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Old 03-26-2012, 09:01 PM
dbf909 dbf909 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 78
Default Need Help with a Liberty Resophonic

I picked up a Liberty MAH-100 from a friend of mine in a trade. It is all mahogany round-neck with a spider bridge. I've never owned a resonator before and have always wanted one. This one seems to be in great condition with only a very light spotting on the metal. The action is decent - just a bit higher than I would normally go but perfect for slide.

How are these supposed to be setup? I adjusted the truss rod for about .010 of relief and it plays great - no buzzes and the tone is decent.

One thing I am a bit puzzled about is the saddle. It is made of wood and looks like maple or basswood. It is not compensated and is in two pieces. It is split in the middle (between the D and G strings) with about a 1/4" gap and sits in a slot in the bridge.

So I have a few questions:

1) Would a bone or Tusq saddle sound better than the wood one or is the wood saddle material important for the tone because of the metal spider bridge?

2) If I made a new bone saddle, must it be split in two halves with a gap in the middle or can it be one piece like on a conventional acoustic bridge?

3) What type of strings do most people use on these spider resonator guitars? I figure that I will try a set of DR PB Rares in light gauge just to see how it sounds.

4) Are there any other adjustments that are unique to this type of instrument?

I've done a bit of research. There is not a tremendous amount of info out there but I've found some.

Any additional insight into Liberty specifically or resonators in general would be a huge help. Thanks in advance...

Last edited by dbf909; 03-26-2012 at 09:08 PM.
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