What's a good reso

[Cripes]

and, why does George Washington look just like the Mona Lisa?

 

Serious about the reso - just straight up fingerstyle. No lap types.

[DonK]

 

and, why does George Washington look just like the Mona Lisa? Serious about the reso - just straight up fingerstyle. No lap types.

 

 

Freeman is the go-to guy on reso's. He'll probably be around soon.

[brahmz118]

I think the upright position is called Spanish style. A roundneck reso can be played Spanish style or lap style, whereas a squareneck would just be played lap style.

 

I love my National Delphi. I would probably be considered something of a wimp in the steel community since I string it with lights to play fingerstyle.

 

I have the National demo CD with Bob Brozman playing several models in different styles. I highly recommend it -- it helped me learn some of the differences between steel and brass, metal and wood, tricones and single cones, biscuits and spiders, etc. And Bob's playing is great.

 

Before buying I had tried a National Style O, a Gibson Dobro, and some cheaper models -- a Rogue and a Johnson. The National had the loudest bark; the others sounded a little muddy / muffled in comparison.

 

[Cripes]

Hey thanks brahmz. I went searching after I saw your link. Good looking guitar. The I Googled the National and saw on National Reso-Phonic's site the M-2 Mahogany. I like that look. The Delphi lists at Elderly for 1675.00. That a good price? I didn't see a price for the M-2.

[Freeman Keller]

Simple answer is that Nationals are the best biscuits and tri cones, Dobros are the best spiders (not considering all the "minor" quality builders like Tim Sheerhorn and Paul Beard). Beard's modified asian imports which he sells under the GoldTone name are highly regarded - I've never played one. The Korean and Chineese imports are acceptable starter and/or part time resos - and have been improving in quality. A few simple upgrades can dramatically help them.

 

I have strong feelings about fretboards on resos - others don't seem to mind them as much. I'm also fairly aware of rattles which can be eliminated with some care in setup.

[brahmz118]

Hey thanks brahmz. I went searching after I saw your link. Good looking guitar. The I Googled the National and saw on National Reso-Phonic's site the M-2 Mahogany. I like that look. The Delphi lists at Elderly for 1675.00. That a good price? I didn't see a price for the M-2.

 

Good idea to avoid the slothead!

 

 

You can find the Delphi a little cheaper ($1600) at FQMS or Buffalo Brothers. The M2 is around $1760.

 

The attachment feature let me upload a few microseconds of the National demo soundclip for the Estralita, since there aren't any samples of the M2. The wood-bodied guitars featured on the CD are walnut and maple, so maybe the mahogany M2 would sound a little warmer.

[Cripes]

That is bright sounding for sure. The Johnson I played was a bit warmer I think. Buffalo Brothers site listed their price for the Delphi at around 1700.00.

 

I gotta sell something...

[brahmz118]

 

That is bright sounding for sure. The Johnson I played was a bit warmer I think. Buffalo Brothers site listed their price for the Delphi at around 1700.00. I gotta sell something...

 

 

There are a few different variations of the Delphi -- the basic painted finish model (which is what I have) is the $1600 one.

 

The other variants -- the Delphi Deluxe, Vintage Steel Delphi, Vintage Steel Delphi Deluxe, Frosted Duco Delphi, Brass Delphi, and Antique Brass Delphi -- all cost at least $100 more. The Duco is about $1000 more!

 

The first week I had my Delphi I was feeling a little buyer's remorse. The nut height was apparently set at a compromise between fingerstyle and slide playing, which meant it was higher than any of my other guitars. The medium strings were killing my fingers. The neck was really wide. The body weighed a ton. And the sound seemed bright and harsh.

 

Then I brought it to a noisy acoustic jam, and suddenly I had the perfect instrument in my hands. I remember playing counterpoint with a tenor sax, and that basically sealed the deal for me. Now it's usually my first choice for any unamplified playing with others. But it's my last choice for quiet playing alone.

 

Hey if you end up getting a reso, you won't have to worry about palm muting!

[Queequeg]

I have a National Delphi. (steel) I like the look & sound, but playing it is like driving a bus. I have a Dobro model 33H (nickel over bell brass). Plays nice and looks sharp with the Hawaiian motif and bright chrome. Finally I have a Dobro Hound Dog. It has a nice warm wooden sound and is the cheapest of the three with its laminated top. If you don't want to invest a lot of money, check out the Hound Dogs. In some ways, I like it the best, and I think I play it more than the other two. (the passive pickup is almost worthless, though.)

[Cripes]

Thanks for the help everyone. I really am going to chase this down. The Johnson I played was very easy for me. The action was perfect for me. The price was under $400.00. It was wood and sounded very nice. It didn't have a real bright brassy metallic sound but was very reso-like. I have played Johnson's acoustics and always thought "Why bother even making them?" but this resonator has better action and playability than their acoustics. I'm wondering if this one hasn't been set up professionally.

[Cripes]

Last question. There are lap steel resonator, or resophonic, guitars and then there are non-lap(?) guitars?

 

Is this characterized by "round-neck" and "square-neck" distinctions separating the normally played from the lap type, respectively? I went to Beards site and they are categorized that way. I saw his Gold-Tones. Very nice.

[brahmz118]

 

Last question. There are lap steel resonator, or resophonic, guitars and then there are non-lap(?) guitars? Is this characterized by "round-neck" and "square-neck" distinctions separating the normally played from the lap type, respectively? I went to Beards site and they are categorized that way. I saw his Gold-Tones. Very nice.

 

 

Yes, square necks are played lap style, and round necks can be played either lap style or Spanish style. Look at the heel area on the square neck guitars -- would be nearly impossible to wrap your hands around that. Also, the nut is like Hoover Dam.

 

I bet the Beard Gold Tones will play and sound really nice. There are a few banjoists who have reported medium to poor finish quality on Gold Tone banjos, dojos, electric banjos, etc. I owned an $800 Gold Tone banjo which had no finish problems, but a poor neck fit. I know some other folks who have reported no problems with their Gold Tones, and felt they outclassed anything in their price range in terms of sound and playability.

[Freeman Keller]

Cripes, squarenecks are always played lap or Hawaiian style with a Shubb or Stevens steel bar and very high action. They are impossible to fret. Most, but not all, will be spider bridge which can withstand the tension of phat strings (0.016) tuned to "dobro G" (GBDGBD, note that the bottom strings are tuned UP). They are typically the nasal sound that we associate with bluegrass dobro playing (I'll capitalize the word to refer to the brand of guitar, lower case for the style) - we associate Josh Grave, Cindy Cashdollar and Jerry Douglas. Variations of squarenecks include Weissenborns, a few special Nationals, etc. You do not want one of these unless you know you want one....

 

Round necks can be further broken down in several ways - body material, type of bridge and type/number of cones. Bodies are either wood or metal (steel or brass, also called "German Silver"). Metal typically has a, duh, metallic sound, wood is typically a little "sweeter". Bridges are either spider (almost always found in wood bodies) which again can take higher string tension and are usually sweeter. Biscuit bridge has a round hunk of maple screwed to the middle of the cone, most metal bodies will have biscuit bridges. They should never be tuned above concert (I believe in an earlier post you said the one you tried was tuned to open E - bad juju). One other type is the tricone - it has three smaller cones connected by a T shaped thingie and are almost always metal bodied.

 

Necks on resonators can either be 14 fret clear with a radius similar to a nice acoustic, or 12 fret clear with a wider flatter board. The former are almost always paddle heads, the latter often slot heads. The former are a little easier to fret, the latter a little easier to play slide.

 

Resonators can be tuned normally and fretted - the great Blind Boy Fuller ("Keep Truckin' Mama") played this way. I don't know if BBF ever played with a bottleneck. They can also be tuned to open G or D and played with a slide - Bukka White, early Bonnie Raitt, EC on "Unplugged" are all examples of bottleneckin' a reso.

 

By far the best metal bodied resos are Nationals (and about the only manufacture of tricones) - old Nats are highly sought and can be very expensive, new ones tend to be 2K and up. The very best spider bridges are the Dobro™ (there are custom builders like Tim Sheerhorn, which is what Jerry Douglas plays I think). As I said earlier, there are a whole bunch of Asian imports - Johnson, Dean, Regal, Fender - who are making metal and wood bodies, biscuits and spiders, and even a tri cone or two. I think if you shop wisely they can be very good guitars. But remember that a true National cone and biscuit is around a hundred bucks so a $300 resonator is going to have some compromises.

 

Unfortunately there are not a lot of them in stores to try and I really feel you should try before you buy. National has a great cd of Bob Brozman playing everything in their lineup - even if you are not going to buy a Nat you can at least hear the difference between brass and steel and wood, tricone and single, etc.

 

Also, if you want to PM me an email addy I'll shoot you a copy of something I wrote up a couple years ago called "Resonators 101" - just my thoughts and lots of links. If you find that thread entitled "Testing 1,23..." the song "Roll'm'Fumble" is played on my 1932 spider bridge woodie.

 

My 'bros