weissenborn-style 'resonator' ?

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 14 Apr 2000 3:48 pm

can anyone tell me how the 'resonator'works that you sometimes see in the soundhole of old weissonborn-style/'radiotone'
hawaiian acoustics ?
I just saw one the other day on Ebay
(http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dl ... =301093484)and the resonator doesnt appear to make contact with the strings in any way. I looked in Loren Ruymars book but couldnt find anything on it.

Mike D · Post by **Mike D** » 15 Apr 2000 6:25 am

Wow a mickd and a Mike D. I saw that guitar earlier too but when I when back just now the image is gone. I'm not real sure it was a "resonator" perhaps just a label? There have been a variety of internal, wooden "resonators" like the Virzi device sometimes used in mandolins. These are simply a thin wooden disk mounted on a platform to the back. They really don't do much from what I've read. Maybe it was something like that.

That guitar was pretty much worthless, a 3/4 size student model made from ply.

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 15 Apr 2000 8:52 am

Mike
(I'll change my ID just as soon as I can think of something original!). I got an email from the seller and he said the 'thing' in the soundhole is definitely made of metal and its attached to the base of the guitar so its got to be some sort of resonator. If the resonator works then maybe it wouldnt matter too much that the wood was ply ? I agree it looks pretty cheap though.
Mick

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 15 Apr 2000 8:56 am

woops - I just rechecked my mail and he didnt actually say it was metal I just assumed it was. I never heard of a wooden resonator. I'll do a web search on Virzi.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 15 Apr 2000 5:39 pm

The Radiotone Hawaiian guitars I've seen are shaped sort of like a Weissenborn, but of greatly inferior construction and sound. They were intended to be student instruments; I doubt they succeeded even at that.
Most I've seen used hex screws for the tuners, so you'd need a hex key just to change strings. Some later models used standard guitar tuners.
They're not worth anything, in my opinion.

------------------
Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 16 Apr 2000 8:34 am

Brad
thanks for the info.
Now I know why they're so cheap on Ebay !
I'm really curious though just to see
how the resonator is built. Looking at another one on ebay, it definitely is
metal of some sort.
Mick

Mike D · Post by **Mike D** » 16 Apr 2000 11:05 am

Mick, I took at look at the one on eBay currently, again it's a short scale POS

As to the metal "resonator" keep in mind that these were built during the heydey of the National, companies did all they could to imitate the look or otherwise associate themselves with resonator guitars. Including guitars with coverplates that had no resonators underneath, and things like this guitar.

To work, a resonator must be driven by the strings, sympathetic vibration will not produce the sound you want. I earlier mentioned the Virzi device, from all accounts it did nothing either, and it was made of thin wood, the thing on this guitar looks for all the world like a bathtub fixture. Real resonators are made of aluminum and are usually about .010" thick, and they are string driven. Please trust me when I tell you that whatever it is in this thing is worthless as a sound producing device and the guitar itself is junk.

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 16 Apr 2000 2:34 pm

Mike
I trust you - especially having seen your 'weissonator' pictures !
This one http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=307102406
looks really rough but its getting some bids - maybe as a curio ?

mikey · Post by **mikey** » 16 Apr 2000 8:57 pm

Ahhh....But what about the sound box the Selmer-Maccaferri guitars, not exactly a resonator, but a "sound deflector" for the D shaped sound hole,...They WORK!!!
Mike

Mike D · Post by **Mike D** » 17 Apr 2000 6:19 am

I've had no experience with Selmers, read an article or two but that's it. From what I understand didn't they make them both ways (I know there were two different versions of the same basic guitar, the oval and the D hole) with and without the internal boxes? It would be interesting to hear each.

There have been some other attempts, Gibsons double sided jumbo, Loars Vi-Vi Tone archtops (I actually met a guy who owns one and they sound awesome played with a slide)

I just wanted to make clear that slapping a brass bathtub drain fiture in the soundhole of a guitar won't make it sound good