Its been a rough summer for my family, we have been handed a number of tragic personal losses. This day may not be the same, but was still really rough, I had to take one of our sweet dogs down help him over the rainbow bridge. He has been a wonderful dog over the last 12 years and has protected my wife and daughter a number of times from strangers and wild animals. I was grateful to him, he was suffering these last couple of weeks and it was the right thing to do.
Afterward I was grieving and just driving around out town in the desert and strangly on a somewhat deserted corner there was an old man selling stuff. It happens out here in the SW desert. Low and behold I see a banjo case and a old guitar case. Well I admit this peaked my interest. So of course I stopped.
Banjo which I dont play was broken, so pass. And when I asked about the guitar he said.
“Well its metal and heavy, no one seems interested, I am asking $160.”
I had never heard of a metal guitar. So I asked to take a look. He said sure. I opened it up and sat right in the dusty dirt and gave it a spin. Yes I got dirty and dusty.
It turned out to be a resonator and we had been talking for a while. We had both lost members of our family this summer, he was lover of dogs and then when I told him that I had just left from having my dog put to sleep at the vet, he felt bad because he gave it to me for the only cash I had on hand which was $100 USD. I did feel a little guilty and I told him I would come back with the rest but he explained that there was no ATM near. He a retired man who buys and sells stuff from estates sales for extra money, but mainly to meet and talk to people and to stay busy. I really felt blessed because it is a very nice looking instrument.
Its dirty and needs new strings. And I dont know anything about resonators. I read about then. I know this is a single cone. And is set up for slide guitar, they can be lowered for regular pick work too I read. I will clean it up and make sure its good to go, restring and get ready for some delta blues. Hopefully I will be good enough that I can get some use out of this in justines blues immersion class next january.
TLDR
Got a cool resonator guitar for an incredible deal because nice retired guy felt bad for me because I put my sweet pet to sleep that morning.
I empathize with your loss. We lost our 14-year-old terrier this spring. We’ve lost so many wonderful dogs in our 52 years of marriage, added to ones my family lost as I was growing up. We couldn’t stand a dogless house, so we adopted an orphan from the local shelter.
As to the resonator, I’d have snapped that up at that price, and the link Rob provided seems to indicate it was a steal. If it was me, i’d take it to my local luthier (I’m fortunate to have a guy here in town who builds guitars and mandolins from scratch and teaches courses in guitar repair) and have it restored. Lucky you!
This is a nice-looking guitar. I hope it will be easy to clean and return to its former glory.
As for metal guitars, one example I can think of is Mark Farner who played a Musicraft Messenger in Grand Funk Railroad. That guitar had a magnesium-aluminum alloy neck. You can read more about it here.
Thanks for all the kind words about our furry family member. @markr31 and Rob. They certainly are a gift.
Nice link @RobDickinson Wow I didnt realize those were so $$, this does not have the electric component unfortunatly, but this case fits the guitar perfect so I am sure would contribute to the value as well. This Is now the most expensive guitar I own by far. I was reading how that can be set up with pizzios easily so if I wanted to do that I can.
Such an interesting history about these resonators.
I wonder since my acustic daily guitar is really just a damaged midgrade guitar at best, perhaps I should think about selling this and buying a actual good acoustic. I dont know, this sure is a beautiful looking guitar. My “get real” voice is telling me that when you get lucky like this, its not something to squander for a better deal.
@Jozsef GFR is way cool, they were way ahead of their time, that guitar he used was wild. So funky
Edit: The keys for the case were in the case cubby as well. Bonus!
If you want to add a pickup I suggest something like this one
I think it looks like those are ~$500ish on reverb (very quick search) but they are not super common and old ones can command a premium, or not… depending.
They are certainly a respected brand I think.
Case looks great and probably worth something also.
Resonators are personal taste, whats the neck profile, C/D, V or square?
I believe from what I read and taking a photo and then serching it. This would be consided a round neck. Not 100% sure. I just went and got some some earthwoods mediums, I read that the round necks with the single cones do ok with 12 -54 mediums, and dont suffer from cone crush with them. They were recommended as a good safe starting point.
Is it correct that with slide guitars the strings do not matter as much? I understand with regular guitars string are very important. I feel like I read that somewhere a while back only because they go through so much abuse.
I share your pain… losing a loved dog is heartbreaking. So Sorry.
In reference to your new (old) guitar… congrats! How exciting to find a treasure like that! Resonators are cool… I have a new one but to find an old one & how it happened is fantastic! I’ll bet you’ve heard Brothers in Arms by Mark Knopfler… he used his 1937 National Style “O” on that tune. It’s also the guitar on the cover of the album & is seen on a couple of Dire Straits’ albums. I heard him say in an interview that it’s one of his most prized possessions!
Good luck with getting it restored & playing it! Have fun with your new “buddy”!!!
@CATMAN62
Thanks for the kind words, I have not heard that song but I will certainly listen now. I know a few of Dire Straits from when I was young they have a cool guitar sound for sure. Sultans of swing right?
This guitar is not that old at the 1993 or older the headstock tells that tale.
Now I am begining to wonder about that banjo. I wonder if it was something special, even if it was a broken something special.
@RobDickinson dang I didnt realize it was so difficult for imports.
I took this bad mabojamba apart and cleaned it up. It was extremely dirty. Like sitting in a dirty exposed to hot desert dust element for a number of years in a shed type dirty. I did clean it up real good. Conditioned the wood a few times. After I cheaked out all the hardware, it seem ok, I put it all back togeather.
I put on new strings, I ended up putting on the Ernieball BronzeAlloy Earthwood Custom mediums 12.5 56, they were on sale. I think it looks good. I will also need a strap for this heavy sweet dog. I need to clean the case. It’s still filthy.
Beautiful resonator.
