Talking Story with Bobby Ingano - Part 3

May 8, 2026 • Geronimo "Geri" Valdriz • Steel Guitar History

Ed. Note: This is the third and final installment of Bobby Ingano's interview in a new series called "Talking Story with Geri Valdriz". This series will include interviews Geri conducts with Hawaiian steel guitar players. Due to the length of content in these interviews, Talking Story is chapterized, with subsequent chapters slated for future publication. Many of these chapters may contain information about your favorite Hawaiian steel guitar players not previously known to you.

PART THREE

GV: So what is your seven-string tuning?
BI: My seven-string tuning is a C6 tuning with a low B^b and a high G (B^b / E / G / A / C / E / G low to high).

GV: What gauges of strings do you use for your tuning?
BI: B^b 34w / E 30w / G 24w / A 20p / C 17p / E 15p / G 13p
I got these gauges from my friend Hiroshi who works at Harry's Music. Hiroshi already played the seven-string steel guitar and he put together a set of strings that he was using. He asked me if I was willing to try out his set of strings that he used and I told him yes. So he strung up my seven-string with his gauges, I liked it, and I still use them!

The lowest three strings use semi-flat or half-round strings for better sustain. When you push down on the strings they all have the same even tension. I call this set of strings "The Hiroshi" method after my friend. I buy individual strings to make up this set.

GV: What kind of bar do you use?
BI : I use a steel tapered bar made in Japan. Feet used a tapered bar and told me that the tapered bar and the hand are better suited than using a straight bar. The tapered bar is thinner at the top than at the back, and the straight bar is the same diameter from top to back. When you hold the tapered bar in your hand, it reduces the angle of the wrist and it is easier to handle. It gives a more natural wrist angle.

GV: What kind of fingerpicks do you use?
BI : Dunlop or National medium thumb pick, and the fingerpick I use is .20 up to .25 gauge.

GV: What kind of amplifier do you use?
BI : I use the Roland Mobile Cube amplifier, it is portable and has enough bottom end for my playing style. Sometimes I plug into a larger Fender Hotrod DeVille amp if I need more raunchy power when playing the blues. But I mostly plug in to the house PA system wherever I am playing, especially if its Hawaiian music.

GV: What kind of guitar cable do you use? Any particular brand or type?
BI : I use whatever I have. No special choice, whatever I can afford. I don't like cables with the on/off switch because if you don't turn off the switch and plug in, you get that loud popping sound!

GV: Do you still practice on your lap steel?
BI : When I first started playing I brought my steel and amp to work and practiced during my hour-long lunch breaks at Tamashiro Market. On the weekends or vacation I would unplug the phone from the wall at home, and practice 6 to 8 hours a day! I never went out, never took trips, I stopped playing blues and rock guitar. That's how badly I wanted to be a steel player. I did that for the first three years every day!

Today I only practice if I get a new steel guitar, or just before a live performance at the steel guitar festival. A lot of my playing is from muscle memory, sometimes I lose myself on stage while I'm playing and I have to remember where I'm at in the song!

GV: Do you get nervous when you are on stage playing?
BI: Of course I get nervous when I'm playing! Feet once told me that if you're not nervous then you are too confident and you will make mistakes. You have to pay attention and be serious about playing. Feet told me that you should practice until you reach the pearly gates, because you always can learn something about your own playing when you practice.

GV: What do you like to do when you are not playing the steel guitar (hobbies or other instruments)?
BI: I love Puerto Rican katchi-katchi music and the cuatro guitar they use. I also love Filipino folk music called Rondalla and the mandolin-type guitar called a bandurria. That's beautiful folk music, the sound is so sweet. I used to play with the Lanakila Senior Citizens in Nu‘uanu. I brought my steel guitar and joined them in playing Filipino Rondalla string-band music. It was lap steel, bandurria, mandolin, guitar and bass!

I went to Sharps and Flats on Nu‘uanu Avenue and bought my own 8-string mandolin. I taught myself to play by watching the old players and I learned my own Filipino roots music. Later I bought a bandurria from a friend who brought it back from the Philippines.

My own family members and close family friends have inspired my music and we still play together. My grandfather Galanzo Taping played the violin, mandolin, banjo and guitar, and he was the leader of his own Rondalla band in Hilo. My uncle Raymond Tapang played Jazz and tenor guitar, and another uncle Joe Basques also played Jazz guitar.

My father Socimo Ingano played Jazz guitar and my younger brother Ralph Ingano plays blues guitar and a little lap steel. Another younger brother Rory Ingano plays blues harp and a lot of my family members play bass, uke and guitar. Another influence was Komei Okuda, he was an excellent cook and smooth steel player who gave me a lot of valuable advice.

GV: Today you play 7-string Rickenbachers is that right?
BI : Yes, I have always loved the sound of the Rickenbacher horsehoe pickup on those guitars. After I gave Feet my post-war Bakelite steel to replace the one that was stolen, he gave me a pre-war Bakelite and a Model 59 Student model Rickenbacher. The pre-war Bakelite gifted to me from Feet is the steel guitar that I used in my early years of playing, for about three years.

However, I later sold those steels and bought my first Rickenbacher Frypan steel guitar from Metronome Music in downtown Honolulu. They called me because I was looking for one. The Frypan has a more cutting tone with a little brightness because of the metal body. And all of the great early steel players played a Frypan! But even after I started playing the Frypan I missed that dark tone of the Bakelite steel guitar so I got another post-war Bakelite steel. So I would switch back and forth between steels, depending on the tone I wanted.

Today, after many years of searching, those first Bakelites that I once owned have come back to me. The post-war Bakelite that I originally gifted to Feet, the one he played with the Sons of Hawaii, has come back to me. After Feet died the steel went to his father George Rogers, then to steel guitarist Fred Lundt on Kaua`i, then back to Feet's family. Feet's nephew Kona Lau had the steel and we traded.

The pre-war Bakelite that was given to me from Feet, the one that I played on to cut my teeth on the steel guitar, has also come back home to me. That guitar ended up with steel guitar collector Denny Turner, and I bought it from his family after he had a massive stroke. Those two Bakelite steels have all the mana and I cherish them.

I also play the Rickenbacher Frypan A22 7-string, either pre-war or post-war models, and also a 6-string Rickenbacher A25 long neck model from the early 1930's.

GV: How did you get involved with Taj Mahal?
BI: I met Taj Mahal through Alyssa Archambault, she is related to Sam Nainoa who played steel guitar and violin with Joseph Kekuku. Alyssa called me to ask if I was interested in playing steel guitar in the roots music documentary called "American Epic". They had a part about Hawaiian music and the steel guitar. So I went to the mainland and played steel guitar in the studio. Taj Mahal was there playing the ukulele. Taj liked my playing and he asked him to join his band called the Taj Mahal Quintet. I told him that I couldn't join his band because I was still working at Tamashiro Market and I had two years to work until my retirement. Taj said that he would wait until I retired, then I could join his band.

Later I joined Taj on Kaua‘i for a concert that he did with the Hula Blues Band. That concert was recorded and it won a Na Hoku Hano Hano Award in 2016 for the best R&B Album of the year. It was called "Live on Kaua‘i!"

In 2017 I retired from Tamashiro Market and I joined the Taj Mahal Quintet. We toured throughout the mainland playing folk, blues, rock, country, and Hawaiian songs. At first I played both standard electric guitar and lap steel during the show. But now I play only lap steel for the whole show no matter what kind of songs we are playing. I plug my lap steel into a Fender amp and take it into overdrive because I played blues before I played Hawaiian music. Lately we have added Jamaican steel drums to the band and now we are more diverse with the lap steel and steel drums playing off of each other. The sound is magic! We do a tour then we take months off to rest, then we go back out on the road again.

GV: Do you play steel guitar with any other Hawaiian groups today?
BI: I currently play in Kane‘ohe every other Sunday at Café Kalawa with "BBD" (Dwight Kanae, Bryan Tolentino, and myself). I also sit in with pick-up bands and jam with them. As a solo artist I record with different musicians who want the steel guitar on particular songs. And I also play at Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festivals held across the islands.

In 2015 "The Bobby Ingano Trio" played at Dot's Restaurant, La Mariana and the Charthouse. But we lost those gigs because of Covid.

In the past I've played in Hawaiian bands such as Ala Moana Kai, The Kukui Nuts, Three Scoop of Aloha (side order of steel), Aunty Hokulani's group in Papakolea, Jimmy Papa and Merl Kekuku's group, Hokua, and Keli‘i Kaneali‘i, among others.

The rock/blues bands that I played in were Soul Sacrifice, Teaser, the Honolulu Blues Band, Stajefrite, the Hula Blues Band and now the Taj Mahal Quintet.

Over the years I've played music with different bands at locations all over O‘ahu. I played at the Musketeers across from A‘ala Park; Pearl Inn across from Mayor Wright's Housing; the Hawaiian 600 Club across from Akepo Arms; Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Kane‘ohe and Town; Anna Bannana's; The UH Campus at Mānoa; various fundraisers and telethons; the 98 Rock Blues Cruise out of Kewalo Basin; and many other places.

GV: What is the future of Hawaiian steel guitar in Hawaiian music?
BI: You know the first time I went to Japan in 1996, I was surprised! It seems like they had ten thousand steel players in Tokyo alone playing the steel guitar! To them, if Hawaiian music no more steel guitar, it ain't Hawaiian music. And all around the world there was a time when steel guitar was Hawaiian music. No steel guitar, no Hawaiian music.

But that was in the past and it is not like that today. It's not played widely in Hawai‘i in Hawaiian bands. Not even the radio plays the steel guitar. You can hear ‘ukulele and slack key but very few steel guitar.

No matter how long it takes, I know in my heart that the steel guitar is going to come back to Hawaiian music. But I might not be here when it does come back. The beautiful sound of the steel guitar cannot be lost forever. Steel guitar came from akua and there is no way akua is going to let it disappear, no matter how long it takes. Good things in life take a long time to come back, steel is never going to die.

What we doing today is keeping the steel guitar alive for the next generation of players, no matter who that is. If we don't play it live, who is going to play it for people to see and hear? If kids don't hear the steel guitar, they're not to blame. So the more people that play it, they going keep 'em alive! In addition, more people are teaching the kids lap steel guitar today. I teach the steel guitar as well as Alan Akaka, Jeff Au Hoy, Joseph Zayac, and others. We are all doing our part.

That's how I feel about the future of Hawaiian steel guitar….

So we ended our long telephone interview, said our alohas and made plans to meet up at the next steel guitar festival. Bobby was going back into the house to eat fried chicken that his sister cooked for dinner!

Talking Story with Bobby Ingano - Part 1

Talking Story with Bobby Ingano - Part 2