Hello all!

n4vgm

Just wanted to say hello to everyone and thanks in advance for the advice/info I'll be getting here.

Name is Bob and I've been playing guitar and drums for over 25 years, at times professionally. I also have taught both instruments. I have a B.A. in Music Theory but that was a few years ago!

Last year I picked up an inexpensive resonator guitar to get back into acoustic and finger picking. I worked on the action until I can play it my way which means fairly low action and in tune for movable jazz chords.

The other day I started thinking about Django and his style again and when I tried it on the reso it sounded great. It's loud, short sustain, and a strong mid-range. The chords I use for my own compositions are much the same as GJ.

Anyway, see ya 'round!

Stackabones

Howdy!

IIRC Oscar Aleman used a reso!

What kind of reso did you get?

frater

Bob Brozman also has a precise Django influence in his playing... Not GJ but I strongly recommend his recent "Lumière", a sheer masterpiece (couple of Dunn guitars involved there...)

steven_eire

while we are on a bob brozman tangent, everyone should check out his album with debashish bhattacharya it's great

also welcome to the forum Bob!

n4vgm

Hey Stackabones, you're on the HC forums I believe. My reso is one of the MF Rogue spiders. It took several trys to get it the way I wanted but I'm happy with it now. It was $149 at the time, like last summer.

Stackabones

n4vgm wrote:

Hey Stackabones, you're on the HC forums I believe. My reso is one of the MF Rogue spiders. It took several trys to get it the way I wanted but I'm happy with it now. It was $149 at the time, like last summer.

Yeah, I'm over there, too! Are you over there, or do you lurk?

Several times to get the Rogue the way you want it? Does that mean setup, cones, etc? The price seems right, but if you had to do all the extra work ... was it still a good deal?

n4vgm

I've been posting there off and on for many years. There is lot to be learned from forums but I don't have as much time now so I just scan periodically. Here there are no Zager flame wars!

Here is the reso in question;



First I adjusted the truss rod then I worked on the bridge. It took me like six tries to get it lowered and intonated. For intonation I filed the bridge at each string either /|, /\, or |\ and got it respectably close. Tried several types of strings working my way up 10's - 11's - now 12's since part of getting this was to strengthen my left hand from too many years of ultra low action electrics. Finally settled on Elixir Nanoweb bronze 12's.

I didn't replace anything but I also "polished" the nut slots and covered the lower chrome sound hole and the three small holes next to the neck with thin craft foam (black) which is sticky on one side. I did this as I discovered that when I placed my hand over one of the sound holes it reinforced the bass, like the port on a speaker cabinet. I think it sounds more balanced.

The other thing I just recalled doing was drilling several small holes in the cover under the tailpiece. I noticed the ball ends of the strings were sitting on the cover and holding the tailpiece angle up. This seemed to have an effect on the cone buzzing since I had lowered the bridge pieces in the spider. The balls sit in the holes letting the tailpiece lay flush on the cover thus increasing the angle the strings break over the bridge. I didn't need six holes as the cover has decorative slots that matched strings 4 and 3. Another reason I moved up to the 12's, now there is very,very little cone buzz.

So it doesn't sound like it's supposed to, sort of a hybrid between a reso and a flat top. Also, it sounds awesome with a capo, almost like a banjo. Sorry but I don't have any clips yet.

All-in-all it took me several months to get it the way I wanted and I'm real happy with the way it plays and sounds. I'd hate to think what a shop would charge for all that.

Stackabones

Wow! Thanks for the detailed response. I don't think I could do any of that! So my bill would be rather high.

I've been GASsing for a reso. Not for bottleneck or lap-style, just for my day-to-day gigging and so forth. I already use my Gitane D500 for that, so I should just be happy and stop with the GAS.

8)

frater

Stackabones wrote:

I've been GASsing for a reso. Not for bottleneck or lap-style, just for my day-to-day gigging and so forth. I already use my Gitane D500 for that, so I should just be happy and stop with the GAS.

8)

I'm really tempted to put an extension nut on my D500 to use it as a laptop with a stevens steel bar... I'm sure it would sound great but I'm afraid the extra tension would hurt the neck. Maybe I should try it on my original Maccaferri before...

P.S.
And since I named Him, take a look (and a hear) at this. The man was a real genius...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_X9ryRAZr8

Stackabones

frater wrote:

I'm really tempted to put an extension nut on my D500 to use it as a laptop with a stevens steel bar... I'm sure it would sound great but I'm afraid the extra tension would hurt the neck. Maybe I should try it on my original Maccaferri before...

How much extra tension would it add? What if you used a slack string tuning ... open G or open D or even open C?

frater

Yes, that would definitely help: I noticed that Kelly Joe Phelps does so (he tunes the guitar really low and than uses a capo at the second or third fret, I don't remember...).