David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 11 Sep 2016 6:13 am |
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Probably not a familiar name to most, but Charles Moore out of Winchester, Indiana founded the International Hawaiian Steel Guitar Club, now the Aloha International Steel Guitar Club and built the Holiday brand non-pedal steel guitars. He passed away on September 1 at the age of 90.
I have one of his Holiday guitars, and it's one of the best made and nicest steels I've seen. The Holidays don't really resemble any other steels that I've seen--maybe closer to a Byrd model Rickenbacker than anything, but with a unique pickup and nice metal work. There are pictures out on the Internet showing Kayton Roberts playing a double neck Holiday. I have no idea why the guitars are not better known than they are. At any rate, we've lost another great builder from earlier times. |
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Luke Sullivan
From:
El Paso de Robles, CA, USA
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Posted 11 Sep 2016 12:25 pm 47 Holiday guitars were built.
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My Holiday 10 string guitar is a beauty. I'll add a letter from C. Moore's son documenting some history. This is from a 2013 forum post.
Posted 17 Jul 2013 3:28pm Holiday S10 by Charles Moore - History
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John Moore, son of Charles Moore, is looking for information on his Father's custom made guitars:
Aloha Larry,
Thanks for the reply! By trade my father was a custom home and custom cabinet maker. His company was the Moore Cabinet Co. of Winchester, Indiana. His father and brother were also homebuilders as was his grandfather. My father Charles Moore known by many as Charlie, first built guitars for Ralph Pierce in the late 60's. Pierce then sold the guitars to Gibson who then distributed them to retail locations, passing them off as Gibson guitars despite still having the name "Pierce" on the side of them. From what little I know about Pierce, it would appear that these guitars may have been pedal steels. My father made about 40 guitars for Pierce over the period of a few years and lost money on the venture. In the early to mid 70's, the custom cabinet business in the small town of Winchester and surrounding areas began to decline as mass produced cabinets started to hit the markets. My father once again decided to build guitars, but this time for himself with his own design, building everything himself, including the pickups and castings. He named his company the Holiday Steel Guitar Co. In all he crafted 47 non-pedal steel guitars under the Holiday name. Approximately 8 or so being lap steels. His workshop was in the basement of our home in Winchester Indiana. There (in our home) he also opened a small store where he sold his guitars, classical guitars, Dobros and Banjos. In 1974, he formed a club to promote steel guitar music. The "International Hawaiian Steel Guitar Club" (IHSGC). The first meeting or "convention" of the club was held in our basement (wood working equipment moved for the event) in 1975. In the following years as the club grew and the convention grew, it was moved to various locations in Winchester, till it settled at Willard Elementary School. My father stopped making his guitars in the late 1970's. He continued to be president of the IHSGC until 1988, when the club was taken over by a few of its members and changed to the Aloha International Steel Guitar Club (AISGC). Are you aware of that organization? My dad didn't keep track of where his guitars went or who they were sold to...wish he had. I don't imagine there are many original owners still around unfortunately. The family managed to get one guitar back about 10 years ago (it is to come to me at some point). I have heard from several people regarding the quality and sound of the guitars my father made...some saying that they were superior to any guitar they had ever owned. There was a lot of pride and high quality craftsmanship that went into them...I know that from growing up and watching him make them. Surprising to most people is that my dad didn't play guitar, or any musical instrument for that matter. He built them, tuned them, and he greatly enjoyed the music and the people who played the music. This past winter my dad had to move into an assisted living facility. He suffers from hearing loss (military service and all those years of working in the shop), and Parkinson's. I now live in Electric City, Washington and just this past week I traveled back to Winchester to take my dad to the convention. He has been only a couple times in the years since '88. Leadership of the organization has changed recently and the new leaders, and the past and present mayors of Winchester presented several awards to my dad for his work to promote and preserve the steel guitar and hawaiian music. So there is the history as short as I can make it. If you do figure out who you sold it to, please let me know as I would like to track down these guitars if I can, just to know where they have gone. At this time too, I am looking for people who have interest in Hawaiian music and steel guitars. If you have Facebook, feel free to look me up there . Thanks again for your reply. I am working on putting together a Facebook page and possibly a wikipedia page for the Holiday Steel Guitar, because so many, like yourself, don't know the history of the instrument and can't find information regarding them.
Again, thanks for the reply.
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Mullen PRP D10, accordions, Harmony Sovereign guitar. |
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