Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.

Subject: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,Marco.
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 04:27 AM

Hi, Mudcatters!

I'm looking for a slide-blues guitar (not country), but not too expansive like national or dobro.
I don't know anything about this kind of guitar but I'd like to learn to play it.
Some friend suggested me an Epiphone Biscuit (Mogany body) or an Epiphone MD 100 (Metal body); what's the best for blues? Wood body or Metal body?
Please, help me!

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Blues=Life
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:00 AM

Check out the Dean Metal Body resonators. I've seen them pretty cheap on Ebay, and I like the way it plays. I've got a Dean GCE, which is the wood-body resonator with pickup and cutaway. Nice action, fun to play, sounds great. Paid $325 on Ebay, new.
Good luck.
Blues

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 09:51 AM

Regal are cheap and sound OK. Comparing the cheap metal-bodies at Elderly a couple of years back, the Regal sounded better than the Dean or the Johnson (both around the same price range).

I found a site the other day with reviews of all different models of resonator guitars. I'll dig it out if I get time.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Tweed
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:20 PM

I own a Regal metal body reso and am completely satisfied with it. It's set up to either slide or bend and stretch those strings, holds tune well, good workmanship and a fine neck.
I've had it apart and stuck a McIntyre pickup to the cone with good results, but prefer the natural sound of it to the electrified.
I bought the thing new on e-bay for under 400 bucks U.S. shipping included and would recommend Regal to anyone who's not ready to fork over $1,400.00 for a National. A good sound and a good friend as well.

Keep checking e-bay. Sometimes there are good buys there.

Yerz,
Tweed
http://tweedsblues.net/

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 11:06 PM

Hi i just wrote a ton and hit something and lost it all.. Anyway. Old guitars like Kay , Kallamazoo Slingerland   Epaphone and even Harmony are not so expensive and can have a wonderful sound for slide work. You have to just try some instroments and see what touchs you. Remember that next year you will be hitting the srings differently then you are now. I would recamend getting a brass dunlap slide ( My Faverite) or for a heavier slide try a craftsmen extended socket ( 5/16ths is my size I think)
      On the other hand , I just got my son Sam a wooden bodyed National Resonaphonic and it is amazing. At $1500.00 it will give years of great music and if its not the right guitar for you it is saleable for near what you bought it for ( more if you keep it a few years!) Good guitars are a wonderful investment. They are great to play and mostly just get better. ( Unless you leave them in the hot Attic. Or use them as a weapon in a bar fight. )
    You reallly just have to try some and see what catchs you.
      On finding them : I got a Kay Proffesional (1930's ) at a pawn shop . A Kallamazoo large hole from a vintage collector,. A harmony at a tag sale. Two were under $100.00
          All the best , Guy

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Tweed
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 07:39 PM

Guy:
For crying out loud! 5/16? You sure that's not a 9/16ths? Hellfire, I'm surprised yore finger doesn't snap off! ;~)

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 05:52 AM

Guy and Tweed, I'm curious, are you talking about socket wrenchs (or socket spanners as we call them in the UK)? and do the measurements you give refer to the size of nut, or wall thickness, or length or what ?

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,Slickerbill
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 10:10 AM

He's referring to nut size....I hope.

I've tried the epiphones as well as the others mentioned above. I liked the epiphones; thought they played and sounded great for the price. Their looks take a bit of getting used to; kind of got that home-made plywood top finish to them. I gotta say though, that the National is definately a step up from the rest in terms of sound. But if you're just starting up, my suggestion would be to do what Guy suggests; get an old junker cheap, and tune it to an open tuning and just pick it up when the mood hits you and learn a few tunes. Mess with chord voicings too, not just the slide. Give it a while before you shell out the cash for a new guitar.

Speaking of slides, has anyone tried making em out of old bottles? I've found Citra wine bottles to be quite good, but have trouble getting a clean break. sb

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 12:58 PM

I used actual bottle necks for years. You could find me rummaging around through garbage cans full of discarded bottles behind various restaurants or bars seeking "Excaliber", the one true slide. I imagine to the untrained eye, the sight of me in an alley digging through cans full of empty wine and liquor bottles probably made me look desperate for what was in the bottles rather than the bottle itself. The passion of my quest blinded me to their stares, pointing fingers, gasps and wagging heads. I guess I should be glad nobody called the authorities to reprimand me for trespass or worse. I was dedicated in my search till eventually I'd find something that would fit right and worked fairly well after breaking it and grinding off the sharp parts on the pavement. Ultimately though, after all my hard work, what would usually happen is that it would fall out of my pocket while bending over to adjust something or pick something up, fall to the floor or ground and break. Then the process would start all over again. I became inspired/influenced by a friend who also played bottleneck to try a deep throat spark plug socket 15/16 inch. They worked fine until the chrome plating would wear off and I'd have to seek out another to replace it with from a rummage sale or swapmeet. One day, after having sufficiently worn the chrome right off my last slide again, I was at a swapmeet looking for yet another replacement. Having no success locating my usual 15/16 I happened upon a slightly larger 22mm deepthroat and decided to give it a try. Well, changing to the metric system did throw my slide playing off for a while until I got used to it. Some time later I was surprised to see, after arriving at a gig, that I had forgotten my trusted 22mm. The spare that I had in my bag was an odd item that I had picked up at a rummage sale for fifty cents, a frictionless marine propellershaft bearing or cutless bearing as they're called. It was much larger than my 22mm but I managed to make it work that day. It's been years, and I've been using it ever since. I've grown used to the size and weight. People often comment, "That's an awful big slide!" and then chuckle. I usually respond by saying, "It's not the size of your slide. It's the slide of your size."

Oh, and to answer your question about where to get a good guitar, I just ended up making my own. After twenty years of searching for one myself, without success, the frustration grew beyond the breaking point and forced me to the cataclysmic decision to create that which I desired. Now before you jump to any assumptions about my abilities as an instrument builder, let me just say that I had only desire and frustration as my driving force and no actual ability, tools or talent. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. Well, if that's so, then I say, frustration must therefore be the father of invention. I asked questions of everyone and anyone I thought might be of help. Along the way I was influenced by the many conversations to explore alternative design ideas. My first attempt, being hels together with Erector set brackets, was primitive but functioned for about five years. My second stab was a giant step beyond my first and I'm still playing it after eight years. I'm right in the middle of my third. I building it for my older brother who has wanted me to make him one since seeing my second guitar about eight years ago. I really didn't want to have to think about making guitars for others but he is my big brother. My second guitar is made from a combination of stuff that I found at garage sales, table leg, door kickplate, vegetable steamer, record player parts, piano soundboard, and baseball bat. I know it sounds weird, but, what can I say, it sounds and plays great. I did manage to incorporate some ideas from early patent designs that I acquired via a friend.

Now you may, and rightly so, consider this to be the long way to go about getting what you wish but I've found the experience endlessly rewarding. Never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed that I would some day make my own guitar and out of stuff I found at garage sales no less. Frustration has a tendency to drive you crazy, fortunately, that energy can be channeled creatively to produce positive results. The story itself, of how I went about making my own guitar, has been a joy to tell from the stage during my performances and has even inspired others to go and do likewise.

Walkin' that thin line between insanity and whatever's on the other side.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 04:21 AM

It depends on what sort of slide/bottleneck sound you are trying to get. Kelly Joe Phelps uses a Gibson flat-top played lap style and he gets a fabulous clean sound, but this is in large part because he is a virtuoso player of incredible accuracy. Fred McDowell used a shitty old archtop held together with tape for his first recordings and bottleneck blues playing really dosn't really get any better than his stuff. He used bottlenecks he made himself from real glass bottles. Old blues guys like Blind Willie Johnson tended to use inexpensive guitars - they hadn't the money for good ones and you didn't want a quality instrument for busking in the street - and got a great sound. The Tampa Reds and the Memphis Minnies of the world bought the most expensive guitars of their time, National Resonators, because they were rich show-bizzy performers and were concerned with image as well as sound quality and volume. Significantly they moved on to electrics when they came on the market. My feeling is that in general contemporary acoustic guitars are ill-suited to bottleneck playing, their construction is too light for the heavy gauge strings you need for a good sound and high action. Many modern guitars are built for wimps who like a tinkly-tinkly finger picking sound - I don't want to mention names but, hey Leo Kottke. Your Blind Boy Fullers used resonator guitars, high action, heavy strings and metal thumb and finger picks. If you want that sound, thats what you have to have.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Songster Bob
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 04:15 PM

Two different issues are at work in this thread. The original poster seemed to be looking for a resonated guitar to use for slide, and other posters point out that any guitar can be used that way. True, but it didn't answer his basic (implied) question.

There are two kinds of resonator guitars, and two kinds of resonators, making for four possible combinations, each of which has its good and bad sides. There is the "biscuit" bridge and the "spider" bridge and the wooden body and the metal body (I've also seen and played a pretty decent plastic body Regal, but haven't seen any of them around since that first one). Biscuit bridges have upright cones (point on top) and are usually thought of as "National" style guitars. Spider bridges have the cone upside down and a metal gizmo (sorry to introduce technical terminiology) on top with a thin bolt running down to the cone. These are the classic Dobro guitars.

Metal body/biscuit bridge guitars are the "classic" slide guitars. These are what you heard Skip James playing.
Some folks get a pretty good sound from the wooden/biscuit models (the National company's less-expensive models).
The wooden/spider model is the bluegrass dobro, and the sound is subtly different from the biscuit models.
The metal/spider combination is a collector's item. Grab it and put it in a museum. Seriously, I haven't seen very many of these, though they have been known to be made and sold.

Ebay prices for these guitars range from $300-$600 for the newer makes (Epiphone, Regal, Johnson, Galveston, Vantage, Dean, Sterling [the name on mine], Liberty, Fender, and others) and for off-brand vintage instruments (I got a B&J Serenader that's a trip -- the "resonator" is about as resonant as an engine block). Everyone has his or her favorite. What I did, and it's a good strategy, is to get one of the Chinese-made metal/biscuit makes (mine's called a Sterling, but it's the same factory as the Johnson, and the Johnson models go for the lower end of that range up there). It was OK, but not great, so I invested in a replacement cone. The best-known of these is the Quarterman cone, but you can buy from National, too, or even from specialty companies like Molinator, an Aussie outfit, which is what I did. I got the cone and bridge for less than $30, shipped from Australia (and it arrived muy pronto, too). Great improvement! Sounds as good as the bottom-end "real" Nationals.

So my recommendation is a metal-bodied biscuit-bridge round-neck guitar (I knew there was another permutation -- square-neck guitars are for ONLY horizontal -- "Hawaiian" -- playing; avoid them if you're playing blues) with a replacement cone. Easy to get, easy to make the change (they're even more mechanical than a banjo -- you don't even have to worry about head tightness), and the results are pretty decent.

Good luck.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,Slickerbill
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 04:23 PM

Jeez, Reggie! that is amazing! Mind you, I think the bearing thingy would need a pretty strong pinky, no?

I had a Stella for awhile that was just a great little guitar for starting slide. Had the stencilled "star" fret markers, etc. sounded terrific, like some of those old records of Robert Johnson, etc. I've been on the lookout ever since that one went away..

That is a good point about necks and strings, but I found that for learning you don't always wanna be that loud, and the lighter "wimp ass" set up works okay for learning in the kitchen.   sb

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 11:03 PM

Slikerbill, people say I got the hardest workin' pinky in the folk/blues bidness. They also say I got more talent in that little pinky finger than I've got in the whole rest of my body. I'm not sure how to take that last comment. *BG* ;~)

My guitar is actually a cross between a National and a Dobro so I call it a Nobro. I've hybridized the bridges of both by combining a piece of a vegetable steamer made of cast aluminum (like the spider on a Dobro) and a slice of an old baseball bat (like the biscuit on a National) so that mine includes both ideas and I use a Quarterman type resonator cone. I get a unique sound that no one else has or maybe even wants! It doesn't quite sound like a Dobro or a National. It also has brass back and sides and a spruce top. I used 100 year old German piano soundboard for the top. So my guitar's body has both of those aspects, metal and wood. I've only seen this done in one other guitar, an old steel bodied National with a wood top that I spied for sale at local shop a few years back, ($5000.00). Further proof that I hold no convention as sacred, is that I've used a neck from an old Harmony brand square-neck guitar or lap type guitar for my Nobro and I play bottleneck fashion with the action down low, as if it was a round neck.

I've tried using heavy gauge strings but let me tell ya when they get stretched out and die they really sound thuddy. I like light gauge because I now use a tuning that couldn't function with heavy gauge strings. I tend to do a lot of fingerpickin' but I've never been accused of sounding like Leo yet. I also have a pickup on my Nobro that helps me crank when the need arises.

Okay, let's see, is there anything else that weird about how or what I play? I'll get back to ya about that.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 12:34 PM

If you were in the UK I would recommend a Vintage (thats the brand name)model AMG1, an inexpensive metal bodied resonator guitar. Excellent for a first time resonator and excellent for Delta style bottleneck. I belive that metal-bodied is best for Delta style, also best results with metal finger & thumb picks. They work well with light gauge strings but you need to beef up the top E string by discarding the 0.012" and fit a 14, 15 or 16 as the "bite" is a bit lacking. The middle and lower strings sound just fine. Actually the heavier the gauge that you can comfortably handle the better it will sound.
Have a look at them at The London Resonator Centre (www.resocentre.com)I dunno if they are sold Stateside but they are well worth seeking out.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,Marco
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 05:47 AM

Thanks to everyone for the help!
Thanks to Bob Clayton for the clear explanation and for the suggestion.
I could buy a metal body Johnson guitar with a new cone but some people said me that the Johnson has a good metal body but an horrible neck and keyboard!
Is it right?

No one checked the metal body "Epiphone MD 100"?
Do you think is better than a metal body "Johnson" or "Regal"?

Someone suggested me also an "Amistar"...

Thanks for help, folks!

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Tweed
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 07:04 AM

Get the Regal, Marco. I've heard the same stories about the Johnson resos. I can say that, although it's not a "National", the workmanship on the body, neck and frets are very good. Once you get the intonation set by turning the biscuit/cone assembly a bit, it stays in tune better than my old Gibson ever did.
I've heard that Amistar also makes quality resonators but have not been near enough one to try out. I think they are made in Czech Republic aren't they?
You might try posting over at the Tweedboard also, as there are a couple reso people that check in once in a while.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: bigchuck
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 08:35 AM

Of the cheaper metal bodied resos we've had go through the store, the Regal RD-1's have had the best sound by far. Saga (the distributor) does no quality control at all as far as I can tell, so they often need tweaking, but if you can find a good one, it'll do the job very well.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 09:06 AM

reggie, you are too modest -- you are well over the line into insanity -- it is a pleasure to read someone with such well-focussed goals.

Can any of you experts tell me what is a good electric guitar to play slide on, or does it matter? (I am not interested in buying one, just interested in the subject). yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Songster Bob
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 02:16 PM

Slide electrics can be any electrics, though clunky 1960s Japanese Strat-oids often have those snarly, edgy pickups (the sound, not the metal housing) that fit so well with blues playing. But Bonnie Raitt (sp?) uses a real Strat to good effect, and there are those who love the Les Paul for slide, too. About the only slide electrics I've not seen are Rickenbacker 12-strings, and it's probably only because they're rare that I haven't seen 'em.

For that matter, I don't get out to see much electric slide playing anyway, so perhaps everyone is using ES-335s and I wouldn't know. But I'd recommend getting a Teisco or Aria or Kent or another one of those makes from the 60s or 70s and going to town with your slide. And good luck.


Bob

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,elmiras
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 01:44 AM

tried a national regal metal body not brass there alot of diffrense bang for the buck is johnson i have tri cone and wood body both have it just on how you set them up cones do make a diffrence.i play bottle neck so i set mine up to play like aregular acustic so to cord maybe a hair higher but your ear should make the call
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 10:18 AM

"Can any of you experts tell me what is a good electric guitar to play slide on, or does it matter?"


Yes..


ANY electric guitar that has too worn or uneven frets
that you cant afford or be bothered to have refretted..

and/or a bad factory set up uncomfortably over-high action..
[cant be bothered filing down or replacing the nut..?]

so easy solution.. raise the action as high as you can..
and you get instant electric slide guitar..


at the moment my lousy action worn out fret electric slide guitars
are an early 80's yamaha sg200

and an early 90's squier silver series strat
[very nice guitars.. maybe i should get them refretted..???]

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 10:32 AM

though if you want to buy something specifically for the job..

a perennial favourite for slide blues players are Danelectro 6 strings with the magic blues power of lipstick pickups..
[full range of sounds from clear chiming to gnarly snarly..]
http://www.provide.net/~cfh/dano.html

an origional 50's or 60's U2
or double cut-away [the Jimmy Page favourite..]
if you can find one in good shape you can afford

or a much more affordable and better made recent Korean reissue..
now out of production, so prices fell dramatically
but are now starting to rise again as collectors move in on
the mint condition ones for sale on ebay..

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Peace
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 10:33 AM

Subject: RE: Tech: Problems with Mudcat?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker - PM
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 10:31 AM

though if you want to buy something specifically for the job..

a perennial favourite for slide blues players are Danelectro 6 strings with the magic blues power of lipstick pickups..
[full range of sounds from clear chiming to gnarly snarly..]
http://www.provide.net/~cfh/dano.html

an origional 50's or 60's U2
or double cut-away [the Jimmy Page favourite..]
if you can find one in good shape you can afford

or a much more affordable and better made recent Korean reissue..
now out of production, so prices fell dramatically
but are now starting to rise again as collectors move in on
the mint condition ones for sale on ebay..

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Peace
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 10:35 AM

Sorry PFR,

I saw this posted on the Tech thread and cut and pasted it to here. Now I see you already did.

"And soon the situation there was all but straightened out for he was always known to lend a helping hand" thank you Mr Dylan.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 04:55 PM

I've seen good slide played on most guitars....and it must be said with most gauges of string. However to give yourself a sporting chance. You want the heaviest Martins. Bronze. A brass john dunlop slide. They will engage to gether nicely. get it set up by someone who knows about guitars - like someone who makes them. he will know about any adjustments.

look for a good tutor , or if you can't find one. Ask for Michael messerd cd on the subject, and scott ainslie's video on Robert Johson.

If you are in the UK go to one of Kevin Browns One Day Slide Schools in Bath. they are held twice yearly.. ask questions of anybody who sounds alright, try and analyse their sound. look at their gear and work why they sound like they do.

Have fun!

all the best

Big Al

Sit down and work on your touch. its all about

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 05:11 PM

Electric guitar choice: Duane Allman played a Gibson SG. Workingman's electric. Highly resonant solid body, and very important for the type of super-high-notes he liked to indulge in (hence his nickname "Skydog"), excellent access to the very higthest frets.

I like my Martin O-18 a lot as a slide guitar. Nice clean sound with the small body, and the fingerboard is somewhat wider than your average folk guitar, the extra string separation makes it easier to play clean. Also, unlike your average dreadnought it's a pretty flat-profiled fingerboard--makes a big difference.

W-O

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 08:47 AM

After 18 years with a Stratocaster, I walked out one midsummer morning and bought a wooden-bodied Dean resonator (Korean-built, and mentioned very early in this thread.) I've never owned anything similar to compare it with, but to me it seems excellent: well-made for the (budget) price, makes a nice noise, and has me practising far more than I have for years.

I'm enjoying exploring unfamiliar tunings, and if things keep going this well, may even saunter back into the public arena. Oh, and I don't miss the Strat at all.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,russmead
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 12:03 PM

I am just learning to play slide, and can offer a newbie perspective on guitar selection. I am taking lessons from a teacher who plays slide on both an acoustic Taylor and a wooden National resonator. He makes both sound great, but different of course. I started with a plywood topped Fender acoustic that I paid 100 bucks for at a thrift shop. It actually works pretty well. The Ovation electric acoustic I have would not work at all; the action was excessively low. Then I came across a baby Taylor. That action was not acceptable either, very low, but I liked the smaller body size and general low down simple looks of the guitar. With all these, I was hitting the frets when I mashed down, though less so on the plywood top Fender. Again, my technique is like a 15 year olds driving skill, scary bad. Then I discovered what has been the light bulb going off in my head revelation about playing acoustic slide. Take what you got and work on the action. After raising the action, the baby Taylor with a 4 inch body and a thin neck is a dream for me to play on. Instead of making time to practice, I just pick the thing up at every chance. I do not think there is any magic in the Taylor; just I finely got the action right. So the new kids advice is find something that is either cheep, or calls out to you, then spend some time learning to either shim an existing saddle, or file down a blank. Use an open tuning and a heavy slide and play until your fingers hurt.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: GUEST,999
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 06:03 PM

Buddy of mine named Ron Bankley did some slide on a CD cut. I'd not seen him play it, but the sound/technique was vintage Bankley. Anyway, I asked where he'd got the instrument, he said, "Found it in a music shop. The guy wanted to get rid of it." A few other people months later asked how he'd got that great sound. Bankley replied, "Well, first you gotta get a ten dollar guitar!"

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 06:08 PM

Yeah, 10 buck geetars all have high action... lol...

Don't forget... Heavy slide!!!

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 03:47 AM

Heavy slide, high(ish) action - couldn't agree more.

Some basic lessons here (with apologies for the cheap camera, bad lighting, bad wallpaper and dog!):

Part 1

Part 2

Incidentally the guitar is a Republic Miniolian which has a good sound, is very portable, has a flat fretboard (handy for slide) and wasn't stupid-expensive.

Cheers,

Pete.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 07:42 PM

Refresh...

Wonder if Marco ever found his dream slide geetar???

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 08:06 PM

Republic makes a pretty darn good guitar for a reasonable price.


Republic guitar sound sample

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Green Man
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 06:26 AM

I am left handed so my choices were a conversion or a built left handed. I did a bit of research and having owned a metal bodied Ozark went for another Ozark. Half height body with a cutaway and a lipstick pickup. I was a bit concerned about the matt black finish but that all goes away when you play it. Its a bisciut type and its loud with a nice mellow tone. It was playable out of the box. Now here's the kicker. It came in a fitted archtop hard case which would probably cost about £100 to buy separately. Now these instruments are not expensive, it toaled about £250 with shipping and it plays well either way. The lipstick pickup sounds very authentic with a small amp like a cube. I haven't played it through anything more powerful. Great session instrument and readily available.

I am told that you can improve them by replacing the cone but at my level of playing I have no complaints at all.

Subject: RE: Help me to find a slide-blues guitar.
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 12:51 PM

I notice that UK catalogue shop Argos which has offered cheap guitars (Ovation, Applause and Squier) for years, has for the first time (that I've noticed) included a wooden bodied resonator by Martin Smith (presumably another Asian-made import). Whether this is any good for a learner I have no idea. As you can't play before you buy, their guitars must be a gamble...but many US players in days of yore managed with instruments from Sears Roebuck!

RtS