Roland Peachy's tuning's, right here, right now!

[Ron Whitfield]

As played on his '38, triple neck Abbott; Top ECAF#ECD, Mid EC#AGEC#A, Bottom EC#BG#EC#D. Now, get your self an old blade bar, and go do the right thing.

[Mike Neer]

That's great, thanks. I've seen video footage of him playing, and he's all over those 3 necks. I've toyed with that F# in the C6 tuning as well, and I guess that makes it a D9 tuning.

[basilh]

Thanks Ron

Aloha Aikane....
>From 1938 - 1943 Roland Peachey played an Abbott three neck guitar (Made in the UK)
tuned like this

(Low to High)
D C E F# A C E (D9)
A C# E G A C# E (A7)
D C# E G# B C# E (E13)
Please note the unusual arrangement of the 7th and 8th strings in the D9 and E13 set ups. THIS IS NO MISPRINT these are the tunings Roland gave in a letter to John Marsden.
He had a valid reason for the "out of sequence" notes on the bottom two strings...he reasoned that the thumb could find the required note of the two...

After 1943 he experimented with various multi-necked guitars and tunings but at the time the recordings you reffered to were made, he was playing a twin 8 with palm levers set up to give many tunings, and quite easily changed to suit any requirement...also bear in mind that studio recordings can have any number of special tunings set up on the least used neck.
Unless someone at the recording session takes note of the tunings in use,It may NEVER be known for certain,what ANY player used on a particular recording.

An enquiry to John Marsden may yield more information.He said it was OK for me to post his contact details

John Marsden
218 Bannerdale Road
Sheffield
S11 9FE
United Kingdom

or 'phone him int+(0)122-255-1907

Ehoíopomaikaiíia ëoe e na makana kamahaío o keia kau.Me ke aloha e.
May the Wonderous Gifts of the Season be yours.
Greetings of Aloha!
Basil Henriques

[Ron Whitfield]

Mike, you're welcome, my pleasure.

Basil, thanx for posting John's phone #!

As I understand(from John), that Roland made his double 8 himself, as well as a few others with the tuning changeable hand levers. John sez he has one of them! He also believes that Roland has recently passed away. I just hope RP knew he was rightly appreciated during his lifetime, as he certainly left us a lot to enjoy.

------------------
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ron Whitfield on 03 December 2003 at 01:48 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Carol Green]

My dad was a student of Roland Peachy back in England (they were neighbours), and has his three-necked guitar (Roland made it himself). Roland Peachy had moved to L.A., and my dad was able to connect with him again before Roland passed away.

My dad's now 95, living in Laguna Woods, CA, and is still playing Roland Peachy's guitar.

Thank you for the emails below, as he is in the process of re-stringing the guitar, and is hazy on the tuning (Roland Peachy didn't use standard tuning), so this will help!

[Bill Leff]

Wow, talk about full circle. Love to hear that your Dad is still playing at 95!

[Chris Templeton]

That's peachy. Thanks

[Colin Bolton]

As played on his '38, triple neck Abbott; Top ECAF#ECD, Mid EC#AGEC#A, Bottom EC#BG#EC#D. Now, get your self an old blade bar, and go do the right thing.<FONT><p>[This message was edited by Ron Whitfield on 03 December 2003 at 01:32 PM.]</p></FONT>

Of the many players who played steel guitar for Felix
Mendelssohn's Hawaiian Serenaders ie Joynes, Mitchell
Bell, Brooker, Life (leefay) Roland to me was the man,
his lovely relaxing style of playing alway's impressed me, and still doe's, a friend in England once sent me
a tape of Brooker's playing to convince me he was the man rather than Roland, I was not convinced, and although many Hawaiian fans in England did prefer Brooker I thought his Steel sounded tinny, and I still do, Roland was alway's bitter with the fact that Felix had the headlines at shows, resulting in
starting his own band, on returning to Canada Roland
who never had any of his own recordings spent most of his time building steel guitars, John approached
Roland with a Biography of his life and asked him to
sanction it's printing, Roland refused and that was that, his last steel guitar was very heavy and I believe was thrown out by his family, although I am
not sure, RIP Roland Piche.

[Peter den Hartogh]

(Low to High)
D C E F# A C E (D9)
A C# E G A C# E (A7)
D C# E G# B C# E (E13)
Please note the unusual arrangement of the 7th and 8th strings in the D9 and E13 set ups. THIS IS NO MISPRINT these are the tunings Roland gave in a letter to John Marsden.
He had a valid reason for the "out of sequence" notes on the bottom two strings...he reasoned that the thumb could find the required note of the two...

These look like 7 string arrangements, so there is no 8th string, or did I get that wrong?

[Steven Cummings]

When I view the videos that are available on the youtube it is not obvious to me what the flat bar Mr. Peachey uses is made of. It does not appear to me to be metal necessarily. It appears rather dark to me (bakelite perhaps).

Does anyone have any information regarding his choice of flatbars?

Or for that matter the types of flat bars that were commonly used in that time period.

I wish there was good information on bar history somewhere and how it has evolved to what is commonly used today.

Thanks for sharing his tunings with the forum. Good stuff!

[Colin Bolton]

When I view the videos that are available on the youtube it is not obvious to me what the flat bar Mr. Peachey uses is made of. It does not appear to me to be metal necessarily. It appears rather dark to me (bakelite perhaps).

Does anyone have any information regarding his choice of flatbars?

Or for that matter the types of flat bars that were commonly used in that time period.

I wish there was good information on bar history somewhere and how it has evolved to what is commonly used today.

Thanks for sharing his tunings with the forum. Good stuff!

It was said that Roland also used a Black Rajah bar
at some time in his career, although in the Pathe video of Song of the Islands his bar looks more or less like any flat bar of the period.