ratherdashing
Kablamminator
http://www.goldtone.com/products/details/w/instrument/105/PB-GRE-PB-GRE-Resophonic-Guitar
I saw it at the local shop (Rufus Guitars on Alma & 10th for the GVRD residents) while buying strings and gave it a shot. It is exactly the instrument I want right now. Here is the bullet point summary:
Paul Beard Gold Tone PB-GRE metal body resonator
- slim steel body (about 4" thick)
- Made in Korea
- USA-made Paul Beard cone (Beard Guitars also does the final setup)
- round mahogany neck joins body at 12th fret
- piezo transducer in the bridge and a lipstick pickup in the neck
Here's the cool thing: it has a lipstick and a piezo, but there are no knobs or switches, just a stereo jack. The "tip" of the jack is the piezo, and the "ring" is the lipstick. If you have a stereo splitter cable, you can send the piezo to an acoustic amp and the lipstick to an electric amp.
Other resos with two pups, like the Eastwood Delta 66, use a blend control to mix the piezo and the magnetic pup down to a mono jack. This is cool, but it's not nearly as versatile as the GRE. With the GRE, I can use an A/B/Y footswitch to go from piezo to lipstick. Even better than that, I can plug the lipstick into my electric amp rig and the piezo into the board (or an acoustic amp depending on the situation) and run them in stereo. That's pretty much what I did in the store when trying it out, and the sound was AMAZING. I would love to try it with the lipstick through a high gain amp for some Ben Harper-like stuff.
All that aside, the acoustic tone of this thing was as good as any reso I've tried (including Dobros that cost twice as much), and certainly better than Fender and Epiphone stuff. It was set up in open D tuning and I tested it both in open D as a slide guitar and in standard tuning as a fingerpicked acoustic. It did a great job of both. The tone is large and snappy without the shrillness or excess clankyness that I hear in a lot of lower-priced resos (I attribute this to the Beard cone). The thin body provides a lot of volume for its size, but definitely isn't as loud as a good full-bodied steel reso. Factory setup was very good but not ideal, and the build quality is excellent.
The shop had it at $1,000. I think that's very reasonable considering the quality, and the fact that it can be played three ways: acoustic, amplified acoustic, or electric. If I were to buy it, I would get them to throw in a hard case and a couple other extras.
I am not in a position to buy anytime this year, but when I am, this is what I will get.
I saw it at the local shop (Rufus Guitars on Alma & 10th for the GVRD residents) while buying strings and gave it a shot. It is exactly the instrument I want right now. Here is the bullet point summary:
Paul Beard Gold Tone PB-GRE metal body resonator
- slim steel body (about 4" thick)
- Made in Korea
- USA-made Paul Beard cone (Beard Guitars also does the final setup)
- round mahogany neck joins body at 12th fret
- piezo transducer in the bridge and a lipstick pickup in the neck
Here's the cool thing: it has a lipstick and a piezo, but there are no knobs or switches, just a stereo jack. The "tip" of the jack is the piezo, and the "ring" is the lipstick. If you have a stereo splitter cable, you can send the piezo to an acoustic amp and the lipstick to an electric amp.
Other resos with two pups, like the Eastwood Delta 66, use a blend control to mix the piezo and the magnetic pup down to a mono jack. This is cool, but it's not nearly as versatile as the GRE. With the GRE, I can use an A/B/Y footswitch to go from piezo to lipstick. Even better than that, I can plug the lipstick into my electric amp rig and the piezo into the board (or an acoustic amp depending on the situation) and run them in stereo. That's pretty much what I did in the store when trying it out, and the sound was AMAZING. I would love to try it with the lipstick through a high gain amp for some Ben Harper-like stuff.
All that aside, the acoustic tone of this thing was as good as any reso I've tried (including Dobros that cost twice as much), and certainly better than Fender and Epiphone stuff. It was set up in open D tuning and I tested it both in open D as a slide guitar and in standard tuning as a fingerpicked acoustic. It did a great job of both. The tone is large and snappy without the shrillness or excess clankyness that I hear in a lot of lower-priced resos (I attribute this to the Beard cone). The thin body provides a lot of volume for its size, but definitely isn't as loud as a good full-bodied steel reso. Factory setup was very good but not ideal, and the build quality is excellent.
The shop had it at $1,000. I think that's very reasonable considering the quality, and the fact that it can be played three ways: acoustic, amplified acoustic, or electric. If I were to buy it, I would get them to throw in a hard case and a couple other extras.
I am not in a position to buy anytime this year, but when I am, this is what I will get.
