OAHU and HAWAIIAN GUITARS. Slide, Demaggio SLIDE!!! Part 3

As we have discussed previously, the rise of he popularity of the steel guitar in american and elsewhere precipitated it's use across a wide spectrum of musical styles. The first Hawaiian guitars where standard guitars with the nut raised above the fretboard to allow the bar to slide without hitting it. It was not long before a whole host of manufacturers started creating guitars specifically for Hawaiian style playing. We mentioned the weissenborn guitar before on this blog. In future posts I will talk about some of the others such as Radiotone, The guitars of Chris Knutsen, National and a host of others.

But for today we will talk about one of my fav's, OAHU GUITARS. The Oahu guitar company was established in mid 1920's by Harry G. Stanley in Flint Michigan with the aim of selling/teaching Hawaiian guitar playing to schools and children. They were subleased to other guitar makers such as Regal and Kay. They were sold primarily with sheet music, and other accessories in the same manners as a door to door salesman would sell insurance or vacuum cleaners. It is hard to image a time when this type of music and playing was as popular as Rock and Roll is today.

These guitars came in a wide range of price points, one of the most expensive being The Oahu Jumbo which retailed for 98 dollars. This was an extraordinary amount for that time. I own this guitar and I CAN TELL YOU IT IS AWESOME SOUNDING. It is loud, punchy, with sustain for days, it is perfect when I am feeling ''bluesy'' which is often. It is incredible well made and its solid as a brick. I love playing along to some pals on youtube's posts, or maybe an old Blind Wille Johnson song. Most of these guitars were sold door to door and most of the guitars they sold tended to be on the cheaper side in price and quality. ( It says something about the state of things when the cheapest item from the 30's can more then stand up to some of the most expensive items today. )

If you play slide, and want to learn a little more, or if you are interested in this type of playing but do not know where to start, let me know. There are a lot more resources for this style today as opposed to a few years ago, as many great resources are now available. Till next time, SLIDE Demaggio, SLIIIDE! ( from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon )

http://www.pedalpro.co.uk/folderIndex/folderHTML/SGhistory01.html