The Weissenborn style lap steel is the quintessential traditional Hawaiian guitar and since its introduction in the early 1930's is the rarest of all lap steel designs. Vorson's master luthiers were tasked with keeping to the key design features of the Weissenborn but using modern manufacturing methods to guarantee a deeply resonant and bell-like acoustic quality with unsurpassed tuning and structural integrity.

The most distinctive feature of the Weissenborn design is the acoustic body chamber that runs all the way up the neck to allow for maximum overtones, sustain, and resonance. The superior acoustic quality of the W-1 is captured by the custom FP-90 pickup and HMP II active electronics and sounds great for traditional lap steel compositions and scorched stage soloing through a wah pedal and overdrive. The W-1 features a spruce top, sapele back and sides, full binding and ships complete with a premium padded bag, tone bar, and cable.