PLAIN FOLK

By Billy Jones
The Steel Guitar and Joe Delaronde

A couple of things happened in the recent past that inspired me to tell everyone about a really nice guy with a wonderful imagination. His name is Joe Delaronde and he is a man that makes you feel good just to be with him. But first: ….

We all know that the Hawaiian guitar, now referred to as the steel guitar, was associated with the music of the islands. What a lot of people don’t know is how much it has evolved over the years. The term Hawaiian is just a style of music now, like rock and country.

In the beginning, the Hawaiian guitar was just an ordinary 6-string acoustic guitar with the strings raised higher so a steel bar could be used to slide to the notes or chord you wanted to play. A pickup was invented and the steel guitar immerged as a solid, horizontal instrument that could be played on the knee or placed on a stand. They are sometimes called lap steels.

During the 40s, when country bands started using them, they were available as multi-neck guitars and they added more strings to each neck. Leon McAuliffe, in the Bob Wills band, had a 4-neck steel guitar with 8-strings on each neck. My guitar, at that time, had 3-necks. Each neck had a different tuning and we usually stood up to play them.

A more complicated pedal steel guitar was developed with several pedals and knee levers. Players were able to raise or lower different strings at will. Most of us have one but some players had the ability and pleasure of building their own. In the last few years, Delaronde and I have been playing our non-pedal guitars at the Winnipeg Steel Guitar Convention every year to compare notes and have fun. This year it will happen on April 22nd and 23rd.

Joe Delaronde created a steel guitar he crafted from a beaver log. He even used driftwood for the stand. He did it without changing the natural appearance of the material. It sounded wonderful. This year, I’m looking forward to seeing and playing with him and his new skateboard guitar.

Delaronde is a fine steel guitarist. But like me, he has got to point where he not only plays his guitar; he also loves to play with it. The guitars I build are modified but they still look quite conventional. Delaronde, on the other hand, has a sense of humor.

He lives in Selkirk, Manitoba and we communicate our thoughts and ideas regularly. His tool making skills and well equipped little shop allow him the opportunity to experiment with these unusual projects. He sometimes makes special parts for other builders who like to design their own guitars.

It all began the day a friend handed him a beaver log and jokingly suggested that he build a guitar out of it. The lights went on the show began and the Delaronde imagination went to work.