AFFORDABLE RESONATORS
GRETSCH, RECORDING KING,
WASHBURN, AND WECHTER
We take a look at four sub-$1,000 offerings to help you find the
right fit for dipping your feet into the resonator pool.
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BY PETE MADSEN
Almost nothing evokes the sounds of the Mississippi Delta quite like a bottleneck
slide dragged across the strings of a resonator guitar. National introduced the resonator to the world in 1927 with their single
and tricone guitars. And blues pioneers like
Son House and Bukka White used their
National resonators prodigiously, churning
out Delta gems like “Death Letter Blues”
and “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues.” The first
Nationals were made from brass. Then, in
order to accommodate more budget minded
musicians, they produced all-steel versions
such as the Duolian.
A few short years later Dobro followed
with their spider cone resonator guitar,
which became many bluegrass musician’s
go-to box. Dobros differed in sound and
construction. The spider cone lent a nasal
honk to the sound, and many Dobros used
wood back and sides. Today a new National
will run you over $2,000 and the Dobros
(now produced by Gibson) are well over a
$1,000. So where does a musician on a budget go to get that Delta vibe? Thankfully,
several companies are putting out resonator
guitars that the rest of us can afford. Many
of these instruments play and sound great
and you don’t have to go too far to find a
guitar for under a grand that will get your
mojo working!
We checked out four guitars all priced
close to or under $1000. Each has a wood
body and some version of a spider cone. And
though the spider cone tends to be more
associated with bluegrass musicians and
square neck dobro players while the biscuit
bridge and tricone resonators of National guitars are associated with blues and Hawaiian
players, there is a lot of crossover. And in this
review we will focus the playing on blues and
slide guitar.
light gauge strings (.012–.053) and had low
action, which makes it easy to navigate the
fretboard. My one quibble is that for bottleneck playing the action is a little low—easy
enough to correct, but far from ideal.
The Box Car produces a cool, nasally
honk and has great projection. In open G
and open D tuning there’s a nice balance
between low and treble strings, making it easy to articulate slide lines.
But tuning the guitar down for
open G and D tunings slackens the strings to the point
of making slide playing more
difficult and buzzier sounding.
Tuning up to open A tuning
resolved the issue and put me
in closer proximity to Robert
Johnson’s slide pitch on songs
like “Crossroads” and “Come
on in My Kitchen”—
tunes on which the
Gretsch sounded
pretty sweet.
GRETSCH
G9200 BOXCAR
STANDARD
The Gretsch Boxcar is part of the company’s new Roots Collection, which includes
banjos, ukuleles, mandolins and guitars
based on styles used before the 1950s. And
a visit to the company’s sepia-toned web
page reveals that they mean business when
it comes to their vintage agenda.
The Gretsch is feather-light and vintage
styled from its aged pearloid headstock to the
soft V-shape of the neck. The body, back, and
sides, are built from laminated Mahogany and
feature twin f-holes on the top, while the neck
is mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. But
the heart of the Gretsch is the resonator, which
Gretsch has dubbed the Ampli-Sonic and built
from 99% pure aluminum that is hand spun
in Eastern Europe. Black, open-gear Grover
tuners are an attractive addition. And the only
construction flaw I could detect was a spot of
underspray around one of the f-holes.
The soft V neck is very comfortable and
evokes the feel of a vintage Martin. The
guitar I received was set up with D’Addario
RATINGS
Pros: Light weight. Cool vintage vibe.
Gretsch G9200 Boxcar Standard, $599 street, gretsch.com
Cons: Needs extra fine-tuning for
satisfactory slide tones.
Tones
Value
