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John Tipka on Steel Guitar Building About John Tipka...A Profile(as told to Marjorie Scott in the Fall '97 Newsletter)
John says he started building steel guitars about fifteen years ago, and generally built one a year. "Each new building experience brought insight in the easy way and the hard way to do it. It taught me "fret" arithmetic." John says he learned about winding pickups and even made a device to wind them that used a 45 rpm phonograph motor, a mechanical counter, and the level wind mechanism from a bait casting fishing reel! The quality hardwoods he wanted were easy to find, he says. His lovely wife, Millie, can attest to that, as John has built "the most beautiful furniture" for their home. Since John has been an amateur radio operator since age 12 "back when 'hams' made their own equipment", and the WWII and later, Korean war surplus market was gorged with parts and equipment, he was able to build all his own transmitters, speech amplifier and modulators. "I extended my experience into guitar amplifiers. I still use many of the techniques, circuitry and components (vacuum tubes) from back then in all the amps I build." John says he does this in order to achieve "a sound most of us are looking for. In answer to my question about how he first got interested in Hawaiian steel John said "when I was 9 or 10, I tried never to miss a Sunday program from Toledo, Ohio, featuring two Hawaiian-style steel guitar players". John, who was born and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area, told himself he was going to learn how to play "that instrument, and Na Lei O Hawai'i, the radio program's theme song, the way it was played on the radio." Cleveland was the home of O'ahu Publishing Company in those years, and the brother-in-law of John's neighbor turned out to be Alex Hoapili, a well-known steel player, teacher, and arranger of Hawaiian music for both O'ahu, and Bronson Music Publishing in Detroit. "Needless to say, I started taking steel guitar lessons from him," John said. As John remembers it, he played "on what seemed to be a jumbo-sized Gretsch square-neck acoustic wood," and later a Gibson EH-150. John lost his teacher to an early death, found another teacher, and over a number of years played with a small group of steel and Spanish guitar students to learn accompaniment, harmony and arranging. Then, as he chronicles it "I was off to college, marriage, three children, a long stint in the Army, retirement and another almost twenty years career with Ohio State University." For twenty-five Army years, John says he didn't play at all. "Suddenly, here I am, 50 years later, occupying my idle time enjoying my family, playing Hawaiian-style steel guitar and building electric steel guitars and vacuum tube guitar amplifiers!" We're delighted that John decided to join HSGA last year, bring his wife to Honolulu convention last May, and say "yes, I'd be glad to" when asked if he would share his expertise in these pages. 
HSGA * HAWAIIAN
STEEL GUITAR ASSOCIATION Homepage URL: www.hsga.org (hsga@lava.net) Last updated: 07/23/02 by Gerald Ross (gbross@umich.edu) |
