Rayco Hawaiian Weissenborn Style Guitar

This spectacular instrument is a Rayco Hawaiian Weissenborn style guitar in AAA-grade flamed Hawaiian Koa.

Rayco is a small company building a range of instruments – Resophonic guitars, acoustic and electric guitars, banjos and the Hawaiian guitars in the Weissenborn design – in Smithers, BC, about 1,150 km north of Vancouver. Quality and attention to detail are kept to a high level.

The Weissenborn design was developed during the 1920’s in Los Angeles by Hermann Weissenborn. These instruments have two highly distinctive features – a teardrop body shape and a hollow neck cavity, which increases the resonant chamber size. These instruments are always played with a steel, and unless a specialized strap is used, the player is seated. Compared to a square neck Resophonic instrument, the Weissenborn has rich subtleties but lacks the often brash volume provided by the resonator.

This new Rayco Hawaiian Weissenborn Style Guitar is a spectacular instrument. The Triple-A grade Hawaiian Koa used is highly figured, very light and very attractive. The Waverly tuners are smooth and accurate.

But its qualities go a lot further, because with all its good looks and quality construction, it sounds better. Much better.

It’s like plucking the strings on a nicer Grand piano, with an incredibly rich tonal construction wrapped in a bell-like resonance. It would be easy to get lost for hours or days in this instrument.