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| Sound: | |
| Value: | |
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Pros:
- Powerful Sound
- Beautiful Looks
- Great tuning Stability
Cons:
- Unimpressive Tone
For those of us looking for an instrument as the other paul beard model, but not willing to spend as much money, there was made another, similar instrument, at a cheaper price. The resonator guitar has many of the similar qualities that the more expensive model does, but it did go through a couple of changes. Let us take a closer look to see what these changes were and see how they affected the guitar.
Body Quality
First, comes the body. The entirety of the body is less bulky than the other model, giving the guitar a slicker, slimmer look as well as being much more comfortable to play, hold and carry. The body is made of maple, a tonewood more likely to allow the pureness of the metallic cone to come across through the guitar. Maple has a tendency to be a “transparent” wood in terms of tone. The sound is not altered by the maple in any way, allowing the twangy and unique sound amplified by the cone to come across as purely as possible. Definitely an interesting choice, but a welcome one, since the metallic tone is what the resophonic guitar players are looking for.
The soundhole of the guitar is covered by the USa made spider, very similar to the one worn by this guitar’s more expensive cousin. It allows the sound to escape fully and unabashedly from the instrument, a very good choice to bring this quality over indeed. The cone of the guitar is hand-spun aluminum, precise and beautiful both in tone and amplification.
The square neck of the guitar is made specifically to make lap playing easy. The neck itself is made of maple. The material is very sturdy and, as mentioned before, has no subjective effect on the tone or sound of the guitar -this means a very lightweight, strong guitar with a virgin resophonic sound. The guitar is topped with an ebony rosewood, one that contrasts the rest of the guitar very beautifully in color and one that is very smooth and easy to play.
Hardware
The metal netting of the guitar is topped with a very good bridge, one that transfers every vibration of the strings onto the guitar beautifully. Always an obvious and great choice for resonator guitars.
The nut of the guitar is made of natural bone. Raised high over the neck of the guitar, this nut allows the guitar slide to perfectly work on the guitar. The bone adds just a little bit of warmth and fullness to the tone of the guitar, while also allowing full harmony to be unabashedly beautiful on the guitar. Finger playing is also a great option thanks to the flexibility of the bone nut.
The tuners of the guitar are excellent, as expected. Keeping their tuning no problem for long periods of time, they are very well made and very sturdy, resistant of corrosion for a long time after you buy them.
Gold Tone Paul Beard Sound
The guitar has a powerful projection and a distinctly metallic tone, despite the wooden body. While I do not have a problem with this, and actually find it quite great in most resonator guitars made of metal, I also expect my guitar to have a more unique character when it is made of wood. This means I expect the sound to have a certain twang, beyond that of the metal, one that the maple on this guitar is not able to provide. While the bone nut adds the little bit of fullness of tone to the guitar I find so pleasant, the sound could do a little better for the price.
Conclusion
This is a great guitar, but it is also a guitar designed for players with a very specific desire: to possess a guitar that has a metallic sound without the metallic look. Some people might find it good, others might not. Overall, the guitar is an amazing instrument, but my subjectivity leads me to believe it could be a little better. Still, highly recommended to anyone, looking for a professional resonator guitar.
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