Which is louder? Biscuit vs Spider
Songsmith
are biscuits louder than spider-bridge reso's? see, I need something pretty
loud to keep up with my progressive/traditional bluegrass band (shameless
plug-- www.myspace.com/mamacorn1 ), and biscuits seem louder, though I've
never really played one with a band, so it's hard to judge.
I know, I know, biscuits aren't de rigeur for bluegrass bands, but I tend to
march to the beat of a different drum anyway... my background as a player is
with a lap steel... I'm trying for less sweet, round, girl-voice tone, and
more edge and sustain like my lappy. The main thing is, my bandmates play
unamplified, but LOUD, so who's the loudest kid on the reso
playground?--->JMS
JP
A biscuit is louder than a spider, specially the new "hot rod" cones from
National. A spider has a "better" sustain though, and is a more overall reso
compared to a biscuit, I think. In my mind, I always call my biscuit reso a
"bawler", it does some specific fingerpicking blues songs very well, but
other, more "normal" songs not so well, to my ears at least.
Regards, John.
"Songsmith" <zz...@something.com> schreef in bericht
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Tony Done
"Songsmith" <zz...@something.com> wrote in message
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The loudest reso I have ever played is my Estralita, but cheap wood body
biscuits tend to be fairly (or even very) quiet. In general, biscuits will
be louder than spiders, but there is more to it than that. They have less
sustain, aren't good for much except punchy agressive styles, and might get
lost in the mix if you have a mandolin and/or banjo, or might just sound
downright ugly in a metal version in a band mix. A metal tricone is a good
compromise, IMO. How about the one Geezer has for sale? For something a bit
more upmarket, there is Jeff's Radiotone.
Tony D
Benj
> The loudest reso I have ever played is my Estralita, but cheap wood body
> biscuits tend to be fairly (or even very) quiet. In general, biscuits will
> be louder than spiders, but there is more to it than that. They have less
> sustain, aren't good for much except punchy agressive styles, and might get
> lost in the mix if you have a mandolin and/or banjo, or might just sound
> downright ugly in a metal version in a band mix. A metal tricone is a good
> compromise, IMO. How about the one Geezer has for sale? For something a bit
> more upmarket, there is Jeff's Radiotone.
I agree with Tony. I only have cheaper guitars so I can't talk about
high end models, but generally Biscuits are loud, punchy and very
banjo-like in tone. On the one hand that might seem a good fit with
bluegrass, but on the other as Tony says it might just get lost with
the banjo and mandolin. I guess that's a musical decision you'll have
to judge for yourself.
For my taste I'd never do a spider for bluegrass. Much too quiet
unless plugged in IMHO. Also a wood spider will be the most round,
sweet and girl-voiced of the reso types. My first cut choice without
experimenting or trying things would be a tricone. Loud. Nice mellow,
but fat tone. Has lots of guitar quality to it and not so much banjo
type tone. And yet not lost in the mix like a spider would be. Costs
more, but I think it's probably the best way to go. Still, your
choice as to what you are looking for.
I'm not a bluegrass guy so I don't know what is de rigeur for
Bluegrass in resos, but all I can say is that the local bluegrass
store where I sometimes hang has many resos for sale in biscuit and
tricone types in both wood and metal and in both round and square
neck. They have no spider types for sale there! I sort of assumed
this had some significance.
Buy em all! :-)
Rule: you can never own too many guitars!
JP
> They have less
> sustain, aren't good for much except punchy agressive styles,
Have to agree on that one; I already "discovered" that the Delphi is very
good for some bluessongs that I can play, for example the slow ones, where
the guitar kind of "fires" the notes out, and gives something extra to the
song that a normal acoustic can't do, but apart from that, it is not suited
for a lot of other fingerstyle songs, where it messes up the sound, with a
lot if internal reverb, making a sound-soup of the individual notes, at
least when I'm playing it. Bob Brozmann says a Delphi needs "a little more
control" when playing fingerstyle or rags, and now I know what he means.
Guess he can deliver that control, I can't. My solution is to just put the
guitar back in its stand for those songs, and take the Model D (spider)
instead. Working during weekends and nights does have some disadvantages,
but also delivers some good things :-).
Regards, John.
Tony Done
"Benj" <bja...@iwaynet.net> wrote in message
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Wood body spider cones (dobros) are the usual thing for bluegrass, but there
are a couple of limitations. Firstly, althought the more expensive modern
ones are probably plenty loud, the cheap ones aren't - the same problem as
cheap wood biscuit cones. The second limitation is that bluegrass slide is
normally played lap style, so the player gets to here it better than the
audience. Since (good) resos normally have very good forward projection, if
you want to be really heard, then playing in the spanish position is better.
This then limits the extent to which you can play in the traditional
bluegrass style, with hammers, pulls and slants.
Tony D