Point to getting tricone if never use slide?
 

Fingerstyle player and will never use a slide. I know that some of the stuff I do would sound cool on resonator ... but how many of you play resonators exclusively slide-free standard tuning?

I have owned a National tricone and several single cones. I play very little slide. The dynamic range of resonator guitars is pretty hard to beat and they work well with all styles of music.

I still own a wooden body single cone, that seemed to be the best for for what I was looking for.

I have two resonators. One is a modern Gold Tone Beard that is set up for fingerstyle, and it's action is as low as an electric all the way up the neck. The other is a 1935 Model 25 Dobro, and it's got 1/8th" of "relief" in the neck and until I take the fingerboard off and straighten the neck, it's pure bottleneck all the way... So I think playing a resonator anyway you want to is perfectly fine...

Thanks. I got a Recording King rm991 like new in trade for a nice though older luthier made Yamaha classical today. Action is a bit high and strings a year old. Strong treble, bass weak but I will judge after new strings.

For setting action can any experienced luthier work with a resonator or are there some differences that require different experience?

From brief reading it sounds like nickel are the go to strings. Or is it as wide open as for any guitar? There are 12s on the tricone now and that's what I play on my 000-18 but I wonder if 11s would produce similar volume.

Heavier is better - I used to use 0.012 but now I use 0.013 - just sounds better I think. I play both slide and fingerstyle, I use my NRP 12 for both. Probably a bit high for fingerstyle, a bit low for slide but I can make it work for both and I'm constantly changing tunings. A single cone can sound quite haunting when finger picked. Tricone I'm sure as well.
GHS white bronze are my favourite strings but Monels work great too.

Hi, I had a Tricone .. clone ... A Triclone ? then a National Style "O" deluxe which was a beauty but too heavy and too loud.

Here it is, and yes, I thought of it as mainly a slide instrument.



I swapped it for a National Estralita which has a wooden body, and so softer tonally and, lighter.



Neither of these instruments were designed (round neck versions) for slide playing, but as "Orchestra Models" and so side isn't an essential part of their use:

I have a 1930's Regal spider bridge mandolin that I got (free) from a good friend last summer. It took a little restoration work but it has a sweet bell-like tone. I have never used a slide on her, but I would love to find a round neck guitar with the same tone.

I have a 1936 style O national that I fingerpick and never use a slide on. I have a square-necked ladder braced guitar that I use for that. The single cone resonators have a distinct sound and are great for blues, Piedmont, ragtime or any other syncopated picking. They also give you some variety in a performance when switched off between flat top-guitars or electric guitars.

On a tricone the problem with light gauge strings is they don't exert enough pressure on the T-Bar which holds the cones in their respective wells and that can cause buzzing, I use 12's and 13's depending on the tunings that I do most with each of my resos. And although I do play slide just fine, I don't play a whole bunch of slide on my resos, where I use them most, is for fingerpicked tunes. I don't like flat picks on resos at all.