NRGD - Gold Tone Paul Beard Mastertone

[KevinH]

I've had a longtime infatuation with resonators, ever since I dabbled in slide guitar decades ago. My better angels finally fell and I decided to give it a go. So here is the new Gold Tone Mastertone Paul Beard Roundneck Deluxe. It is now my guitar with the longest name, and a corresponding bicep-building mass, weighing in at a hefty 7.4 lb (1.2 lb heaver than the website spec).

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While I haven't had much time to play it yet, it sounds much like I expected from YT videos, so that's great.

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The top, back and sides are all maple. I really like the finish and burst they put on it.

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The fretboard has their hearts and flowers inlay. The build quality is good. I couldn't find any defects, gaps or anything to complain about. I believe the body is made in China and the cone is made by Paul Beard and installed by Gold Tone in the US. But correct me if I've got that wrong. It has a spider bridge.

When I'm considering a guitar I'm not able to play beforehand I look for as many specs as I can find. Surprisingly there are precious few available for this guitar, other than the scale (25") and nut width (1-3/4"). So if anyone is curious, here are some measurements from my guitar:

Lower bout: 14.3"
Upper bout: 10.75"
Body length: 19.5"
Overall length: 38.5"
Body depth: 3.8" at heel and tail
String spacing at nut: 1.50" (center to center)
String spacing at saddle: 2.25"

So it's about the same size as a 00. Here it is side by side with my Martin 00-18V:

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I understand that some people use their "normal" action when setting up a guitar for slide, and some recommend raising it, especially when starting out. This guitar was set up at 7.5/64" (0.117", 3 mm) on the low E and 6/64 (0.938", 2.38mm) on the treble e, which is quite a bit higher than I normally use for fingerstyle. And the strings were a little higher at the nut than I'm used to - about 0.005" of clearance at the first fret when fretted at the 3rd. Not much to do about that since it has a zero fret installed. But I'm curious as to what action settings other people use on their resonators when used for slide.