Resonator guitar shopping -- need advice, 6 strings or 8

Tommy Boswell · From: Virginia, USA

I'm looking to buy my first ever square neck resonator guitar I can take to acoustic jams. I'm not looking to learn yet another tuning...E9 and C6 on my D10 PSG are enough for my old brain right now. So I want a G6 tuning on a resonator, hoping that whatever I learn at the acoustic jams will make me a better C6 player on my D10. Is that a reasonable goal?

It looks like 8 string resonator guitars are hard to come by. Should I hold out for one of those? Or go for a 6 string with modified tuning?

And, what modified tuning would you recommend for a 6 string guitar?

Looking for advice on the 6 versus 8 string decision.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

The two default tunings are open G (bass to treble G B D G B D) and open D (bass to treble D A D F# A D).

If you're looking to play eight string acoustic guitar, they're out there, but not as popular. In my experience they are not as loud as a six stringer.

If you want to play C6th tuning on an acoustic, just use the appropriate string gauges. We have plenty of previous discussions about this. I've recommended in the past tuning to A6 (bass to treble A C E G A C, or A C E G A C E G for eight string).

Good luck! I think acoustic lap steel works well with many genres.
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Douglas Schuch · From: Valencia, Philippines

Here's my two cents worth - don't discount the two basic tunings that Brad mentions. They are not very complicated to learn. A few years ago I decided to learn some reso in my retirement, and thinking like you I bought a 7-string and tuned it to a basic G6 tuning (GBDEGBD) - so the 6th note was in the middle. I figured I could work around that one string when playing stuff with the standard tuning, which the remaining strings have. But I found it was not as easy as I thought. So I eventually ordered a 6 string reso and was lucky to get one of Tom Warner's last builds.

There are things I like about the 7-string - like having easily accessible minor chords, 6th chords, minor 7th chords, and also the option for blues to tune the middle string from the 6th tone up to a flatted 7th and thus get a dom. 7th. But I find I play the 6-string far more than the 7-string reso. Remember, there's a lot of country and blues that was played on the standard 6-string open tunings.

I particularly found I did not miss the 8th string much at all. the typical 6th tuning I've seen for reso, that 8th string is another 6th tone lower than the other strings. But most of the time you end up not going below that root note of a 7-stringer. When I've looked at tab for 8-string dobro (mostly on the Dobro Joe website) I see that most songs don't use that 8th string (lowest note), and the ones that do, it's pretty easy to work around it.

My advice would be that, unless you particularly want to learn the 8-string songs of say Mike Auldridge and have limited interest in the more standard 6-string tunes, I'd go with a 6 string reso to start. Listen to the album "6-String Swing" by Billy Cardine if you think you NEED an 8-string to play jazz/swing! And remember, you are not limited to the 2 standard tunings. Changing tunings around on a reso is a bit more difficult than on a standard guitar, and may require different strings, but that is an option.
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Tommy Boswell · From: Virginia, USA

Thank you Brad and Doug. I'll probably keep things simple to start, since most of the acoustic jams around here are bluegrass and traditional. But your responses are helpful and appreciated.

Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

If your heading out to bluegrass and traditional jams you’ll want a 6 string GBDGBD square neck, for sure.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 12 Dec 2022 7:15 am

Personally I always liked the sound of a seven string over an 8 string. Check out Gary Morse and his Resophonic Rodeo on a 7 string beard.

Tommy Boswell · From: Virginia, USA

Thanks for the tip Bill. I enjoyed listening to Gary's album.

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