One thing in which we have always been interested is what instruments are used by the musicians we hear. Unfortunately this information does not generally appear on album covers because (we think) it takes up too much space. We decided to include this information on our site because if we're interested in it perhaps you are interested in it as well.

Lonnie's first love is playing the lute. This may be the reason folks refer to him as a "luter"! Lonnie uses a lute which is in itself a work of art. It was made by Lawrence K. Brown of Asheville, North Carolina. Lonnie has wanted to play the lute since he was in his early teens. The impetus of this interest began a lot earlier than that, though.

Because he was raised in Africa and Europe Lonnie was exposed to history perhaps a bit more intensely than a child in the United States would have been. Some of his earliest musical memories come from his home in Liberia. Liberia in the 1950's had rather limited entertainment possibilities. There existed only three options where music was concerned. The first (but by no means the least interesting) was the local music. This consisted of the percussion and vocal music of the indigenous people. The second was the BBC. That was the British Broadcasting Company on Lonnie's family's Philips short wave radio. The third option was having a stereo and a collection of vinyl records. Actually some of Lonnie's parents' albums were a bit older than vinyl.

In the late 1940's Lonnie's father had been working in Venezuela. His assignment there was to open company stores for a major U.S. tyre manufacturer. He had leased a room in a hotel in Caracas for the time he would be there setting up the stores. One day a young Spanish gentleman rented the room next to Lonnie's father and was there for approximately one week. Lonnie's father could not help but notice that the Spanish fellow practised his guitar almost constantly but the music was exquisite. One evening in the dining room Lonnie's father noticed the Spanish gentleman dining alone. He walked over to compliment him on the excellence of his guitar work. The Spanish gent seeing that Lonnie's father was alone asked him to join him for dinner. They ate together and shared conversation, a couple of bottles of wine and a brandy after dinner. The Spanish gentleman was none other than Andres Segovia! Before leaving for Spain after his concert in Caracas Segovia gave Lonnie's father an autographed copy of his latest record. Contained on that album were a couple of the Johann Sebastian Bach lute pieces transcribed for guitar. That album was (and still is) one of Lonnie's favourites. That is why he always wanted to play those pieces on a real lute.

Lutes are comparatively expensive instruments. In addition to that one does not simply traipse off to the local musical instrument emporium, take one off the wall and try it. That presents a bit of a problem. If you want to play a lute how do you try one out to discover if you will be able to play it? One way is to become a close friend of somebody like Michael Mandaren or Julian Bream. Then after you have done that you try to talk one of them into lending you a lute for a while. That option was not available to Lonnie anymore than the opportunity of winning the Preakness is open to a Holstein Cow! Wendy decided she would buy Lonnie a "training lute." A company based in Melbourne Florida called Mideast Musical Instruments sells lutes made in Pakistan. Wendy bought one of these for Lonnie. Lonnie made two decisions very quickly based on the purchase. First he really liked playing the lute. Second he needed a professional level instrument. After a long research project Lonnie decided he wanted a lute made by Larry Brown. So the arrangements were made and ultimately so was the lute.

The lute Lonnie plays is a copy of an instrument made by Wendelio Venere of Padua Italy in the late 1500's.

The guitar Lonnie uses most is a nylon strung Taylor. Lonnie likes classical guitars for most of the fingerstyle playing he does. He says he really wants a Greg Smallman classical from Australia but so far no one has offered to give him one. He is accepting donations so please donate to this good cause! The Taylor is a joy to play and has a very authoritative voice because it is an acoustic electric model. The electronics make shaping the sound incredibly easy.

Lonnie's steel strung guitar is also a Taylor. This one is a 714 CE L1. Lonnie likes the cedar top because it is more confidential and mellow sounding that a Sitka Spruce top. This guitar is absolutely gorgeous with it's walnut sides and back. The Taylor guitar company uses walnut which comes from a particular grove in California. The trees used for these guitars are a graft of English Walnut and American Black Walnut. The graft is clearly visible across the back of the guitar. Lonnie is very familiar with the principle of grafting trees. The plantation on which he lived in Liberia grew natural rubber. The tree from which the latex came is called a Hevea Brasiliensis. These trees, like the walnuts on the California grove, are all the product of grafting. Each and every tree begins life as a tiny seedling in a carefully tended nursery. The goal is to graft a high yeild crown to a strong and disease resistant root stock. The fact that the wood is beautiful (at least in the case of the walnut) is just a valuable side perquisite!

The third guitar in Lonnie's stable is his C.F. Martin 12 string. When you need a 12 string nothing else will do. Sometimes people ask Lonnie why he hauls all those guitars to work with him. Well, the answer is simple. One uses a Mack dump truck to transport gravel and a BMW motorcycle to ride the roads in East Tennessee! Each of these two vehicles could be interchanged. You could haul the gravel on a small trailer behind the Beemer and you could drive sportily down the road in the Mack but that's just not the best way to do it!

Lonnie also uses a Gibson SST (Chet Atkins). He uses this for the more "rock 'n roll" material. In addition to being a decent solid body electric guitar it is also fitted with two synth drivers. These are Roland GK2 pickups. The reason Heart of Oak's sound is so full is the synthesizers driven by Lonnies Gibson. The Gibson drives an MT32 Multi Timbre Sound Module, an MKS 50 Synthesizer Module and a GR 1 guitar synthesizer.

Wendy's bass is an early (almost a prototype) Sigma. It was marketed by C.F. Martin several years ago but now is no longer available. Sometimes Heart of Oak does totally acoustic appearances... particularly at Renaissance Faires... and Wendy's bass fits in well for that environment. The sigma is a lot more manageable than a 4/4 upright. When Heart of Oak worked exclusively on cruise ships transporting the equipment was a major expense. We knew we probably didn't want to fly an upright bass all over the world. It would have needed it's own seat on the airplane!

Wendy uses two bowed psalteries in her performances. Both of these are exquisite instruments made by Jeff Gaynor of Noteworthy Woodworking in Ravenna, Ohio. Jeff is a very highly skilled instrument maker who is a pleasure to deal with. In addition to being the "Psaltery King" Jeff also makes harps. When we started using psalteries we needed to call Jeff repeatedly regarding things we didn't know about such as strings, tuning, extra bows, etc. We were probably a bit of a pain in the tail but he always took the time to help us. Wendy's main psaltery is an alto model. It has 32 strings. The history of the psaltery goes back over 5500 years. We both truly enjoy the sound of the psaltery. It has a haunting almost medieval sound. On some occaisons Wendy uses a bass psaltery. That is the one which imparts that haunting bass tone to our Scottish song Jock O'Bradieslee. The bass psaltery really contributes to the mournful mood of the song. The bass psaltery has 24 strings. Like we said above... nothing short of the right tool will do! Wendy also uses "djembe" style drums she makes herself. These instruments are made in Wendy's shop out of gourds. As you have seen elsewhere on our site Wendy is a widely acclaimed artist in the media of gourds. A big seller at our performances... particularly at the Renaissance Faires... are her gourd percussion instruments played with a stick. Wendy also makes several other gourd musical instruments such as