Intro
The resonator guitar is a staple of Bluegrass, Country and Blues music – although some alternative examples can be found, Bon Iver’s Skinny Love for example. Easily recognisable from their fully or partially metallic construction, distinct sound and unique tonality, the resonator has been delighting players and audiences since the 1920s.
Promenade Music is pleased to offer a wide range of Resoville resonator guitars with a variety of different specifications, but what are the differences and what should you look for when buying a resonator guitar? This guide aims to answer those questions.
The Body
The first thing about a resonator that many people will notice is the metal. Some models such as the Davenport and the Lincolnwood use tonewoods just like a conventional guitar, but instead of a soundboard the sound is transferred through the resonator cones, more on those later! However, the majority of the Resoville range is fully constructed from metal and specifically from bell brass. Resoville uses bell brass because of the increased resonance and rigidity it provides compared to other alloys. This allows for a fuller sound, more defined frequencies in the bass and middle and longer sustain. Some blues players will play either style of guitar, whereas some country and bluegrass players will stick to the wooden bodies as they are seen as more traditional. The wooden bodies are also, by design, much lighter than the metal iterations as well. Whilst there aren’t as many defined body shapes as there are with conventional guitars (Dreadnought, Orchestra, Folk etc…) Resoville does offer some differences in body shape. The Arlington is a smaller body shape, much like a conventional Parlor guitar, the smaller body reduces the weight and is accessible to play. The Riverdale offers a cutaway design, granting easier access to the higher frets for normal fingerstyle and slide play. Left-handed models are also available for the southpaws.
The Neck
Resonator guitars are often, but not exclusively, with a slide. Because of this some resonators utilize a square neck rather than the round neck most guitars, and guitarists, are used to.
Most guitarists who have played a conventional acoustic or electric guitar in the past will find it much easier to play on a resonator with a rounded neck, it’s for this reason why the majority of the Resoville range have the standard rounded neck. Because of the similarity, these guitars are often tuned to standard tuning, but slide players will often use open tunings such as an open G chord or DADGAD tuning.
Square necks, often favoured by the country and bluegrass musicians, are commonly played in a lap steel style, laying the back of the guitar horizontally across one’s legs. Because of the square neck the player can’t reach round so a slide is essential in playing these, hence why the lap steel method is preferred. They have square necks because the increase in wood and overall mass means that they can withstand much higher tensions, so different tunings can be reached. For example, to get to an open G chord on a rounded neck the player would detune, reducing the tension, to get this tuning – DGDGBD. However because the square neck can withstand a higher tension the player can tune up to a G tuning, resulting in something like GBDGBD. Therefore the tuning will give a different tonality to a square neck guitar and because of the high tension frets and elevated nut, like on the Hazelton, a slide is essential to play as the strings cannot be fretted.
The Cones
Generally speaking, and in the Resoville range, there are three main styles of resonator cones. The first is the tricone or ‘National’ style. As the name suggests, this design features three metal coils, or cones, in a T shape and are heavily favoured by blues players.
The Resoville Hazelton, with the aforementioned square neck, features an inverted single cone that is held in place by a spider style bridge. This design is louder than the tricone design and therefore is more suited to acoustic players and on the square neck models.
Finally, most Resoville’s come with biscuit cones. These are also inverted cones, but this time a flat biscuit-shaped piece of wood sits on top of the cone and houses the saddle. This increases the transference of energy from the strings and creates a punchier, grittier sound so is very popular with round-neck blues players.
Conclusion
There’s lots to learn and lot’s of differences when it comes to resonator guitars. In their 100 year lifespan resonator guitars have gone through many innovations and iterations. Some design ideas have traditionally adopted by musicians of certain genres, but as players tastes develop these designs have merged and melded together and much like the genres themselves, the pre-determined “rules” have also changed. What was once a traditional bluegrass setup could now be played with all the grit and heart of a gnarled blues player. What was once solely the instrument of a blues player could now accompany an alternative singer-songwriter singing in falsetto.
If you are interested in trying the resonator guitar we recommend you try and find the instrument that suits your playing style the best, and the best way of doing that is to come in and try our range of Resovilles.
