Brass Goggles » Blog Archive » Brass Tri-Cone Resonator Guitar

Brass Tri-Cone Resonator Guitar

There’s been a few Steampunk guitars in the past, but Mr M Norton wrote to point out the above lovely, tri-cone resonator guitar that was apparently at a tradeshow. You can see it better here, and it has such a lovely brass outer and peculiar looking interior that it very much appeals to me. Unfortunately, I don’t acutally know very much about guitars other than the fact that I have trouble playing F shapes – so the fact that it is a tri-cone resonator guitar is lost on me. I’m sure it sounds quite distinctive, though – I just can’t see past the patina!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 11:42 pm by Tinkergirl and is filed under Steampunk Images.

Burton Newall

This is a pretty standard resonator guitar (also often called a Dobro or a National Steel, after popular brands from the 1930s). Most of them were nickel plated, though, probably to keep your hands from turning green when you play them. The resonators were an attempt to amplify the sound of the guitar mechanically, before valves were found to do the job electronically. I would hazard a guess that it's a National Tri-Cone. The date of this one is probably late 1930s or 1940s, but consult an expert if you want it dated exactly. In any case, it's a nice piece of brasswork, even though it's 50 years "too young".