In between is a couple of companies like Republic who take PacRim bodies, put spun cones and do the setup for you. In addition you may want to tweak the setup for your playing style. You can change to a replacement cone (my metal body above has a NRP "hot rod" in it which is worth while upgrade.
The big problem with these is cones and setup - a good cone is hand spun on a lathe, these have pressed cones that just don't ring.
On the other end of the spectrum are the whole bunch of PacRim imports - Regal/Rogue/. I put vintage Nationals and Dobros in that group - these are the good guitars but they are expensive. First are the domestically made guitars with quality spun cones - National Resophonic, Beard, Mule. I haven't been reso shopping in a few years but there seem to be three real price breaks. If I was going to gig with mine I would look into one of the internal mics. Bob Brozman suggested a SM57 pointed at the upper bout, thats what I use. But just be aware as you try them out.Īmplifying and recording are a can of worms - in my opinion none of the pickup choices sound "natural". I do minor compensation on mine and just live with it, you've got a pretty good compensator on your pinky.
If you set the cone for slide the break point is at the scale, fretted notes will be very sharp. I run medium gauge strings with a larger 1st and 2nd and tune to G or D. Resonators have neck sticks like a banjo and you adjust action by shimming the stick (if you get one and want to do this I can talk you thru it). My action is just a hair higher than my other accoustics - maybe 70 to 100 thou at the 12th fret and a few thousands higher at the first. Depending on your slide playing style you may like a flatter fretboard (I do), unfortunately modern and cheap resonators often have a lot of radius. Most blues playing will be in open G or D, always tune down. If you are playing Spanish style you can fret notes or play with the slide or both. Ideally the string plane is dead flat and fairly wide spacing - you do both single note and barring with your steel. A lap style guitar is set up with pretty heavy strings 3/8" off the board. I find myself fingerpicking a lot of non blues on it, its a pretty versatile guitar. Wood seems to temper that sound a lot - my wood bodied tricone has a bark when I really dig in but is almost "pretty" sounding when played with flesh and nails. But if you want to play like Son House or Bukka, you want a metal body. Metal bodied guitars are just plain brash and nasty - dogs will howl, the neighbors might complain. I put their response and tone somewhere between a metal biscuit and a wooden spider.īodies can be either wood or metal, usually "bell brass" but sometimes steel. Traditionally they have been metal bodies, but NRP is making a few woodies now days (as did I). Not really a strum and sing along type of guitar. Definitely a good guitar for finger style blues. But despite these issues, the thing sounds great. It’s taken apart now so I can work on these issues. It also has the typical fretboard hump at the body like so many guitars have. There is a lot of resistance and feel like the head is about to strip out on me. it’s like somebody pounded it into the neck. I had to very carefully do some delicate chisel work to get access to the truss rod. It has great tone, great for delta blues, slide. Spiders are more of a bluegrass style, more sustain, midrangey. Biscuits sound like old blues, more plunky,less sustain, lots of character.