Those Odd Instruments I Play Occasionally, someone will ask me, "what's that odd thing you're playing there?" "What made that weird noise during the church service last weekend?" "Why can't you just play a normal guitar?" Seriously, though, I play a wide variety of instruments, some of which might be considered "exotic," and some that you just don't see very often. So I thought I'd put a few images up and explain what they are, their origins, and how they're played. LAP STEEL GUITAR

On the left, John Lennon plays lap steel on "For You Blues." On the right, a woman who looks suspiciously like Isabella Rossallini got her lei on and is somehow magically and wirelessly playing her lap steel through a (probably) matching amplifier, which was a popular package back in the day.

This is a lap steel, also known as a lap steel guitar. The lap steel is probably one of the simplest of instruments: it's basically a slab of wood with strings stretched over it and a magnetic pickup to amplify the vibrations of those strings. The player uses a big, fat polished chrome cylinder to move up and down the strings, creating individual notes, and some beautiful chords. Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" is probably the most identifiable lap steel song in history. HISTORY: Lap steel guitars emerged out of the 1930s as guitar players were looking for an instrument that could be amplified so that they could be heard over the rest of the band (pianos, horns, etc.). The lap steel was also used for Hawaiian music, which was all the rage at the time these instruments first appeared. It is the precursor to the pedal steel guitar, which features more strings and an array of pedals and knee levers to change the pitch of the strings. My friend, bassist and cellist Bruce Bailey, who plays exclusively non-fretted instruments, refers to frets as "cheaters," and so I now declare that these pedals and knee levers, too, are "cheaters." No offense to my dear departed bandmate Sneaky Pete Kleinow - so much of what Pete did on the pedal steel was groundbreaking and groovy, so he is therefore excused. And so sorely missed. Pedal steels are widely used in country music, whereas today, the lap steel is typically used for "roots" music, blues and occasionally rock. Lap steel is, for me, a very emotional sounding instrument, and I love playing every chance I get. I'm currently playing custom-built lap steel by Canadian builder Hugo Tremblay. It has a unique, more guitar-like tone than a lot of steels, and plays well with others. To see more about this instrument, click here: lapsteel.htm

DOBRO OR RESOPHONIC GUITAR

On the left is "Bashful" Brother Oswald, one of the best known and influential Dobro players in history. On the right is a close-up of a player from a cool angle. I don't know who the player is. I just like the picture.

Here's the Resophonic guitar, commonly referred to as a Dobro, or resonator guitar. Once again, the initial design was intended to allow the guitarist to "keep up" with the volume of the rest of the band. It can also be played upright, that is, held like a regular guitar. Dobros are popularly used this way in blues and folk music. The Dobro did not get it's sound from a large resonating chamber like in a standard acoustic guitar. Instead, the strings ran across a single resonator with its concave surface uppermost, often described as bowl-shaped, under a distinctive circular perforated metal cover plate with the bridge at its center resting on an eight-legged aluminum spider. I guess you just need to see one to understand, 'cause it's pretty freaky how they work. People have actually said to me, "why did you glue a hubcap to the front of your guitar?" HISTORY: In about 1928, John Dopyera started the Dobro Manufacturing Company and produced the first of what are now known as either Dobros or Nationals. The Dobro/National story is very long and drawn out, and not without its lawsuits, misunderstandings and internal feuds. The history that's important to me is the part I played in the Dobro story. In the 70s, I worked in music retail, and was (happily!) the gopher who made runs to local manufacturers like Rickenbacker, Fender, and of course Dobro. I frequented the Dobro factory (then their company was called "OMI" for "Original Musical Instruments") when it was on Gaylord Street in Long Beach, California, getting to know Rudy and Emile Dopyera pretty well. It was so fun standing in among all those partially finished guitars. I bought a couple myself, of course. Later, in the mid-70s, the Bros sold the company to nephew Ron Lazar, whom I also became friends with. A couple of times Ron built custom Dobros (and a Dobro mandolin!) in exchange for me bringing him a vintage National or Dobro guitar for the "museum." Ron developed health problems and when he passed on, his wife sold the brand to Gibson, a once-great company known from about the 1970s forward to make some of the most expensive and poor-quality instruments in history. I've always loved playing this instrument, and I am now getting asked to play it with regularity. I'm so happy! To listen to a great example of traditional Dobro playing, listen to "The End of the World" by Brother Oswald. The brand name "Dobro" has been genericised (is that a word?) much as the word "Kleenex" now refers to facial tissue. For a long time, Dobro was the only well-known brand of resonator guitar. The name is an amalgam "Do"(Dopyera) and "bro" (as in brothers). Dobro also means "good" in the Slovak language. Of late, the Dobro (or whatever you wish to call it) is being modified and, yes, improved upon by builders like Tim Scheerhorn and Paul Beard - new advances in body shape and size, internal baffling to improve sound and enhance volume are being made and being applied to the time-honored design. I'm sure there are purists out there who feel that this is sacrilege, but the best players in the biz like Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes use these new designs, so it's probably collectors who will gripe. I recently acquired one of these new-generation Wechter/Scheerhorn resonator guitars - these use some very different design elements, and are louder and better sounding than ever. I use the Schatten RG-03 pickup, which amplifies really true to the acoustic sound.

BOUZOUKI

The guy on the left is playing the more modern type of bouzouki, similar to the one I play. I have no idea who he is. On the right you see the fancy inlay that is common on the traditional Greek bouzouki.

The bouzouki is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. It's a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin, but about twice as large. It has a pretty sharp, somewhat metallic sound that's somewhere between a banjo and a 12-string guitar, when strung as a Greek bouzouki. In the 60s, Irish music somewhat commandeered the bouzouki, and luthiers began to re-design the instrument, modifying the potato-bug-type traditional round back to a flat back like modern guitars and mandolins. In Scotland, they refer to the bouzouki as "a mandolin before taxes." I first saw the bouzouki being played by one of my musical heroes, David Lindley, and had always wanted one, but it took me until 2009 to actually acquire one. I was so excited about this, I told a friend that I had it, and he invited me over to record a part on one of his tracks. At the time we did this recording, I had probably played the 'zouk for less than 4 hours! But the part turned out good. Listen to "Brother Paul" on New Command's "Damascus Journey" album - that was my first 'zouk recording. My version of John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me" is a decent example of  bouzouki in a pop music context. If you'd like to hear something more traditional from the bouzouki, take a listen to "Frangossiriani" by Paraskevas Grekis.

BONGO CAJON

The cajon (pronounced "KA-HONE") is, like, the hot new percussion instrument, and I'm way into doing hand percussion. Most percussion toys are around $20 and not $1100 (like the Glissentar I really want!), which means I can buy something every now and then. This one was a bit more, but $50 was cheap for all the use I get out of it. The standard cajon is basically just a tuned box that you sit on, lean it forward and beat on the front of. Some full-sized cajons have "snares" so that you can get a rattle-ey snare sound. But this isn't that. It's the concept of a cajon but shrunk down to bongo size. the underside is divided unequally so that one side of it has a high pitch and the other, low. I am not a bongo player, but when it dawned on me that this would be a fine replacement for beating on the back of my nice guitars (which sometimes made me nervous), I went for it. It's that and much more. A pretty unique sound, very portable, and adds an exotic touch to things. I used it quite a bit on the Damascus Journey album.