Finally, more instruments.
Tuesday was a three instrument day.
It started at Goodwill. I found the melodica for 4 bucks. Then the little pink guitar for 4 bucks. It has friction tuners so good luck staying in tune, but it serves a very useful purpose. Any musician with kids is probably aware that the youngins like to get in on the action too. One day when Lydia was about 2 I heard an odd clunking sound coming my way. She was dragging my mandolin by the strap through the hall and the clunking was the mandolin not making it around the corner. Ouch. I don’t want to discourage her desire to play, but I definately didn’t want her learning how to take care of an instrument that I couldn’t afford to part with. We went to music go round that afternoon and bought a uke. So this pink guitar serves that same purpose now for Elsa.
Now for the acoustic lap steel.
The acoustic lap steel, usually referred to as a Weissenborn (similar to how all resophonic guitars are called Dobros), is an instrument I’ve been looking for for the last 6 years. In fact when I was picking out my electric lap steel I chose it based on the body style mimicking that of a Weissenborn. I learned about Weissenborns the same way most people do, via Ben Harper. And I really started loving Ben Harper when I got married and Jodi brought to the marriage table a copy of Welcome to the Cruel World. What can I say, I married well.
The problem with acoustic lap steels is that there aren’t a ton of them out there. Which means they are pricey. The majority are luthier built and start around 2500 bucks. Not happening. The one I bought is made by Superior and new would still be out of my price range, but low and behold someone else was letting it go on Craig’s list. YES.
I bought this from area musician Rob Morrow. First off, what a great guy. And what a great musician. Check out the music on his site and go buy one his CD already, will ya? He gave me great deal on a great instrument, and for that I’m grateful. greatful?
And get this, Rob used to hang out with Ben Harper, JP Plunier, Tom Freund, Chris Darrow – the whole early Harper crowd. And as a photographer, Rob did Harper’s first photo shoot. How crazy cool is that? But wait, there’s more. The Steven’s Steel that Rob threw in with lap steel is one that Ben gave him. (OK, technically Ben took it off the shelf of his grandpa’s music store and handed it to him, but still, for over 3 seconds it was in Ben’s posession. And that’s 9/10’s of the law.)
So not only do I have a beautiful Weissenborn style guitar, I also have Ben Harper’s steel.
So yeah, it was a pretty good day.