Resonators - wood or metal?

[Doublea1269]

Thanks for the heads up about Manchester, I'll check them out!

[H165]

....replace the stock cones on your Republic with Beard cones. It is a fairly easy upgrade. https://www.resophonicoutfitters.com/product/BC-3.html

Cone replacement with a Beard cone is probably the best sonic upgrade for any inexpensive resonator guitar.

+1 here.

There are basically two schools of spider resophonic construction: traditional (sound well - think Dobro), and modern (open architecture - think Scheerhorn or maybe Rayco).

Regardless of price, either will meet their maximum potential with a high quality cone (Quarterman, Beard, etc).

More important, some can be hugely improved by setting up the spider correctly. If your spider legs get out of flat-plane, your zillion dollar reso will sound awful. Conversely, if your spider legs are put back in-plane and you have good saddles and a good cone, your low-dollar reso may surprise a whole bunch of players.

On my resos, I also dress the legs of the spider, and I dress the contact surface of the cone shelf absolutely flat. These are simple operations. They take some time, and some folks think I'm nuts, but to me it's worth it.

[Guitars44me]

Even though I no longer own a reso, I have had a few. If you are fit and foolish you may choose metal…. For this old dog, it would have to be wood. And a 12 fret cutaway to boot. Metal would be way too heavy.

If you want to play slide on it (why not?) a cut can be a big help when trying to get parallel to the frets past the neck join!

Hmmm…. Now I am thinking there is a hole in my quiver. Dang!

Here’s hoping you find a nice one to get started soon!

Paul

[Pine Cone]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Even though I no longer own a reso, I have had a few. If you are fit and foolish you may choose metal…. For this old dog, it would have to be wood. And a 12 fret cutaway to boot. Metal would be way too heavy.

If you want to play slide on it (why not?) a cut can be a big help when trying to get parallel to the frets past the neck join!

Hmmm…. Now I am thinking there is a hole in my quiver. Dang!

Here’s hoping you find a nice one to get started soon!

Paul

You could always try one of these. https://royallguitars.com/product/ro...h-with-pickup/

A smaller wooden body 14 fret (1 13/16" nut) biscuit bridge cutaway resonator from Royall Resonators.

I got one of their woody tricones last year and really like it. Very playable, nice wide neck (1 13/16") and a looker.

[Monty Christo]

Originally Posted by Doublea1269

There are two of us on guitar, a fiddle, a mandolin and a multi-instrumentalist ... we're mostly playing rootsy Americana, country/blues, bluegrass, Irish stuff.

Based on this, I'd probably suggest a wood-body spider-cone for your type of music, but do your due diligence and listen to the differences between spider, biscuit, and tri-cone models and the kind of music people tend to play on them. Then you can choose between metal and wood, if you haven't decided by then.

[Doublea1269]

Royal looks like a really good option, as do Gretsch and Recording King. What I've been able to hear online of Gold Tone also sounds phenomenal. I think I'm going to have to keep overloading on online demos and then just take a chance...there are just so few resonators available around me.

Thanks everybody!

[Murphy Slaw]

I've owned a square neck wood spider for a few years.

Wasn't scratching the itch. I wanted a round neck so I could fret a little and finger style some. I tried a bunch of them. All the wood ones sounded the same, but not as good as my square neck.

Then I found this Swamp Dog, used, in a little shop in Kentucky.

This brass dog was the sound in my head.