The teardrop model is a collaboration between Tony Francis and an Australian collector / player. Despite its smaller chamber, it is a spectacular sounding instrument. A teardrop has a more piercing high end than the hourglass model, and a unique voice that opens up another range of musical possibilities.
By the 1930's Weissenborn was fitting some of his teardrops with mahogany or koa wood bridge plates. And so, there are two versions of the classic teardrop model, differing only slightly in construction detail. The first is patterned from a late 1920s teardrop with a standard sugar maple bridge plate. The second is patterned from an exceptionally fine sounding teardrop from the early 1930s, which had a mahogany bridge plate. Mahogany and koa are a softer, warmer woods, and that's how they sound - producing and instrument that is more balanced over the entire range.
SPECIFICATIONS: Teardrop Style 1 Hawaiians
- Style: Hawaiian style acoustic lap slide
- Scale length: 25 inches
- Depth of body: 3 inches
- Top: Hawaiian koa
- Back and Sides: Hawaiian koa
- Bracing: Spruce
- Bridge plate: Sugar maple, mahogany or koa wood.
- Joints: Hide glue, exclusively
- Fret board: Hawaiian koa
- Frets: 19 inlaid white holly markers
- Inlay: Select round pearl abalone dots
- Bridge: Sugar maple
- Saddle: Aluminum wire
- Nut: Free Range cattle bone
- String spacing: Nut: 1 5/8 inches , Bridge: 2 3/8 inches
- Finish: Hand rubbed nitrocellulose lacquer
- Tuning heads: 1920's spec plate tuners by Blazer & Henkes*
- Pins and buttons: 1920’s style ivoroid
- Case: TKL (Cedar Creek or Calton by request)
- Strings: D’Addario .014" - .056"
Please contact me for additional information.
Other Models:
This Style 4 teardrop was a special order from an American client. Of course H.Weissenborn never made a Style 4 teardrop, but if he would have, I wanted it to look natural in the 1930s style with classic simple koa grain, and was a phenomenal sounding instrument.