Busker and MM guitars - right choice

[eholst]

Hi there

Just a word about my purchase of a Busker Sidewalk....hopefully it can help others in choosing a good reso....

I was in our big musicstore yesterday, and they have a whole lot of guitars, and only two reso's, the same model though...I have just looked at them a couple of times and yesterday I just strung the strings on both of them to hear how it sounded. It looked to be phosphor-bronze strings....

It sounded weak, thin, very metallic, without a proper response, flat with very weak bass....perhaps the strings were not thick enough, or the body is made of too thick metal. It's a single cone, with a style O finish, but with the same coverplate as the MM blues. Finish overall looked quite okay. It was priced at around 350 £.....

I am happy to feel that I have made a good choice....my Sidewalk sounds full and rich in tone, with a good and solid bass end, soft high end and in between it sounds very well balanced...only I could point out sharp fret ends and minor finish issues. But overall it feels good and easy to play, the sound is loud, full and rich, and I really want to pick it up to play it.

At a budget price, expecting to get a real National would be unreal and expecting way too much.


Best regards

Eholst

[Michael Messer]

Thank you for your kind words Eholst

Shine On
Michael

[subtoxin]

I am curious about both the Lightning and the Sidewalk. Are there plans for a radiused fretboard on the Sidewalk? Not that flat is necessarily bad.

[eholst]

Hi subtoxin

The Sidewalk do have a radiused fretboard, well, slightly radiused, it's not flat anymore, even though the description on the Busker website do state this...the website is not updated on this...

Also note that the tuners shown on the Sidewalk on the website is an update, they are not "original", I ordered these Grover tuners specifically as I wanted these instead of open tuners.

The sound is kind of warm, propably because of the brass body, instead of steel. The attack is also kind of softer....perhaps others on this forum can add some info also.

Hope this info helps you....

Best regards

Eholst

[andys]

I think Ive posted here before about this but I have rather oddball MM Blues guitar whichactually has the spec of a Sidewalk. It has a flat fingerboard, brass body, 14 fret neck. At the time I bought it, it was one of the first 14 fret MMs, so whether it was a prototype, an oddball one, or actually is a Sidewalk that was sprayed like an MM Blues, I dont know.

It now looks like a Sidewalk as I have stripped off the grey paint, but whatever guitar it is, I love my MM/Sidewalk/Whatever!!!

[thebluesbear( al)]

Hi all

i echo all of these points of view i would be without my buskers or mm guitars

al