Lap Guitar

On display

human history

Description
Bill Sevesi's lap steel guitar.
This handmade electric guitar has 16 strings. It has coloured star-stickers up the length of two distinct fret boards. These two fretboards are mounted onto a single wooden neck that splits in two at the headstocks. There is a handwritten musical-note annotation on a white adhesive label stuck on the join between the two fretboards.
Place
Auckland Central/Auckland City/Auckland/New Zealand
Associated Place
Tonga/Pacific
Accession Number
2017.84.1
Accession Date
15 Sep 2017
Department
Pacific
Display Room
Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Stories of Auckland - Our City Gallery

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Display location
Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Stories of Auckland - Our City Gallery
Credit Line
Collection of Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, 2017.84.1,
Public Access Text
This is the lap steel guitar of Bill Sevesi. Wilfred Jeff was born in Tonga in 1923, he was better known by his stage name Bill Sevesi. Bill moved to NZ in 1934. A gifted steel guitarist, he played in his first band, Billy Boy and the Hawaiians, as a 16 year old. Over the course of the next 60 years he would go on to record more than 50 albums and composed more than 200 songs including 'Bye Bye Baby' which topped the local charts in 1949.
Sevesi received the Queen's services medal for his contribution to the music industry in 1995, and 3 years later was awarded the Jerry Bird Lifetime Achievements Award and inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri. Bill Sevesi and His Hawaiian Islanders had a long time residency at the renowned Orange Ballroom on Newton Rd. In 1966 Bill was the first to record three young school girls, who went on to make a name for themselves as The Yandall Sisters.
Primary Maker
Mr Bill Sevesi (Maker)
Place
Auckland Central/Auckland City/Auckland/New Zealand
Associated Place
Tonga/Pacific
Technique
handmade
Media
steel/iron alloy/metal/inorganic material
wood/plant material
plastic/organic material
Measurement Reading
840mm
274mm
85mm
Classification
Guitar
Instrument, Stringed
Musical Instruments
Musical T&E
06 Tools & Equipment for Communication
Last Update
21 Jan 2021

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