The Bear Facts Aloha..... The Tablature "The Girl in the Yellow Holoku" A song supposedly written The Tuners are the old `Lollypop` style and much easier to grip by Webley Edwards (Nov. 11, 1902 – Oct. 5, 1977) that the later `Butterbean` ones. What was obvious was that Lyrics probably by Randy Oness and the tune is taken although slightly weatherbeaten, the guitar hadn’t been used from the traditional melody “Moani Ke Ala" composed by much, as you can see from the picture the machine head gears Queen Lili`uokalani. still have the factory paint seal on the screw, and exhibit no sign Sung by Pua Almeida, but the most famous version is by of wear on the worm gear. Barney and Jules on the Capitol Album “Hawaiian Shores” T-904 1958. They are both playing the C13th tuning and swap back Pictures of the Stringmaster Mk1 and forth in the various sections. Download the track I suppose it actually shows as being played for just a few years from here:- http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/yellow.mp3 then laid up. The Chromework and fretboards are as new, it’s just There is also a backing track to play along with @ :- the paintwork that exhibits a very 1950’s patina, with the odd chip http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/yellowb/t.mp3 more so than wear marks on the body. An Expensive mistake A couple of years ago (Just before my birthday) I bid on a Tri- cone by accident and won the auction.. It WAS a bargain. Well, this year I did the same silly thing, I bid on a guitar just to be ‘in there’ when the auction was over and see who won it... well you’ve probably guessed, No-one else bid on the guitar (After all It was in the wrong section and had the wrong name) so I won it, a fabulous Fender Stringmaster Mk1 triple neck assem- bled by Freddie Tavares in June 1954. (About the time he was designing the Fender Stratocaster.) I had a client for the Stringmaster twin that was pictured in the September mag, so she went to a good home [to be played not just looked at] and I had the money to pay for my ‘Mistake’ Bass tuner pan and nut Standard tuner pan and nut This is the same model that was used by Jules ah See and Barney Kalanikau Isaacs on the Hawaii Calls Shows and The machinehead Albums. assembly showing the lack of wear on Discovery and surprises the worm gears. After receipt of the guitar, and upon close inspection, I discovered that the farthest neck had a nut that was groved for BASS strings Also there’s factory and the tuner shafts were drilled with correspondingly larger seal on the screws holes. This immediately made me think of the Webley Edwards showing it hadn’t promotion of some of the Hawaii Calls albums of a “Baritone” been opened to Hawaiian Guitar. Further enquiries revealed that the early triple adjust the tensions. and quads left the factory configured this way, and Fender mar- keted a set of Bass Hawaiian Guitar strings specifically gauged for these instruments. For the A6 tuning, E-C#-A-F#-E-C#-A-F#. I remembered Albert Green’s Quad that he bought from Hoot The tuner pan recess Rains, Slim Whitman’s steel player, it had bass strings on it but showing the date and they’d been repositioned to neck one, and neck 4 was C6th with Freddie Tavares’s a device attached to the tuner pan on string 2 to change the note inspection/assembly from C to C#. B.J. Cole now owns that guitar. signature. Nearly All Stringmasters Another surprise was the way the tone control functioned, It have the date and didn’t have a capacitor between it and earth, it was a ballance assembler’s signature, control for all of the necks and full clockwise was just the bridge sometimes on the pickups, whilst fully counterclockwise it was all the pickup on. It bare paint other was infinitely variable betwixt the single and twin modes with the times on a piece of masking tape just stuck inside the desired tonal response able to be dialled in quite easily. I can’t recess. If you have the internet check out :- understand why they changed this arrangement on later models. http://www.steelc6th.com/ it’s a site with a LOT of good They were more comprehensively variable having a blendpot on hawaiian albums.. each neck and a tone control that was a capacitor circuit, BUT Basil Henriques the earlier method is so much more friendly to use. 17 The Girl in the Yellow Holoku Basil Henriques Transcribed:­ Composed by Lili`uokalani/Oness/Webley Edwards Standard Guitar Tuning E-B-D-A-E Steel Guitar Tuning C13 E-C-A-G-E-C-Bb-C 18 The Girl in the Yellow Holoku Basil Henriques Transcribed:­ Page 2 19 The Girl in the Yellow Holoku Basil Henriques Transcribed:­ Page 3 20 The Girl in the Yellow Holoku Basil Henriques Transcribed:­ Page 4 21.