The first resonator guitar company was National. The second company, founded by the same family, was Dobro. Another name famous in the early years of resonator instruments was Regal. They made guitars under their own name and supplied bodies to National and Dobro. Those companies no longer exist although the successor to Dobro is now part of Gibson. The names live on but exist under new owners.

Before reviewing current resonator makers, let’s review resonator designs and options. Resonator string instruments generate sound through the vibrations of spun aluminum resonator cones instead of the wood top of an instrument. There are three designs of the cones. They are the tricone, the single cone biscuit bridge and the single cone spider bridge.

The first resonator guitar design was the tricone where three inverted aluminum cones face into the instrument. A “T” bridge connects all three cones and transmits the string vibrations to the cones.

The second design of resonator guitar (or other instrument) is the single cone with a biscuit bridge. A larger cone is used than for the tricone design and the saddle sits in a slot of a wood bridge that is round and looks a bit like a biscuit. This rests on the apex of the cone which again faces into the instrument. These instruments are generally louder than a tricone with a wide dynamic range – which can be good for blues but bad when trying to record.

The final cone design is the single cone spider bridge. An eight legged metal bridge rests on the edges of the aluminum cone. The cone faces out instead of into the instrument. The sound is actually similar to the tricone in that the dynamic range is controlled (think compression if you’re an electric guitarist or into recording).

See my other articles for the history of these guitars. However all three designs were made by John Dopyera (although there is a dispute regarding the biscuit bridge design – the original patent for the biscuit bridge design was issued to George Beauchamp who had urged John Dopyera to design a louder guitar for him and co-founded National guitars with John).

Guitars aren’t the only instrument made with a resonator. The other instruments include 12-string guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and electric guitars (resolectric).

The bodies of resonator instruments can employ an interesting variety of materials. Nickel plated brass and German Silver (another plating process for brass) were two of the early materials used. Steel, copper, bronze, fiberglass and of course wood can also be used. Finishes can be painted, plated if metal or left raw.

The necks of guitars can be round for standard guitar playing or square necks for lap playing.

Amistar

Amistar has been making resonator instruments since 1991. They are located in the Czech Republic. Originally they made the Continental brand resonator guitar which were assembled by AMI in Germany. I believe they continue to make guitars that are branded as being from other companies, but they also make and sell the Amistar brand.

They make a wide range of styles of instruments. Metal instruments include single cone biscuit bridge guitars, 12-string guitars, electric guitars tricones, tenor guitars, ukuleles, mandolins and bouzoukies. They also make metal square neck tricones.

Wood bodied instruments also include single cone biscuit bridge and tricone models, square neck spider bridge models, and ukuleles.

Amistar’s distributor in the USA is Vagabond Instruments.

Beard Guitars

Beard makes high quality resophonic instruments. Most designs are single cone, spider bridge instruments in wood. Jerry Douglas and the late Mike Auldridge have been Beard guitar users and  endorsers of his square neck instruments.

Beard’s first resonator guitar was made in 1985. His “R” design is based on Mike Auldridge’s pre-war Regal resonator guitar.

Beard also makes round neck resonator guitar and ukuleles. He has made custom instruments including a guitar with interchangeable cone systems – choose biscuit bridge, spider bridge or tricone.

Beard entered into an agreement with Goldtone who makes reasonably priced imported versions of Beard designs. These are then setup in the USA by Beard.

Beltona Resonator Instruments

Beltona was founded by Steve Evans and Bill Johnson in 1990 in the UK. One was a luthier and the other an engineer and both were interested in building resonator instruments. They specialize in building resophonic instruments with carbon or glass fiber bodies and unique designs. They are currently located in New Zealand.

They make square and round neck guitars as well as ukuleles and mandolins. Most designs are biscuit bridge resonators but their original design was a tricone.

Dean

Dean guitars has a fairly large collection of resophonic guitars. These are currently listed in the “Bluegrass” section of their website. The guitars are imported and moderately priced. Design options include electrified, metal or wood bodies, cutaways and biscuit or spider bridge resonators.

The metal bodied instruments include plated steel (iron in their specs), copper and brass.

Fender

Fender instruments are widely distributed which means they are easy to find both locally and online. They currently have a limited selection of only four models of resonator guitars. The most interesting is the Reso-Tele(R). They have two models of spider bridge resonators. One is electrified (pickup) and has a cutaway. They have a metal bodied biscuit bridge model for slide guitar. These are low or moderately priced instruments and I assume imported.

Fineresophonic

Fineresophonic is a French company making excellent resonator instruments. Their website is (of course) in French. Their designs include tricones (triplates), single cone biscuit bridge, metal and wood guitars. They also have resolectrics, ukuleles and a mandolin.

The instruments are made by luthiers Mike Lewis and Pierre Avocat. They’ve been making resophonic instruments since 1988.

Gibson

The history of the development of the resonator guitar sometimes seems like a soap opera. Dobro was formed when John Dopyera had a disagreement with his partners at National. Dobro is a contraction for Dopyera Brothers. The Dopyera family continued to own Dobro after they re-merged with National. But after World War II they lost the right’s to the name. Eventually Gibson acquired Dobro as the Original Acoustic Instruments company. Gibson still sells Dobro guitars, now branded as Hound Dog guitars. Their current website for Resonator guitars lists only wood bodied, spider cone resonator guitars in both square and round neck styles.

Gretsch

Gretsch is currently listing resonator guitars as part of their “Roots Collection.” These are imported models, all under $1000. The four guitars in the collection include wood bodies biscuit bridge and spider bridge guitars and a metal bodied guitar. Two models come with an option of either round or square necks.

Ibanez

Ibanez, not to be left behind, has a resonator guitar listed on its website. There is just one model, the RA100. It’s a round neck, spider bridge 12-fret wood bodied guitar.

Meridith

Jarron “Tooter” Meredith makes some expensive and very nice looking wood bodied spider bridge resonator guitars in Athens AL. These are custom items with many options in terms of woods and finish. The image gallery I’ve linked to shows all to be based on a dreadnaught body size.

National Reso-Phonic

Full Disclosure: I own a National Style O guitar complete with engraved palm trees on the body.

Don Young formed National to recreate the best copies of the original National designs that he could. Because they specialize in the early National designs, they make tricone and biscuit bridge single cone designs but not spider bridge designs associated with Dobro. However the Dobro designs are now being made by Smith & Young as a division of National (see below).

National makes one of the widest range of resophonic guitar models. I just counted 28 models of single cone, metal bodied guitars. Their single cone wood bodied models includes a 12-string and a baritone guitar. Tricone models include a cutaway model and a wood bodied model. They also make resolectric guitars, mandolins and ukuleles. These are high quality American made instruments (not inexpensive).

Recording King

Recording King makes moderately priced instruments based on classic designs. These are no doubt imported and may even be made by companies listed above. Still, they offer a nice selection of more affordable instruments. Metal bodied instruments include tricones, biscuit bridge models, mandolins and ukuleles. Wood bodied instruments are limited to spider bridge guitars.

Regal

Regal is now a name owned by Saga Music. They import reasonably priced resonator guitars including metal tricones and biscuit bridge models and wood spider bridge models with round or square necks.

Rogue

Rogue is a low cost brand distributed by Musician’s Friend, Music 123 and perhaps other online merchants. It isn’t clear who actually owns or makes the guitars. I had at first assumed it was a house brand. But now it doesn’t seem so.

The lowest cost resonator guitars I can find are generally from the Rogue brand. Their models seem to mimick Regal (and perhaps they are the same source). These may be a good choice if you want to try a resonator guitar but not risk much money.

Smith & Young

Smith & Young are now a division of National specializing in spider cone resonators. So far there are two models listed on their website. The Model 1 is a steel bodied guitar while the Model 11 has a wood body.

Weber

Weber is known for making very nice Mandolins and related instruments. But they also make archtop guitars and resonator guitars. Their models include spider bridge, wood bodied guitars with square or round necks. They also have a biscuit bridge round neck series.

Wechter

Wechter Guitars makes two round neck models, one with a cutaway, and three square neck models. All are wood bodied spider bridge designs.

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My motivation in all this came from thinking how to explain jazz guitar comping to someone. I thought I might refer them back to two of the classic threads in guitar comping. One thread is the Freddie Green style which is typically four to the bar using mostly 3 and 4 note chords. Freddie Green was the rhythm guitarist with Count Basie Orchestra from the 1030s 40s, 50s etc. The other classic comping thread is from a similar time frame and is the Gypsy Jazz style popularized by Django Reinhardt.

Sweet Georgia Brown, though it often has a classic rhythm guitar accompaniment (i.e., comping) is also a great tune for some fast jazz soling. So here are some examples for your enjoyment. I’m not sure if they will teach anyone much about comping or soloing, but they are a lot of fun.

Bucky & John Pizzarelli.
John comping while his father solos.

Herb Ellis
Solo

Bireli Lagrene
Sweet Georgia Brown starts ca. 3:12 in but all of it is good. Bireli comps and solos. This is Gypsy Jazz.

Count Basie
Freddie Green comping on guitar – you can see him but can’t really pick him out. Before electric guitars.

Oscar Peterson Trio with Joe Pass
Starts with Oscar Peterson (piano) trading licks with Joe Pass (guitar). Joe Pass does both solo and comping if you wait.

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I watched this years Grammy awards and spent part of my time doing what I always do when watching guitar players on television. I played guitar spotting. How quickly could I name the brand and model of the guitars on stage? I’ll admit that I’m slipping and a few threw me. I blame poor camera angles, cutaway shots where there wasn’t enough time to see and poor lighting. Still several interesting guitars were on stage.

Dropping the names of the guitars I saw at this years Grammys is only part of what I wanted to share today. The other part concerns economics and how that affects the guitars you buy and the guitars that appear on stage. But first, interesting guitars I saw.

Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach performed with his Supro guitar. Supro was one of the National brands. I didn’t recognize the model but accourding to the Wikipedia it is a Supro Val Trol. Like many National / Supro / Airline / Valco guitars, it has a fiberglass body.

Bruno Mars played a Gretsch guitar. Looked like a Duo Jet in Cadillac Green.

Ed Sheeran played a Little Martin acoustic, essentially a travel guitar, while performing with Elton John.

Wesley Keith Schultz of the Lumineers played an old beat-up Guild archtop. The guitar had a single pickup and no cutaway. I couldn’t identify the model. However, Fender has recently started re-issuing Guild electric guitars including hollow body archtops.

I saw some great looking guitars among the backing bands, including PRS models and someone playing a Collings thinline I-35, essentially a high end guitar inspired by the Gibson ES-335.

So what do the guitars chosen by Grammy performers have to do with economics?

Well, what struck me was the number of guitars playing an instrument out of the ordinary. There were plenty of guitarists playing Martin Dreadnoughts or Fender Stratocasters. But I enjoyed seeing guitarists choosing something out of the ordinary. It’s not something you could easily do yourself. These guitars aren’t in production. They may be vintage instruments.

Let’s take the Supro played by the Black Keys as an example. It is a rare and vintage guitar. You can’t just order one from one of the large internet retailers. Valco / Supro went out of business long ago. Guitar companies aren’t going to build guitars in that style because there isn’t enough demand for them. Guitar companies want to build guitars that will sell quickly and get as much for those guitars as they can.

If you are a begininng guitar player you probably want a guitar that is like the one your friends or heros are playing or what you can easily find for a good price. Maybe it’s a Stratocaster. But a few musicians, often those on a leading edge of a trend, intentionally try to be different and unique. They start trends. If they create enough of a demand, then someone will build a reproduction – or at least a similar style guitar to take advantage.

Still, few large companies will take that risk unless it is a re-issue of one of their own models. On the other hand, there are companies who resurect defunct brands or re-issue old models. Eastwood guitars re-issue a number of Airline fiberglass models. Supro and Airline models often are nearly identical except for the name. The economics are that you can sometimes make money selling a niche product.

I wish guitar makers gave us more true choices in guitars. Not just different colors different pickups, but real differences in design and tone and attitude. But guitar makers won’t do that unless they can make money. So your best hope is for award winning musicians to play interesting instruments and for the guitar companies to notice.

The post Guitar Spotting at the Grammys and Guitar Economics appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

I started a series on guitar picks more than a year ago. I always intended to complete the series with a post about thumb picks. I had even started this and saved a draft. So, sorry for the delay. Here’s the third post in the Picky series.

Thumb picks

Few electric guitarists play(ed) with finger or thumb picks. The style and instrument most associated with the use of thumb and finger picks is bluegrass banjo. Yet some guitarists, particularly acoustic steel string players, do use thumb picks or thumb and finger picks. If you are playing an alternating bass with your thumb, a thumb pick can really make the bass line stand out.

Classic Plastic Thumb picks

The classic plastic thumb pick is the first type I tried and and the easiest type of thumb pick to find. Most music stores carry them. For me, these have all the same concerns and remedies as I described for plastic finger picks.

First there is sizing. Although you may easily find plastic thumb picks at your local music store, that doesn’t mean they will have a selection of sizes to fit your finger. Even if they do have small through extra large sizes, you still may need to fine tune the fit by briefly boiling or steaming the plastic and bending it to better fit your thumb.

The second problem is the length. If no one ever told you, you may not think to try this. You can file the length and shape of the pick to suit your playing preference. I have found that many plastic thumb pick designs are too long for how I typically hold my picking hand. I end up mis-picking the strings. Use nail file, emery board, sand paper or other file to shape and shorten the pick end. Be sure to use a fine finish so the tip is smooth.

Finally there is the issue of adjusting to the thickness and feel of the thumb pick. Keep trying and you’ll probably get it. However, there are other styles of thumb picks besides these classics and I find I like others better.

Fred Kelly Thumb Picks

My current favorite thumb pick is the Fred Kelly Speed Pick. It is the one in the bottom of the accompanying image. The other pick in the image is the Fred Kelly Slick Pick, also very nice. The first thing I like about the either of these picks is that their lengths are beter for the way I play – I don’t have to file anything to make these work.

I find the speed pick is particularly nice when I want a pick for the bass notes but I don’t want to use finger picks on my other fingers. Everyone’s playing style is different, but for me a standard pick would over power the other notes. The speed pick produces a more balanced volume for me.

These picks are (I believe) made from nylon. They are nice and smooth. They are also thinner than the classic plastic thumb picks and that also makes them more comfortable for me.

Metal and Metal with plastic Thumb picks

The first image in this post shows two metal thumb picks (bottom right of image). Metal picks probably fit bluegrass banjo better than guitar but since these are available, I’ll talk about them. The main advantage of metal thumb picks is you can adjust how tight they fit by just bending them. If you don’t like the sound of metal on the round wond bass strings, you can get a metal band with a plastic picking surface. The picking surface can then be shaped and filed to suit your preference.

Other Styles of Thumb picks

The truth is, I don’t often play using thumb or fingerpicks. When I do, my favorite combination is the Fred Kelly Speed Pick on my thumb and either ProPik or thin gauge brass fingerpicks on my fingers. However, there are still other variations. Fred Kelly has something called the Bumblebee which is a cross between a flat pick and a thumb pick.

The image below is similar to the Bumblebee but this design is from Herco.

The post Picky – The Thumb appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

D’Angelico. I had included some D’Angelico models in my review of small jazz boxes. These were reproductions of D’Angelico designs but were not high end luthier built guitars as made by D’Angelico but low to mid priced versions made overseas with the famous name of the late luthier. Still they seemed to be nice guitars and a good value. Then they disappeared. The website disappeared. Online searches only found used or “new” old stock available. Well, the guitars are back. But the selection so far is limited to 17 inch archtops. The new D’Angelico website is terrible but take a look to see what else is available (or soon will be).

Guild. I included Guild among my list of great American guitar companies. At the time I last wrote about Guild, they had become a subsidiary of Fender and production of all the classic Guild electric guitars had stopped. Guild had become a source of acoustic instruments for Fender. That has changed. Fender/Guild announced a new collection of classic Guild electric guitars. Most (but not all) are archtops. See the Newark St. Collection such as the X-175 Manhattan. They also are again making the Starfire III (single cutaway) and Starfire IV (double cutaway) semi solid thinline guitars. Great for blues.

Ibanez. I included an extensive list of Ibanez Archtops in my 2012 series on Archtops. The good news is Ibanez is continuing their commitment to Archtops and has announced updated models at the Winter 2013 Namm. See their Artstar collection for some really nice small jazz guitars (15 3/4 inch lower bout width).

Epiphone. I recently mentioned the reissue of the Epiphone Sorrento, a thinline single cutaway similar to a Gibson ES-125. They also re-issued a great reproduction of the Sheraton, much more authentic than the Sheraton II. But there is also bad news from Epiphone for archtop lovers. They have discontinued the ES-175 re-issue. This was a nice inexpensive reproduction of the classic Gibson guitar. Epiphone still makes the Joe Pass Emporer II and the Broadway archtop models but it is sad to see the ES-175 out of production.

The post Archtop Guitar News, Winter 2013 appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

If you love solid body electric guitars and want something similar to a Gibson SG yet unique, the the Crestwood is worth looking at. But I am going to talk mostly about the Sheraton.

First, it bears mentioning, that if you love Gibson guitars but are on a budget, you’ll love Epiphone. Epiphone is a division of Gibson and makes some mighty nice imported models, often based on classic Gibson designs. Your savings can be as much as 90% over a Gibson and you’ll probably save at least 60% on even the more expensive models.

But the reason I’m writing today is because Epiphone got this Sheraton re-issue right! You may have seen my recent post about the Gibson ES-330 and how twenty years of re-issues have failed to replicate the “classic” design of the ES-330. The best ES-330 is the Casino made by Epiphone  Well, Epiphone has done it again and done an excellent job getting the details correct on the Sheraton.

The details on the early Sheraton models are that the guitar is on par with a Gibson ES-355. That is, it is a fancy thinline semi-hollow electric in the ES-335 family. The unique aspects are two mini-humbuckers instead of full sized pickups and a Frequensator tailpiece. The tailpiece is split trapeze design where the string length to the tailpiece is longer on the bass strings.

The question you might have is do you want these unique differences from standard ES-335 designs? Maybe and maybe not.

Mini-humbuckers generally give a cleaner sound because (generally) they are wound to a lower resistance and they have a smaller magnetic field. If you’re looking for a loud guitar to overdrive your amp, there are better choices. But the pickups probably have more depth than P90s or other single coils yet have some of that bell like tone you get with single coils.

The Frequensator tailpiece is another item that might not suit you. One of the features that made the Gibson ES-335 such a great rock and blues guitar was the stop tailpiece. The solid attachment to the center block gave a bright tone and great sustain. Trapeze tailpieces are more common on hollow body guitars. They give less snap but a more mellow tone. Because I love jazz and blues, I’m not bothered by a trapeze tailpiece. In fact, I’ve always liked the 1970s ES-335s that had small block inlays and a trapeze tailpiece. I’ve read these were a failure in the marketplace and have much less value to the collector.

The Sorrento is another interesting guitar. It’s not often re-issued and is somewhat difficult to find. The comparable Gibson model is the ES-125. It is a fully hollow thinline, single cutaway electric with mini-humbuckers. It has a trapeze tailpiece (not a Frequensator model).

Both the 1962 Sheraton and Sorrento are nice guitars if you are looking for something a little different. Thank you Epiphone for such a great job on these re-issues.

The post The Epiphone 1962 Collection includes Sheraton with Mini HB appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

The strings are the G650 Lineear String set. The recommended tuning is dependent on scale length. They recommend Bb tuning for a 20 inch scale length which is about the scale of many baritone ukuleles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbTPcs_qe_M

This was a failed experiment on my cheapo Rogue Baritone! But maybe these would work for you.

Thomastik-Infeld makes an interesting guitar string set of mixed materials. I may have gotten the details wrong in the video, so here’s more information. The Classic S-Series Flat Wound Strings (Set No. KR116) consists of Nylon Tape Wound on a Rope Core for the three high strings and Silver Plated Copper Flat Wound on a Rope Core for the three bass strings.

The post Baritone Ukulele Strings with Mixture of Stainless Flatwound and Plain Nylon appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXFuBfcFYpk

Ukuleles are traditionally tuned in reenterant tuning, meaning the 4th string is higher pitched than the 3rd string. This gives the traditional “my dog has fleas” tuning. Linear tuning is where each string from 4th to 1st is tuned to a higher pitch than the previous string. Most stringed instruments are linear (guitar, violin, mandolin, etc.) but the 5 string banjo is reenterant.

Baritone ukuleles are traditionally tuned the same as the four high strings of a guitar, so DGBE. The strings in this video are tuned the same as if a guitar had a capo on the fifth fret. That is the same as standard tuning for the smaller ukuleles (soprano, concert and tenor), which GCEA.

Southcoast Ukulele has a lot of information about how to make a balanced set of strings. See their string guide for linear tuned ukulele.

The post C Tuning with Low G on Baritone, All Plain Strings appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIT4TWXOEbY

You can also get a Red Series C string. Some people believe the results are better when the two low strings are similar which is why some sets of Low G tuning ukulele strings have both the G and C strings wound. Now, instead, you can have both the low strings Red.

Aquila makes Red Series strings to match most of their Nylgut sets when you have low strings. This includes standard Baritone tuning (DGBE) and Baritone C tuning with Low G.

You can read more about Aquila Nylgut and Red Series on the Aquilcorde website.

Here’s a video from Aquilacorde, demoing their new red series string.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X9IXXdP47g

The post Aquila Red Series Ukulele Strings – Low G appeared first on danlovesguitars.com.

I show off my new Kala Tenor in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y1wnkB2_zY

Some details about my new ukulele:

• Model KA-TEM which stands for Kala Tenor Exotic Mahogany. The exotic part refers to the grain pattern displayed in the wood, much like a flamed pattern seen on maple guitars.
• The body is laminated mahogany, not solid wood. However, the top is incredibly thin and resonate. I’ve seen other laminated Kala guitars and this seems to be typical for the laminate instruments. The result is more volume than you’d expect for a laminated top.
• I purchased the instrument from Hawaii Music Supply. I followed the advice I gave you in the post, “Fatherly Advice: Never buy … without a professional setup” and purchased the uke from a company that does setups on every ukulele they sell.
• Like so many ukuleles these days, this one came with Aquila Nylgut strings. Many players attest to the great sound of these strings, including me.

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