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Resonator guitar

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A modern tricone resonator guitar, with electric pickup
Ellis 8 string baritone tricone resonator guitar guitar played by James Michael Thompson

A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden soundboard (guitar top/face). Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than conventional acoustic guitars which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion instruments in dance orchestras. They became prized for their distinctive sound however, and found life with several musical styles (most notably bluegrass and also blues) well after electric amplification solved the issue of inadequate guitar sound levels.

Resonator guitars are of two styles:

There are three main resonator designs:

  • The "tricone" ("tri" in reference to the three metal cones/resonators) design of the first National resonator guitars.
  • The single inverted-cone design of the Dobro.
  • The spiderless single cone "biscuit" design of other National instruments.

Many variations of all of these styles and designs have been produced under many brands. The body of a resonator guitar may be made of wood, metal, or occasionally other materials. Typically there are two main soundholes, positioned on either side of the fingerboard extension. In the case of single cone models, the soundholes are either both circular or both f-shaped, and symmetrical; The older "tricone" design has irregularly shaped sound holes. Cutaway body styles may truncate or omit the lower f-hole.

History

National tricone

The resonator guitar was developed by John Dopyera, seeking to produce a guitar that would have sufficient volume to be heard alongside brass and reed instruments, in response to a request from steel guitar player George Beauchamp. Dopyera experimented with configurations of up to four resonator cones, and cones composed of several different metals.

In 1927, Dopyera and Beauchamp formed the National String Instrument Corporation to manufacture resonator guitars under the brand name National. The first models were metal-bodied and featured three conical aluminium resonators joined by a T-shaped aluminium spider which supported the bridge, a system called the "tricone". Wooden-bodied tricone models were also produced with bodies sourced from the Regal Musical Instrument Company and other established guitar manufacturers. Cheap plywood student instruments were particularly used for conversion to resonator instruments.

Dobro

Main article: Dobro
A dobro style resonator guitar

In 1928, Dopyera left National to form the Dobro Manufacturing Company with his brothers Rudy, Emile, Robert and Louis, Dobro being a contraction of Dopyera Brothers' and also meaning "good" in their native Slovak language. They released a competing resonator guitar with a single resonator with its concave surface uppermost, often described as bowl-shaped, under a distinctive circular perforated metal cover plate with the bridge at its centre resting on an eight-legged aluminium spider. This system was cheaper to produce, and produced more volume than National's tricone.

National biscuit

National countered the Dobro with their own single resonator model, which had previously been designed by Dopyera before he left the company, while also continuing to produce the tricone design which many players preferred for its tone. Both the National single and tricone resonators remained conical with their convex surfaces uppermost; The single resonator models used a wooden biscuit at the cone apex to support the bridge. Both companies at this stage were sourcing many components, and notably the aluminium resonators themselves, from Adolph Rickenbacher.

National Dobro, Hound Dog, and Gibson

File:Epiphone Biscuit.jpg
Epiphone "biscuit" resonator guitar.

After much legal action, the Dopyera brothers gained control of both the National and Dobro companies in 1932, and subsequently merged them to form the National Dobro Corporation. However all production of resonator guitars by this company ceased following the US entry into the Second World War in 1941.

Emile Dopyera (also known as Ed Dopera) manufactured Dobros from 1959, before selling the company and name to Semie Moseley, who merged it with his Mosrite guitar company and manufactured Dobros for a time.

In 1967, Rudy and Emile Dopyera formed the Original Musical Instrument Company (OMI) to manufacture resonator guitars, first branded Hound Dog. In 1970 they again acquired the Dobro name, Mosrite having gone into temporary liquidation.

OMI was acquired by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1993, who announced they would defend their right to exclusive use of the Dobro name, which had come to be commonly used for any resonator guitar. As of 2006, they produce several round sound hole models under the Dobro name, and cheaper f-hole models both under the Hound Dog name and also their Epiphone brand. All have a single resonator, and many are available in either round or square neck.

Other National instruments

The famous Brothers in Arms album from Dire Straits, featuring a National Style 0 Resonator.

After the formation of the National Dobro Corporation, the term National was often used to mean an instrument with a non-inverted cone, to distinguish these designs from the inverted-cone Dobro. Makers particularly used it for single-cone biscuit designs, as the relatively elaborate and expensive tricone was for some time out of production. Players and collectors also used the term for the older tricone instruments, which despite their softer volume and rarity were still preferred by some players.

In 1942, the National Dobro Corporation, which no longer produced Dobros or any other resonator instruments, was reorganised and renamed Valco. Valco produced a large volume and variety of fretted instruments under many names, with National as their premium brand. By the early 1960s, Valco was again producing resonator guitars for mail order under the National brand name. These instruments had biscuit resonators and bodies of wood and fibreglass.

In the late 1980s, the National brand and trademark reappeared with the formation of National Reso-Phonic Guitars. As of 2006, they produce 6 string resonator guitars of all three traditional resonator types, focusing on reproducing the feel and sound of old instruments. Their other resonator instruments include a 12-string guitar, ukeleles and mandolins.

Playing

Resonator guitars are most often used:

These stereotypes are often disregarded by top players. Crossing musical boundaries is an even stronger tradition of resonator guitar playing.

A common cliché in cinema is to use slow slide resonator guitar music to introduce a rural scene set in the Southern USA, see Dobro for details.

Styles and positions

The resonator guitar is most often played as a lap steel guitar, and the more common square necked version is limited to this playing position. Square neck instruments are always set up with the high action favoured by steel guitar players, and tuned to a suitable open tuning.

The round necked version is equally capable in either lap steel or Spanish guitar position. It may be set up with a variety of action heights, ranging from the half inch favoured for steel guitar (making use of the frets almost impossible) to the small fraction of an inch used by conventional guitarists. A compromise is most common, allowing use of a bottleneck on the top strings but also use of the frets as desired, with the guitar played in the conventional position.

Many different tunings are used. Some square neck tunings are not recommended for round neck resonator guitars, owing to the high string tension required, which in turn requires the stronger square neck. Slack-key guitar tunings are most suitable for bottleneck playing, and conventional E-A-D-G-B-E guitar tuning is also popular.

In bluegrass music

The resonator guitar was introduced to bluegrass music by Josh Graves, who played with Flatt and Scruggs, in the mid-1950s. Graves utilized the hard-driving, syncopated three-finger picking style developed by Earl Scruggs for the five-string banjo. Modern players continue to play the instrument this way, with one notable exception being Tut Taylor who plays with a flat pick.

Tuning for the resonator guitar within the bluegrass genre is most often an open G with the strings pitched to D G D G B D or G B D G B D, from the lowest to highest. Occasionally variant tunings are used, such as an open D: D A D F# A D

Other notable bluegrass players include Jerry Douglas, Mike Auldridge, Rob Ickes, Phil Leadbetter, Sally Van Meter and Andy Hall.

In country music

The resonator guitar was used in older country music, notably by Bashful Brother Oswald of Roy Acuff's band, but has been largely supplanted by the pedal steel guitar.

In blues music

The resonator guitar is also significant to the world of blues music, particularly the Southern style of country blues that grew out of the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana. Unlike country and bluegrass players, blues players play the resonator guitar in the standard guitar position, with the strings facing away from the player. Many use slides or bottlenecks.

Many players in the 1920s and 1930s, including the great Son House, and others like Bukka White, Tampa Red and Blind Boy Fuller, used the instruments because they were louder than standard acoustic guitars, which enabled them to play for a larger crowd in areas that did not yet have electricity for amplifiers. For the same reason street musicians like Arvella Gray used resonator guitars while busking, e.g. on Chicago's Maxwell Street. The instrument is still used by some blues players, notably Taj Mahal, Eric Sardinas, and Alvin Hart.

Varieties of resonator guitar

Single resonator guitars with a bowl resonator and spider (Dobro style) are often heard in bluegrass music, while tricone (National style) instruments are still preferred by many blues players. Single-resonator biscuit (also sometimes called National style) instruments are also currently produced, and give a different sound again.

Many bluegrass players prefer wooden bodies, blues players either metal or wood. The early metal-bodied instruments were generally of better quality than the earliest wooden-bodied ones, but this may not be the case with more recent instruments. Metal bodies may be brass, aluminium or steel. Fibreglass has also been used as a body material, and a marble bodied resonator guitar is commercially available. Both metal and wooden bodies are often painted, or wooden bodies may be stained or lacquered, metal bodies may be plated or plain.

Bluegrass players tend to use square necks, while blues players tend to prefer round necks. Square-necked guitars give a slightly greater variety of possible tunings, while round-necked guitars give a much greater variety of playing positions.

Single resonator instruments can have round sound holes with screens, round sound holes without screens which many players used to remove anyway to improve the bass response, or f-holes, often with gauze screens which are also sometimes removed but have an important function in strengthening the belly particularly if the body is of wood.

An enormous number of combinations are possible, most can be found either on old or new instruments or both, and many styles of music can be played on any resonator guitar.

Electric instruments

Although the original aim of the resonator was increased volume, some modern instruments incorporate electric pickups, and players add pickups to non-electric instruments, and use the resonator purely for its distinctive tone. As the resonator is far more sensitive to audio feedback than any semi-acoustic guitar, the design of these pickups is extremely critical and specialised.

Other resonator instruments

File:Regal uke 72dpi.jpg
Advertising for a Regal resonator ukelele

As well as resonator guitars, resonators have been used on:

Manufacturers

Regal manufactured for many brands under its licence, including Regal, Old Kraftsman, and Ward.

Famous names

As of 2006 the three most famous historic brands of resonator guitar, National, Dobro and Regal, were all in use, but all by different companies to the ones that produced the historical instruments, each after one or more long breaks in production:

US patents

  • #1,741,453 covering the tricone.
  • #1,808,756 covering the Dobro.
  • #1,896,484 covering the biscuit single cone resonator, lodged in the name of Beauchamp.

Players

File:SonHouse.jpg
Son House holding a biscuit-style National.

See also

Template:Guitar

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