New resophonic player

Will Sevy · From: Caldwell, ID ,USA

My good friend just ordered a new Dean resonator guitar. It should be here in a couple of weeks. He wants me to help him get started with it. (he's never played any musical instriment)But I don't know much about it. I saw one guy hold it upright just like a guitar, and he would fret on the neck and also use the slide to slide around. But then I've also seen guys hold it in there lap and only use the slide. I'd like to help him out. But I'm not sure about it myself. any help would be much appreciated. I'd like to give him the basic technique and one song to practice, and then get him started on some tab.

Aaron Schiff · From: Cedaredge, CO, USA

Hi Will,
Did your friend order a round neck or square neck? Generally round necks are played bottleneck for blues like a regular guitar and square necks are played lap style for bluegrass. However, I play my round neck Fender lap style and Pete Kirby (Bashful Brother Oswald)played a round neck Dobro lap style. Round necks generally have a low nut for fretting, and the square necks have a high nut for playing with a bar. To play a round neck lap style, people usually get an aluminum nut adapter that fits over the regular nut and raises the strings. That's what I do. Costs about $3. Also, some roundnecks have a flat finger board to make bottleneck easier and some have a radiused fingerboard to make fretting easier. If he can already fingerpick guitar, then he can easily adapt to bottle neck by tuning DGDGBD which gives an open G (Spanish). He just moves up and down the neck with either a barred finger or the bottle neck for chords and frets single notes or double stops with his free fingers; or he uses the bottle neck on the first 2 strings for single noting or double stops. I would suggest a Coricidan bottle for the bottle neck. Costs about $3 and fits over either the little finger or the ring finger. It takes less time and is safer than trying to make one from a brandy or wine bottle. Been there,done that several times. Log onto Paul Beard's "Resophonic Outfitters" site and order a catalog. He has every type of bottleneck,slide and bar suitable for reso imaginable; along with anything else a reso player needs. A simple bottle neck song is "Poor Boy". Send me an email off line and I will tell you how to play it. My bottle neck playing is self taught, so I know nothing about instruction tapes. Besides, it is easy and fun to experiment with it.

Now, for lap style. These are generally tuned GBDGBD (standard bluegrass open G). I don't know the Dean guitars, but I would assume that they are not made as strong as a Dobro. I suggest a light guage string set, move the second string to first string position and buy a single .018" plain string to put in the second string position. This works well on my Fender without putting too much stress on the instrument. You need the heavier strings for 1st and 2nd because the bar will flex the lighter guage strings too much, been there, done that. If it is a square neck, I would assume that he can use a standard "resophonic" string set. I would go with a D'Addario set and stay away from the heavier ones like the John Pearse. I just don't believe that cheap resophonics are built to take the stress of a heavy guage set, even if they are square necks. A Stevens bar is about $11 or $12. Most people use Stevens. When he gets more experience, he can try some of the others (some as high as $75!) My highest recommendation goes to the Cindy Cashdollar dobro video from Homespun Tapes . You can also buy them from Scotty's music in St. Louis , if you are a steeler. She is superb. Everything else I have found is so advanced that, if I didn't have 47 years playing guitar, I would give up in disappointment. No ifs, ands or buts; get that tape ($40). And pray that she makes some more. Good luck. --Aaron

Will Sevy · From: Caldwell, ID ,USA

Thanks Aaron, I don't know if he got a square neck or round. Dean is a company that makes amps and lots of other stuff. they're not the most expensive, but from what I have seen so far they are quality instriments. I'll check out that tape you reccommended. Thanks again for the help.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

The Dean resophonic guitars I've seen have all been round neck, designed to be played like a regular guitar. If your friend wants to play lap style, I'd recommend following Aaron's suggestions and buying an extension nut.

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www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

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