Topic: Trouble with a resonator

[obrigadotony]

Hello All,

I've been lucky enough to 'permanently' borrow a nice National single-cone resonator for the last year.  I'm finding that I'm having a hell of a time keeping the instrument quiet - the only tune I can play and feel good about is "meat shakin woman' mostly because it's easier to mute due to the mostly single note lines.

Has anyone else encountered these growing pains and overcome?  All I hear when I play this instrument is the open strings ringing and it drives me quite mad.  Any advice is appreciated.

[blueshome]

Well it is supposed to be loud!

Seriously, look at muting across the strings with the side of your palm, just above the hand rest. Once you have established this technique it can be used to add colour and dynamics to your sound by lifting off and varying the pressure used.

Also look at your string gauges, I found with my guitar that using lights turned the instrument into a beast that was difficult to control, as you describe, and it needed much more attention to muting than previously.

[harriet]

Hard to know - it may be the technique you usually use on flat top is not compatible without some adjustmennt - for the material you want to play with your current set up. I use right and left hand damping, always drag my first finger behind the slide but don't know a comparable technique for chords.

If you want to go up a gauge and test that, as Blueshome suggested,  I would recommend low tension strings from Newtone, which you can get through stringsdirect.co.uk, those can't be cut until they are brought to pitch.

I do remember ringing going on and when I first started playing

[alyoung]

I don't think I've ever met anyone who wanted to keep a National quiet. They're made loud to be loud and that's the nature of the beast. Yu want quiet, get a Taylor. But jokes (and cheap shots) aside ... when you're playing slide, trail the second or third finger of your slide hand on the strings behind the slide; this gives you a cleaner tone and stops extraneous string-rings and harmonic overtones. In standard tuning, make sure you pick only the notes you want (listen to Blind Fuller); if you use the folkie's flat-pick six-string strum, yep, it'll sound terrible. And, as Blueshome has mentioned, you can do selective damping with the side of your picking hand if you play just ahead of the handrest that covers the biscuit. Playing this way takes a wee bit of getting used-to, but it might be of assistance. Oh yes ... and, as others have said, a solid set of strings -- 056-013 or similar. 

[waxwing]

Hi Nick,

Since you describe playing a non-slide tune, it sounds like you are more concerned with fretted material. I primarily fret resonators also. And yes, it is important to use the full dynamic range of the instrument, not just full volume.

I find the right hand damping above the hand guard to be awkward and limiting. It's pretty much an on-off switch, and the subtlety obtainable damping at the bridge of a flat top is very difficult to attain. Plus it moves your picking point further up the string which creates more volume/overtone problems. I find strings naturally decay more quickly if I strike closer to the bridge. Also, trying to hold the edge of the palm in the ready to lower onto the strings constantly is just too restrictive of the right hand. My philosophy is that the right hand creates most of the emotional expressiveness in the sound, both dynamically and rhythmically, and needs to be loose and unrestricted, so I am unlikely to use techniques which are limiting to right hand movement.

I feel much more comfortable using the left hand as a controlling tool. It's the hand that makes the intellectual choices of what notes to play, and it makes sense to me to use it to control dynamic. (I'm not saying that expressiveness doesn't come in to left hand play. Bends and hammer-ons, among other techniques, give ample opportunity for nuance.) I don't get overly specific with left hand damping, but find a sense of sloppiness or looseness in using the fretting hand does the trick. When we are first learning guitar we are very careful about placing our fingers to not damp open strings, or strings fretted further up the neck, but when playing a reso (and I use these techniques on flat tops, too) I only concern myself with fretting the notes I need, and if my fingers are inadvertently damping strings I don't play, that's fine. By encouraging my left hand to have this sloppy attitude, even letting my fingers have a flatter aspect as opposed to nice high arches, I find opportunities to damp unwanted sounds present themselves readily when needed and the technique has become very natural and often automatic for me. As I have said before, sometimes it is important to let your ears communicate with your fingers without your brain getting in the way and trying to be controlling. Once you have developed a technique well it will generally work on its own with only occasional encouragement, or a little attention when an open string is desired to be clear.

It's also important to note that certain players played resonators and they created arrangements that are better suited to the instrument. Trying to play a Mississippi John Hurt song on a reso can be frustrating, but as you found out, a song like "Meat Shakin' Woman" was made for it.

I would also disagree with the notion that resos require heavier strings. When set up properly, cones are very sensitive, and don't need to be driven by extra mass. Since changing from mediums to lights on my '33 Duolian (with a plain .018" third, of course) I feel like it has become much more playable and expressive, and the decay is quicker. More mass in the string creates more sustain. This is sought after by slide players, as is the added tension which helps keep the slide off the frets, but for fretting, the quick decay of lighter strings is more useful.

One other thing. I think playing "clean" is over rated. As this dogma is ruining Classical music these days, I think it also holds back players from really "playing the blues". Sure, if your goal is to demonstrate your ability, either as a player or a transcriber, or whatever, I guess you want everything to be very clear to those you are trying to impress. But if you are singing the blues because you have a connection to the music that you want to express, and accompanying the singing with guitar, it is far more important to be emotively available to the voice and the instrument. Practice is practice, the place for developing technique through control. Performing is something different, eh? And what makes it meaningful is freedom and the relaxation to have intent be translated directly into sound. So I look for techniques which, once mastered, liberate my hands to that freedom and looseness.

[edit to add] Above I stated "I only concern myself with fretting the notes I need, and if my fingers are inadvertently damping strings I don't play, that's fine." This is not the whole story. I do, in most cases, fret whole chords, for two reasons. One, if struck inadvertently the note is still harmonically acceptable, and secondly, if a note is fretted it is very easy to damp by lifting slightly. But In addition, I do allow fingers to stray onto or over open strings in order to be able to damp effortlessly when needed. Hope that's a little clearer.

Wax

[Stuart]

There?s an old trick that Robert Gear told me about in the early 1970s that was used to soften the tone of some single cone resonators that were a little too harsh and that just might work. He would use a compass to trace the outside diameter and inside diameter of the lip of the sound well (the part the cone sits on) on the back of a piece of felt Contact Paper. Then he would cut out the ring, removed the backing from the adhesive side and attach it to the lip of the sound well. Then he would put everything back together. I know it?s not your guitar, but you could check with the owner and if it's okay, perhaps give it a try. If the result isn?t for you, you can remove it and you're back where you started.

[Mr.OMuck]

Try playing outside in a place with a normal amount of car or foot traffic and see if it still bothers you.

[Stuart]

Better yet--Over the din at a juke joint or house party.

[waxwing]

Actually those are all good reasons to have a strongly defined sound, i.e, not over run with sustain and overtones. Volume doesn't help a muddy sound cut through mud.

Wax

[Johnm]

Never change your strings.

[obrigadotony]

Really appreciate the feedback!  Lots of food for thought here.  To clarify, my frustration is reserved for when I'm not playing slide.  Playing slide makes it easy to mute with the index finger.