Hermann Weissenborn made guitars in the 1920's and 30's to be played with a steel bar while the guitar rested in the lap. The steel bar is slid along the strings which are tuned to an open chord. The body is hollow all the way up to the peghead, giving the guitar its distinctive mellow tone. They were generally not designed to be played in the Spanish style, using frets to change the pitch of the stings. This type of guitar developed into the Dobro style metal bodied resonator guitar which traded the sweetness of tone for volume and power . Original Weissenborn guitars were very lightly constructed, often from Hawaiian woods such as Koa. This guitar is in the tradition of the original, simply constructed, open tuned instrument. The engraved flower position markers on the fingerboard are by Peter Kretzman.