DUers, Check out this Ry Cooder clip

[freethought]

I have heard alot about Ry Cooder. I have heard his music here and there. Oddly enough if you go on the better known music sites they don't have alot of his stuff and I understand he's done a great deal.
I can truly appreciate a guitarist who is really good on slide guitar. The video clip dates back to
1987 and the song is "Jesus on the Mainline". Check this out! Looks as if he had a killer band to back him up!
Here's the link:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/08/29/take-a-lunchtime-music-break-with-ry-cooder/

Does anyone know what that instrument is he's playing? Looks like a 12 string constructed in a small scale. There are a bunch of fretted instruments out there that I am not familiar with.

[TomInTib]

1. I have seen him play that guitar.

And I have had one quite like it. Mine was built by Paul Reid Smith.

It is what we call a "soft" guitar. Basically a 2/3 scale and perfect for fast, choppy and nasty slide work. And next to impossible to keep tuned.

Ry was playing in open D and doing a great job with that fat glass slide. Playing those little guitars is either second nature or you're just not playing. All guitar logic flies right out the window when you are really cruising on a soft guitar.

[outofbounds]

2. He did the. or most of the

soundtrack for the movie Crossroads with Ralph Machio and Steve Vai. Some good slide work there.

[Squeech]

3. Video has been removed

Vox used to make a 12 string instrument with a real short neck and a weird body, kind of a squashed kidney shape. The name was peculiar too, something that alluded to mandolin, which is wasn't.

The Portuguese guitar has a rounded body and twelve strings, and tuners that work like the ones on the tailpiece of a violin (which do the fine tuning, as opposed to the friction pegs on the headstock, the purpose of which is to raise violinists' blood pressure). So the headstock of a Portuguese guitar looks vaguely like a pincushion.