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Author
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Topic: Hawaiian acoustic lap steel on ebay? WEIRD!
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Nicholas Dedring
Member From: Brooklyn, New York, USA
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posted 27 April 2004 09:56 AM
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Item # 3720268479Can't figure out what the stuff on the top half is there to do... is it to play bass notes on? What's that arm thing with what look like hinges in it? Strange beast, at least to look at. Anybody know about these? This is just academic, not buying it, but I was curious... |
Ben Elder
Member From: La Crescenta, California, USA
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posted 27 April 2004 12:10 PM
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A common item of the early 20th Century probably more related to the zither and autoharp and perhaps a direct relative of the Marx/Marxophone (not the toy company) family of instruments. Marx instruments were often sold door-to-door. (Better you should wait for the Oahu rep's visit.) Not worth the bother to attempt to make these play. Ever heard of anyone doing it? Ever seen how many of these are on eBay and in thrift stores? Ever seen a D'Addario, GHS John Pearse or Ernie Ball string set for one? Overpriced at a dime a dozen for anything other than decorative purposes. Singer Claudia Schmidt (folk circuit singer and Prairie Home Companion guest circa the 1980s--now a less-regular performer I think, based on an HGTV show I improbably happened to see about the B&B she and her husband run) used a Marxophone in her performances, but mostly because of the improbable novelty of it. I try to ignore eBay listings for these when they insinuate themselvs into searches for real and worthwhile instruments, but I get burned every so often and resent the unnecessary 15-20 seconds they rob from my life.[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 27 April 2004 at 12:23 PM.] |
Gary Anwyl
Member From: Palo Alto, CA
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posted 27 April 2004 04:09 PM
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Here's a web page devoted to the Hawaiian Tremoloa. It does a pretty good job of describing how they operate:
http://home.dejazzd.com/williams/QuickIdentifierPages/Tremoloa.htm I own a related instrument, a Hawaiian Tiple. Here's a discussion of that: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003028.html It's not a serious instrument, but it's fun to fool around with.
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