Eddie Peabody’s All-Electric String Band

Here’s an amazing clip from around 1930 of Eddie Peabody and his Beach Combers playing the Electraphone, which appears to be four electric instruments (tenor guitar, plectrum banjo, Hawaiian guitar and mandolin) mounted to a table. I’d hate to have been the roadie that had to load that into the van.-MJS

2 comments May 16th, 2007

The Commodium

Keith Cary is a musician and luthier based in the Sacramento area (he plays in a band with FJ contributor Robert Armstrong) and the inventor of the completely awesome Commodium, which is a resonator instrument made from a bed pan. Each one is custom made and can be built with mandolin, tenor, plectrum and 5-string banjo necks. I wonder if Keith ever considered calling it a Bedpandemonium?-MJS

Add comment January 12th, 2007

The FJ Visits: Earnest Instruments

When Jason and I went to the Newport Guitar Festival a while ago, we took some time to visit a few New England luthiers. One of them was Joel Eckhaus, who builds ukes, tenor guitars, mandolins and steel guitars under the Earnest Instruments brand. Along with being a good builder, Joel is a fine player (he took lessons from ukulele legend Roy Smeck) and can play uke, mandolin and tenor guitar. That’s Joel on the left playing an old Epiphone that was the inspiration for his own Veronica model. The middle photo shows a unique Bourgeois cello guitar that Joel built while he was working there. The steel guitar on the right is loosely based on the old Rickenbacker Bakelite model, but Joel’s is made of wood.

The shots below are from Joel’s workshop. One of my favorite Earnest instruments is the Ceegar Box uke. As you can see in the second photo on the right, Joel has a good stock of “bodies” ready to go. I love poking around builder’s workshops because they always have such interesting piles of junk sitting around. Check out the pile of old horns in the photo on the photo in the bottom row. I e-mailed Joel about them and he said, “I’ve actually been playing around with some of those broken horns that I have in the box. Mark Tipton, who plays trumpet on my CD, came over and we played around with the horns for quite a while…ducktaping various combinations of horns, and slides, and tubes together. We got some interested sounds and shapes, almost like brass vivi-section or something. Mark actually played a solo on a valveless ductape-o-phonium tonight at a jam session.” As you can see in the last photo, a horn bell also makes a nice hat. Oh, and the CD Joel is referring to is Tarnished Reputation by Ukulele Eck and the Fabulous Lacklusters. I’m sure if you contact him, he’ll be happy to sell you one. I got to hear it while I was there and even though it doesn’t have, or maybe because it doesn’t have any valveless ductape-o-phonium on it, I thought it was really good.-MJS

Add comment October 21st, 2006

Update for Issue 2: Neko Case

Neko Case, who graced the cover of our second issue, has just released a DVD of her August 9, 2003 appearance on Austin City Limits. A nice promo clip from the DVD appears here, and includes Neko singing “Behind the House” and playing her Gibson TG-0 tenor guitar, which she photographed for the article. Oh, and her singing is really good too. I should also mention that we are running low on copies of that back issue. Issue 1 is already sold out, so if you have any interest in getting issue 2, you should act fast.-MJS

Add comment October 18th, 2006

Update for Issue 2: Neko Case’s Tenor Guitar Tuning

We’ve been getting a few letters asking how Neko Case tunes her tenor guitars. For the record, she tunes it DGBE, just like the top four strings of a six-string guitar in standard tuning. If you’re interested in learning more about tenor guitars, check out Tenorguitar.com, which has lots of photos of rare tenors, a nice history of the tenor guitar, an active and friendly chat room and a good tutorial in playing tenor guitar in the CGDA tuning.-MJS (Photo of tenor guitar fretboard coutesy of Frank Ford at Frets.com)

2 comments May 11th, 2006

Updates for Issue 1: Neko Case

Neko Case, who interviewed Charlie Louvin for our first issue, has a free concert recording avaible for download over at NPR. She’s also going out on tour to promote her latest CD, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.-MJS

Add comment April 11th, 2006

Neko Case Updates

Neko Case, the amazing singer-songwriter who so kindly interviewed Charlie Louvin for us in issue one, has a new record out today. It’s entitled Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and it’s quite simply wonderful. She has a slew of guests on the album (including Garth Hudson of the Band) and some of her moodiest, most riveting tunes yet. So far, the album has garnered a ton of rave reviews; she’ll even be performing a song from the album on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this Thursday, March 9. We’re pretty confident that this may be the only time a FJ contributor appears before millions of people on nationwide TV, so watch it while you can! And look for more on Case in future issues of our magazine. –JV

Add comment March 7th, 2006

For Tenor Guitar Players, Part 2

A while ago I posted about the DVD Duke is Tops and how it included a scene of the Cats and the Fiddle playing “Killin’ Jive” on two tenor guitars, a tiple and a bass. Well, I just found this clip online that features that very performance.–MJS

Add comment February 9th, 2006

For Tenor Guitar Players

In 1938 Lena Horne made a movie called The Duke is Tops with an all-African American cast. The movie told a typical tale of show-biz heartbreak, and while it’s enjoyable enough in its way, tenor guitar aficionados will want to know that it features the amazing vocal group the Cats and the Fiddle harmonizing on their hit “Killin’ Jive” to the sound of their two tenor guitars (Martin 5-15T and what appears to be a Epiphone Zenith Tenor), tiple (Martin T-15) and bull fiddle. The print is in surprisingly good condition, and, as an added treat, there is a scene with a solo tenor guitarist I don’t recognize playing at a medicine show on a Gibson TG-1 and the Basin Street Boys singing “Thursday Evening Swing” backed by Steve Gibson on yet another Gibson TG-1. The best part is, you can find the DVD on Amazon for $4.98. -MJS

2 comments January 14th, 2006