Resonator Guitar

[Mike Dodds]

I'm going to visit the London Resonator Centre next weekend to buy a
resonator. I know quite a bit about acoustic guitars, but all I know about
resonators I've read here...

I have about £500 to spend and I am wondering what I should consider buying.

Is the Regal "Black Lightning" at £525 a good choice?

[Doug Hughes]

I recently got an Antoria resonator with an upgraded cone etc. from Pete
Woodman (http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com/). I too don't (didn't?) know
much about resonators, but I love this one. Since much of the tone and
sustain of a resonator comes from the cone rather than the body of the
guitar, this is a fairly common way of getting a decent sound without paying
out huge sums. With a hard case included for free, it should be within your
budget. Pete's a nice guy, and it's worth giving him a call to discuss your
needs anyway.

No, I'm not employed by Pete Woodman, but if you're reading this, Pete, any
contributions will be welcome...

Doug

"Mike Dodds" <nos...@forme.com> wrote in message
news:es98ul$8mv$1$8300...@news.demon.co.uk...

[Steve Cobham]

On Fri, 2 Mar 2007 13:31:16 -0000, "Mike Dodds" <nos...@forme.com>
wrote:

It's not quite that simple really.

There's tricone and single cone resos and there's all metal and wood
ones, 12 and 14 fret joins, etc, etc.

It all depends what style you're going to play on it, with some types
being more suited to one style than another.

£500 is fairly low budget and I'd have said that you should allow for
a recone to get the best out of a budget guitar.

Having said that, I have two here - both Vintage brand - a single and
a tricone with metal bodies and still played as I first got them.

They were around the £350 mark each.

I prefer the slightly more cutting sound of the single cone one and
it's well suited to blues playing - both standard and slide.

I find myself going "jazzy" on the tricone when I have those Oscar
Aleman moments as it's more mellow and has a 12 fret body join which
irritates when using slide.

The Vintage ones seem to have a good rep, with traditional
construction and reasonable finishes.

Above all, avoid Fender single cone resos - unless they've rejigged
the design - apparently they're crap, with the cone not really fitted
properly to create the right internal dynamics due to a major design
flaw.

HTH

Steve.