Best resonator for £500?

[Skodster]

Thinking of buying a wood bodied resonator. What do I do with a £500 budget?

[danomess]

Seem to remember someone on this here forum was raving about the Gretsch Boxcar.
Sure sounds nice in these vids;
http://youtu.be/B3Cq69yhIjs
http://youtu.be/MoJnPgsYq9c

[Skodster]

Seem to remember someone on this here forum was raving about the Gretsch Boxcar.
Sure sounds nice in these vids;
http://youtu.be/B3Cq69yhIjs
http://youtu.be/MoJnPgsYq9c

Yes, I played a boxcar today. It's a small guitar with a very big warm voice. I did try an Ozark but the build quality was crap. The Gretsch Bobtail sounds good as does the Hofner.

[bertie]

Michael Messer / Busker

ask Lewy

[jalapeno]

Michael Messer / Busker

ask Lewy

Bert's right. <spit>

[KillingFloor]

I was in a similar situation a couple of weeks ago. I saw a lot of recommendations for Regal resonators. I went for the RD-40 from Andertons last week and I think it is superb. My only criticism is it could have come with slightly heavier strings.

[bandmaster188]

I tried the gretsch resonators recently and was quite impressed with it soundwise. The only problem I found with it and this may have been isolated to this particular guitar, was when I tuned it to open e, it developed some buzz and rattle from the cone. But it did have a nice warm and very delta bluesy tone going on and for £285 I don't think you could go far wrong.
I unfortunately succumbed to the fantastic tone of a national m1 tricone which blew the budget big time. But your only 40 once aye! That's what I told the misses anyway.
The gretches are definitely worth a look at and seem pretty good value for money.

[danomess]

[QUOTE=bandmaster188;1345188]I tried the gretsch resonators recently and was quite impressed with it soundwise. The only problem I found with it and this may have been isolated to this particular guitar, was when I tuned it to open e, it developed some buzz and rattle from the cone.

Yeah, a friend of mine had a cheapish wooden resonator years ago (forget the make) , which had the same problem. Think he ended up having to use rubber or foam to quell it. IIRC he had a get shot of it because it developed some irrepairable problem. Might have been cheap metal or design fault

[longjaw]

I thought resonators all had metal bodies, are wooden bodied guitars with the metal plate on not dobros?

[danomess]

I thought resonators all had metal bodies, are wooden bodied guitars with the metal plate on not dobros?

I think resonator refers to this style of guitar-metal cone resonated by string vibration. Dobro, National,Regal etc are all companies that made variations of the design. calling a resonator guitar a Dobro is a bit like calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover regardless of it's make.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonator_guitar