Post by stevearcade on Jul 17, 2023 10:13:16 GMT
Hello everybody,
New member here. I've owned a brass-bodied, nickel plated tri-cone for almost twenty years (a lemon of a Johnson that I've put a great many hours of work into making a playable instrument! - more about that another time), but I've recently been experiencing a strong case of GAS (guitar acquisition syndrome) and keep finding myself perusing wood-bodied resonators. I haven't looked/shopped for resos since buying my tri-cone all those years ago, and there seem to be a lot of different brands, etc, so I thought I'd gauge some advice from people more dialled into the scene (as I know lots of these instruments come from a small handful of factories and just carry different brand labels).
My rational is that I'm after something I can keep in standard tuning, potentially as my main guitar for noodling on, writing music with, etc. Whatever I choose will, will likely be restrung with nickel wound 13s, have the action lowered to normal acoustic guitar setup hight, and left in standard tuning (maybe dropped a half or whole tone down). I'm not fussed about it being loud or sustaining. In fact, I rather want it to be warm and abrupt/blunt/crude, if that makes sense. Like something you might hear on a Tom Waits record (the later stuff, not the 70s balladeer stuff). A punchy mid-range, without too much else going on.
My gut instinct tells me to look at Mahogany bodies, but I'm unsure whether a Biscuit or Spider is better suited to the brief, so could do with a little input there.
My budget isn't huge, either. I don't have an exact figure in mind and don't mind spending a little extra for the right instrument, but ideally want to keep things below the £400 mark. I'm not afraid of a little tinkering to improve things, such as addressing fret-sprout, fret levelling, bridge height, etc, so don't mind getting something with all the right ingredients, but that will likely need a little tidy up from the factory.
I've been looking at Recording King Rattle Snakes (although I'm not sold on the glossy finish and showy headstock). I also quite like the look of the Gretsch Boxcar. Comparing the components, materials, and reading between the lines of the promotional blurb for these two guitars, I'm wondering if they're actually, basically the same instruments, made in the same factory, in which case the Recording Kind is the better value for money (plus, I think the Gretsch might now be discontinued as a couple of bigger shops, like Andertons, now list it as "no longer available").
I also quite like the look of a Ortega RRG30 (although I'm not interested in the electronics side of things). There are several instruments on the market that look identical, minus the pickup, making me suspect they're all from the same manufacturer, but they're more expensive than the Ortega, so I figured it's better to save some money and just accept it'll have a pickup I'll unlikely use. Also, this is the smaller, parlour size, which I worry might not yield a warm sound and be bit thin in tone.
Lastly, whilst it's outside of my budget, and potentially going to be too pretty and sweet sounding, Royall have a mahogany bodied tri-cone, which has really caught my eye. I could do with someone talking me down from that on the grounds that's it too rich sounding and won't meet my brief
.
Anyway, that's more than enough rambling from me... Any thoughts, suggestions, alternatives, tips and/or advance will be hugely appreciated.
Many thanks in advance,
Steve
New member here. I've owned a brass-bodied, nickel plated tri-cone for almost twenty years (a lemon of a Johnson that I've put a great many hours of work into making a playable instrument! - more about that another time), but I've recently been experiencing a strong case of GAS (guitar acquisition syndrome) and keep finding myself perusing wood-bodied resonators. I haven't looked/shopped for resos since buying my tri-cone all those years ago, and there seem to be a lot of different brands, etc, so I thought I'd gauge some advice from people more dialled into the scene (as I know lots of these instruments come from a small handful of factories and just carry different brand labels).
My rational is that I'm after something I can keep in standard tuning, potentially as my main guitar for noodling on, writing music with, etc. Whatever I choose will, will likely be restrung with nickel wound 13s, have the action lowered to normal acoustic guitar setup hight, and left in standard tuning (maybe dropped a half or whole tone down). I'm not fussed about it being loud or sustaining. In fact, I rather want it to be warm and abrupt/blunt/crude, if that makes sense. Like something you might hear on a Tom Waits record (the later stuff, not the 70s balladeer stuff). A punchy mid-range, without too much else going on.
My gut instinct tells me to look at Mahogany bodies, but I'm unsure whether a Biscuit or Spider is better suited to the brief, so could do with a little input there.
My budget isn't huge, either. I don't have an exact figure in mind and don't mind spending a little extra for the right instrument, but ideally want to keep things below the £400 mark. I'm not afraid of a little tinkering to improve things, such as addressing fret-sprout, fret levelling, bridge height, etc, so don't mind getting something with all the right ingredients, but that will likely need a little tidy up from the factory.
I've been looking at Recording King Rattle Snakes (although I'm not sold on the glossy finish and showy headstock). I also quite like the look of the Gretsch Boxcar. Comparing the components, materials, and reading between the lines of the promotional blurb for these two guitars, I'm wondering if they're actually, basically the same instruments, made in the same factory, in which case the Recording Kind is the better value for money (plus, I think the Gretsch might now be discontinued as a couple of bigger shops, like Andertons, now list it as "no longer available").
I also quite like the look of a Ortega RRG30 (although I'm not interested in the electronics side of things). There are several instruments on the market that look identical, minus the pickup, making me suspect they're all from the same manufacturer, but they're more expensive than the Ortega, so I figured it's better to save some money and just accept it'll have a pickup I'll unlikely use. Also, this is the smaller, parlour size, which I worry might not yield a warm sound and be bit thin in tone.
Lastly, whilst it's outside of my budget, and potentially going to be too pretty and sweet sounding, Royall have a mahogany bodied tri-cone, which has really caught my eye. I could do with someone talking me down from that on the grounds that's it too rich sounding and won't meet my brief
.Anyway, that's more than enough rambling from me... Any thoughts, suggestions, alternatives, tips and/or advance will be hugely appreciated.
Many thanks in advance,
Steve
. I was looking at the MM guitars and thought they looked and sounded absolutely lovely. It might be difficult to justify the expenditure, however, as that would be almost doubling my budget, sadly.
. 
