#31
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Freeman that koa reso you built is beautiful.
Anyway, this thread is a few days old, and the OP may have already made up his mind, but I'd like to chime in on the subject. I own a National M2, which is a wood-bodied, single-cone, round-neck resonator guitar. My brother owns an Epiphone Biscuit, which is essentially a much cheaper version of the same guitar. Having played both, I think the Epiphone is pretty good for the money. (It only cost about $300.) It appears that Epiphone has stopped making this model, which is a shame. If you can find one then I recommend looking into it. As far as other inexpensive resos, I would look into Busker Guitars in the UK. They are more medium-priced than "cheap," but at least the exchange rate between US Dollars and British Pounds is not quite so bad as it was a few years ago. Honestly I don't know if they even ship to the U.S., but any company that makes a recreation of this old art deco National design must be worth investigating: http://www.buskerguitars.co.uk/shop/page/12?shop_param= |
#32
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But having played them, they are nice. Not as nice as a National, but good enough for the money. Haven't played an Epiphone biscuit, just the spider. Weak resonator, skinny neck, no sound. Biscuit one sounds like it's different than that, would love to try one. |
#33
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OK I didn't know that about the Buskers. I had the misimpression they were actually made in the UK. Thanks for the info.
The Epiphone Biscuit definitely falls into the category of cheap, and in terms of tone and power it can't hold a candle to the National. OTOH the National costs nearly 7 times as much money as the Epi. In a cheap reso I would expect to find a fairly bland or weak cone, and the Epi is more in that direction than not. It would be interesting to replace the cone with a National and see what that did. It's about as good as an experienced consumer could possibly expect a $300 instrument to be. The Epi didn't have any truly awful qualities that would make it totally unacceptable, such as horrible frets, terrible intonation, buzzing notes, or unplayable action. It's fun to sit on the porch and play, and I wouldn't hesitate to take it to the beach or camping. It's not a guitar to bring along to the Ryman Auditorium, however. I think just about any resonator that you can get to stay in tune works great in a duo, with the other person strumming a regular flat top. |
#34
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Dobros came back under OMI (original musical instruments) at their plant in Long Beach run by Ron Lazar. They were on Santa Fe right down from Mickey Thompson's shop and Champion Spark Plug's racing division, so when I got my Dobro from Ron years ago it was trip down memory lane from my old racing days. Songwriter Guy Clark work for OMI way back when (maybe '70) when we were putting together his demos. Anyway, current Dobros and Nationals are much nicer than the old ones, at least cosmetically. And those Goldtones (Paul Beard series) are hard to beat....mine's a metal bodied biscuit bridge. |
#35
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A Goldtone round neck, love to see those as well. Agreed that the new Nationals are much nicer than the old ones. I don't quite get the draw on the older ones, unless it's a square neck tricone for the cool factor alone, but I don't play square neck...
One cannot purchase "mojo". One must make it themselves, and then, if it truly exists, it would be yours alone. JohnZ- On the Dobro- I've had 2 Dobros, one from the 60's, and one from the 80's. This was years ago, but I remember they were good instruments. I've since played a few Gibson Dobros, and they were... not nice instruments compared to the 2 I remember. What gives with those? Am I "mis-remembering"? |
#36
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Guitar Center's used online store has a Steel Tricone right now for $1295. They say it's a polychrome, but from the picture, which is bad, it looks like one of the new NRPs. Good deal.
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