds fine,probably a bit brighter than the Huon Pine and not as much bottom end. I would imagine, though, that this instrument will take quite a while to open up and when it does it'll be better than the Huon Pine topped instrument.

[Kim]

Excellent work Bob, I am really taken with the look of the blackwood celery top combo and the multi colour purflings are the perfect highlight for this style of instrument...I am begining to suspect that you are having an affair with these no necks..

Cheers

Kim

[Lillian]

What?? No sound clip?

They are both easy on the eyes. Eye candy if you will. I'd be hard pressed to pick one of the other just in looks.

[Bob Connor]

Gotta learn to play the bloody thing now Lillian

I'll see what I can do. You may get 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" though.

[Lillian]

Gotta learn to play the bloody thing now Lillian

I'll see what I can do. You may get 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" though.

I'll take that or Happy Birthday. Your call.

[christian]

Fantastic Job on the weissenborns Bob !!! beautiful work as always.
gotta say i'm fascinated by the use of the huon and celery pines for tops.
sounds like you had great success, it has certainly spured me on to have a go with our
own celery and white pine in NZ.
will be interesting to see how your instruments develop tonally in the months to come.
thanks heaps for posting,
Cheers,

Christian.