Resonator Guitars

TheBigDipper · May 2022

Lewy said:

Tannin said:

This idiotic pandering to lamebrained "purists" is why the majority of resonators on the market today are so crappy.

You can't moan about purism when the entire family of instruments is a sort of steampunk anachronism. If the message is "ignore the past, it's a new day daddy-o" then that's perfectly valid, but in that case ignore resonators altogether.

Alternatively accept that most people like the sound of resonators because they are evocative of the bygone age they emanate from, and that naturally carries over into construction and aesthetics. It's hardly 'lamebrained'

I'll disagree on a personal level, if I may. I don't play slide and I don't use open tunings on my Hound Dog. I play solo finger style pieces on it just because I like the way they sound. Although, to condemn myself, I bought it to learn to play country blues, never did and found another use for it that I enjoy! :-)

DavidR · May 2022

Ditto - my Regal plays fine. I can play everything on it that I would play on an ordinary acoustic. Some pieces sound pretty good.

ICBM · May 2022

DavidR said:

A lot of resonators originate in China and are then branded in the west +/- given a final tweak. A lot of them look so similar that I have sometimes wondered if they don't all originate in the same factory hidden somewhere on the Chinese mainland! The reason I say 'hidden' is that it is very very difficult to establish via www where your resonator actually comes from originally. I mean down to the specific factory, town etc. All part of the slightly misleading business model I suspect. But, fair do's, they're giving us what we want, or at least a facsimile of it, at a distinctly sub-National price. Glad I bought my Regal anyway. Wouldn't have bought a National.

I certainly had an Ozark which was identical to a friend’s Regal other than the headstock logo.

equalsql · May 2022

From my experience be careful with Gretsch, their cheap cones are 'pants', I've had two collapse on my Honey Dipper and I'm not using heavy guage strings.

JohnPerry · May 2022

equalsql said:

From my experience be careful with Gretsch, their cheap cones are 'pants', I've had two collapse on my Honey Dipper and I'm not using heavy guage strings.

Mine did that twice too. It's a pretty decent guitar now it has a decent cone in it though

JJMan · May 2022

Sourcing a good cone is the secret to all resos

uberscott · May 2022

I've got a Vintage AMG1 reso that I bought back in 2002/2003. It's been a fun little guitar to pick up every now and then. From what I gather it was this model that inspired Michael Messer to introduce his own range. If you're after a Knopfler lookalike then this one ain't bad - although from what I can see you'd have to buy used as the new ones have a different cover plate to the old 'chicken foot' one.

One thing that made a huge difference was putting Michael Messer strings on, it made a huge improvement to the sound - took the top end harshness off it for a sweeter, more mellow sound.

ICBM · May 2022

uberscott said:

I've got a Vintage AMG1 reso that I bought back in 2002/2003.

I'm reasonably sure that's the same guitar as the Regal/Ozark as well.

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