The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75941   Message #1340022
Posted By: PoppaGator
26-Nov-04 - 05:04 PM
Thread Name: acoustic or resonator guitar?
Subject: RE: acoustic or resonator guitar?
If you're only going to own one guitar for the foreseeable future, I'd say go for the regular acoustic rather than the more exotic resonator. It's just more versatile, and as you continue playing and learning you may not want to be limited to that resonator sound.

You say "I'd like to play blues style with bottle neck..." -- that's "I'd" meaning "I would." That why I'm assuming that you're a more-or-less beginner.

Any blues number you can play, you can play it on a regular wooden guitar. The sound may not be quite as characteristically "bluesy" as on a reso, but *most* of your success in creating a convincing blues sound will grow out of your playing, not your instrument.

I'm primarily interested in the blues, myself, and always have been. I've owned one guitar since 1969, when I got the best regular wooden acoustic guitar I could afford. I knew then that I wouldn't be buying another for quite some time, and resisted the urge to get the National Steel of my dreams. I'm glad I did -- I've played plenty of music over the years that would not have sounded nearly as good on one of those Nationals as it has on my Martin.

The only person I've personally met who owned a metal-body resonator as his *only* guitar was a true blues guy, the late Babe Stovall, a black man from Mississippi who lived in New Orleans in the 60s-70s and sang on the street. Every other reso I've every touched belonged to a "collector," someone with at least one other guitar if not several. They are beautiful and they produce an otherworldly sound, but they really don't allow you to explore much variety in guitar styles and sounds.

Keep in mind that the resonator was developed simply to provide greater volume to players who had no access to electricity for amplifiction. A wooden acoustic equipped with some kind of pickup can serve the same purpose, and has more potential versatility. You can play it with our without electronic enhacement, and when you do plug in, you should be able to acheive a variety of different "sounds" by adjusting controls on your amp and perhaps at the pickup itself as well.