Strange and bizarre behaviour.

[Toondog]

Well I don't know about the planets aligning and whatnot but it would appear Venus has smashed straight into Neptune and came out the other side.
My wife, out of the blue, suggested I get another guitar for Christmas, a resonator in fact, she was quite specific. Shocked? Yes I was, especially as I've already forked out quite a lump on a high end-ish guitar this year.
Well I haven't played slide for a while so popped the parlour into open E and polished my bottleneck (that's not a euphemism) and yes, I think I do indeed need a resonator! Problem, I know nothing of resonators. Tri cone bi cone bi plane I really don't know.
So limited budget £300-350. New or used. I will be playing fingerstyle as well as slide on it. Thoughts? Ideas?
I'm off for a lie down now.
Chris.

[BDiamond]

Ha! Yes, indeed. If your wife says you need one, you need one! I'm not interested in a resonator, but if my wife told me that it would be prudent that I buy some musical equipment, then, it's "Yes Mrs. President!"

[Joe Da Strummer]

I have a reso that I keep in standard tuning most of the time because they sound so cool even when not played using a slide.

Because I want a singing sustain as opposed to shorter sustain, I chose a spider bridge instead of a biscuit bridge. I don't know what the advantages of a tri-cone would be, but I'm sure another forum member can answer that.

I found a fine quality reso for a good price in the Gold Tone Paul Beard cutaway model. The link is here.

The round neck is fairly thick, but the set up is good, giving me a very playable low action that still has plenty of tone. The cutaway is for access to the 13th and higher frets. You can find them online for a bit over $1k.

Resos are infamous for gremlins that cause vibrations and buzzes, so it's important to get a respected brand whose reputation for quality is partially build on lack of gremlins.

[Toondog]

Spiders and biscuits? I am close to full geek mode now! The model you mentioned joe is out of my budget I reckon but very helpful.

[thistle]

I would suggest buying from the people at Busker guitars. They set up the instruments really well and offer great service. They are well respected on the Michael Messer forum, too.

http://www.buskerguitars.co.uk/

[Neal]

Hah! Full geek mode.. it's true though, big differences. Spider bridge, like on Dobro instruments, impart a more nasally tone, think country, bluegrass. Biscuit cone has a louder, brasher bluesy tone, tricone is just 3 smaller biscuit cones and you'll get more sustain, a bit quieter to some.

The only "disadvantage" between any of them would be that it's easier to damp the strings on a biscuit or spider bridge, as there's a horizontal cover bar on the tricone that may take some time to get use to, but you will.

Then there's wood body and metal body.... :0 I second the MM Busker, heard lots of good things, basically a Republic (at least it appears to be one), set up rather well.

[tdq]

When I discovered resonators and fell in love with them, I spent many, many hours looking at youtube videos and browsing the internet, fretting about what type and what it all meant. Spider, Biscuit,TBar? Single Cone, Tricone? Steel, Brass, German Silver, Wood? How do the cheaper brands stack up?
I would suggest getting your head around the differences as they are very different beasts, although all very cool. I ended up with a single cone NRP 12-fretter which is just perfect for me, and I absolutely love it. (Not a "cheap" one, but I did do a lot of research on the less expensive brands as well.)
Bob Brozman has made a number of videos comparing various resonator types.
Here's one comparing Tricones to Single Cones, a good place to start.

[pitner]

Your Wife is on target. Mine is not. No news ones for me this year.

[frank4001]

Please have your wife call mine and check out this site..

http://www.michaelmesser.co.uk/MICHA...%20GUITARS.htm

He's also has a forum where people talk about Nationals and other brands and types...

[Toondog]

Thanks for that folks. The links and advice are proving very helpful. I managed to play a few over the weekend and the one I quite fancied was the Dobro Hound Dog Delux. Anyone have any experience of this guitar? If its not pushing my luck too far with her indoors I rather like the look of the busker guitars but wouldn't be able to play one before buying. I also liked the Gretsch one I played (bobcat I think?) but the missus actually got it spot on when she said " it doesn't sound like a resonator it just sounds like a guitar" though I did really like the neck and the sustain.
Chris.