large...and it is!) twelve string that I found on ebay. I had it modified to
my specifications by my friend and neighbor Dennis Lake. He did a great
job, it sounds fabulous. It has twelve sympathetic and 6 melody strings, a
sitar-like bridge and macadamia nut fine tuners! Well, I do live in Hawaii,
after all. I have it tuned down to C in an Indian modal drone. You will
notice if you look closely, that the string order is unique. I put the bass
strings toward the middle and the higher melody strings on the outside.
This allows me to play a drone with one finger while playing melody with
another in different octaves. I play the guitar in my lap sitting on the floor,
and use a Hawaiian style steel bar slide.
Hindustani slide guitar actually has roots in Hawaii. In 1929 a
Samoan-Hawaiian slide guitarist named Tau Moe traveled to Calcutta and
taught Indian musicians how to play lap steel. From there it was adapted
to Indian classical music, a genre that slide guitar is particularly well
suited for.
