WTB: Resonator Uke

Soprano or Concert. Anyone?

You can barrow mine anytime until you find one Susie .

UKEON TERRITORY said:

You can barrow mine anytime until you find one Susie .

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Thanks Wes!

Does someone make a reso uke in Soprano? Curiosity is killing me....

Yes. Yes they do

I loved the Beard reso uke at NAMM
http://www.beardguitars.com/Uke-index.html

Susie A said:

Yes. Yes they do

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I have played that one.

AH ! There's no need to spend a thousand bucks above and beyond for a good resouke . My Gold Tone walks most of thems dog as it .They might all sound a bit different and some might be a little better built here and there . There is just NO such thing as something being the BEST . If it were me looking for a resouke right now and couldn't get my hands on a Gold Tone , I'd be after the REPUBLIC reso Found here http://www.republicguitars.com/guitarsotherproducts/ukuleles.html . And they have the F hole which you typically only find on high end reso's money has been thrown away on . My GT doesn't have the F holes and I wish it did . Hrrrmmm . My be a Republic reso in my future . lol

They are both AWESOME but might require a litte bit of setup adjustments to suit your taste Susie .

For instance . All the big noise about Delta brand hand spun cones sounding better . I dare say that is true . The Delta brand cone hasn't near the low end projection and or sustain that the one Gold Tone designed .

You can get an idea of what I mean here . Go to this link ( http://www.deltaresonatorcones.co.uk/ukulele.html ) and look for " COMARE ME " You'LL hear sound bytes of an Ashbury uke with it's stock cone versus the new cone . Listen and weep . The old cone has a much better range of tone anyday of the week .

Then go here ( http://youtu.be/Twxf9SXnqiQ ) and listen to my Gold tone resouke and see what you think about the range of tone from bottom end low notes to the high notes . I say the GT rocks for the money .

Again Susie . You aren't that far from me here in Atlanta and if you just can't curb the need to reso out a bit until you get one , lemme know and I'll bring mine to the Wai and you can play it till you turn blue . Everybody that's played my GT ( not excluding pro musicians ) has grinned and wanted it . lol

Ukeon, I have the Goldtone Reso also. In your utube, you mentioned you put the Fremont blacklines on; was that with a low g or high G? I like it so far but think it could use a little more punch. The Fremonts sound like they may do that.

Patrick Madsen said:

Ukeon, I have the Goldtone Reso also. In your utube, you mentioned you put the Fremont blacklines on; was that with a low g or high G? I like it so far but think it could use a little more punch. The Fremonts sound like they may do that.

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Funny you inquire . II have been sitting here playing the reso for a few hours now and the low G thing crossed my mind . I at one time had a low G on it and like it for about 30 minutes . I just dont care for the droan sound it makes on ukes in general . But thats just me .

As for the Freemont Blacklines , I use the tenors . The A string in the tenor set is just a little heavier gauge . I've got nothing but beautful intonation all the way up and down the neck with them . One thing I would personally reccomend it to take the biscuit cover ( hand rest ) and give it a good bath all over with Dunlop's lemon oil for fretboards . You'll need to take the sieve ( speaker cover off to pull the cone out .

Just take the hand rest off ,then unstring it . Then take off the sieve . The cone is easily removed . Just be real careful with your cone as to NOT bend it in anyway while you work . Bend it and you'll need another without a doubt . There is a screwon the under side of the cone . Back it out and the biscuit will come right off . Give that biscuit a nice wet lemon oil wipe down to get it really wet . Let it sit for about 5 minutes to soak in real good . Then of course wipe off all the access lemon oil . Be careful though . That stuff is a bit on the fragile side . Lemon oil acts as a hardner when soaked up by wood . That lemon oil treatment and the Freemont Blackline tenor strings will give that thing BUNCHES OF PUNCHES . I'd go ahead and oil the fretboard as well . Take a Q-tip and get the string terminator ( tail piece where the strings tie on to ) real wet with lemon oil as well . I'd just get them all lemon oiled at the same time , let them drink it up and wipe them off at the same time .

The string kerfs cut into the bridge on the biscuit are realfine cut and narrow .The Freemonts will drop right in with no problem when you restring . But for sure they won't have any extra room . Which is GOOD . The biscuit and the bridge are one piece glued together . Obviouslythe biscuit itself is rosewood , and the brdige is made up of maple and rosewood with the maple sandwiched in between . It's all one glued piece .

Your most careful moments come into play in the reassembly process . REMEMBER ....... Those screws are hard stainless steel and the body is brass . Of course brass is softer than the steel and if over torqued , will strip the brass . THATS A PROBLEM . ............ DO NOT USE A SCREW GUN OF ANY SORT . Only use a tiny little screw driver that fits exactly . Just slowly screw them in . When they bottom out . DO NOT TORQUE THEM . Just one extra tiny turn is all you need . Alot of guys will use BLUE Loctite to hold the screwsin place . But beware with the loctite . You only need the tiniest little portion of s drop .If you put to much and it bleeds out fromunder the sieve or bisuit cover , it will marr the finish a little .

Oh . Also , when you put the screw back in the under side of the cone that holds the biscuit in place , be cautious there also . You'd not want to split your biscuit . There should be a rubber washer that goes on the underside of the cone that the screw goes through into the biscuit . That rubber washer will give you a good sense of how much to NOT tighten . Get it snug , but be careful .

I hope I am not treating you likea 4th grader with to much info . But alot of reso's go to early graves due to people not marrying the concept that they are a bit mechanical and require maintenance . I carry a small screw driver all the timewith any reso because there is tons and tons of vibration that goes on in those things . If you ever have owned a single cylinder motorcyle , you understand keeping an eye on screws and the likes . Lot's of reso's ( actually all of them in my opinion will over time shake a screw once in a while a bit loose .

DO NOT LOSE A SCREW ! lol

You'll even want to periodically check the screws that secure your tuner in place . DO NOT tighten the tuner screws with string tention on the uke . Back off your strings to full loose ,then tighten them if need be . It's just a good idea to do all that everytime you restring anyway . Your reso will live a million years if you do .

But again . If you have never owned nor been around any kind of reso instrument , WELCOME to the mechanical world of instruments and the maintanance therof . lol lol . Aslo . If you were to notice a tuner screw loose and let off the string tension to tighten it , DO NOT just tighten . Take a small flat head screw driver and put just a little downward pressure on the screw plate . The reason you don't want string tension and or to just tighten tuner screws is because if the screw plate is off the headstock any at all ,you don't want the scre to do the work torqueiing it back down .That can cause you to strip out the holethe screw is in .Those little screwsin the tuner screw plate need NO TORQUE AT ALL . Just bottom them out and THAT'S IT .

Do that , and I think you'll be smiling bigtime .The low G is your decicion . I just buy the regular gCEA Fremonts and keep a single low G around for if I ever notion .

Kind of one more thing about restringing that puppy .Some might want to argue the point , BUT TRUST ME ON THIS .

If you are one such as I am, you want a nice tidy tie on job at the string terminator . As you probably know , to get a nice tidt tie on , you have to start with the 4th string and work your way to the 1st string . Weeeelllll ,and with that said , that fine ... BUT ....WHATEVER YOU DO ........ DO NOT PUT MUCH STING TENSION ON ANY OF THE STRINGS until you get all four strings tied on . Tie them on just enough to hold the biscuit in place .

NOW ! The really really really important part of the restring ..........
When you start tightening the strings , get a little tension on you 4th and 1st string first . Then get equal ( roughly ) tension on strings 2 and 3 . As you tune that puppy ,GO VERY SLOW . Tune like you are torqueing on lug nuts .
DO NOT just crank away .If you over crank one string close to tune ,then just move on to the next string , you risk bending and or warping that fragile little ALUMINUM cone . I try to keep my tuning it back up to where I don't crank on any one tuner more than it take to raise it's pitch ONE note at a time .

Quick tuning with tuner crank handlescan be sudden death to a reso .I KNOW ,I KNOW . Someone will surely jump in here and tell me Iam nuts .But this is exactly why I won't pay top dollar for any used reso . To many people buy them for cool factor without a clue as to how to take care of one . I've so countless times guys bought used reso's in all type reso instruments thinking it sounded cool when they went to look at it only to find out the thing was about half muted because of some ding dong stringing one not knowing what they were doing .

The things are tough as a jack hammer in one piece ,but in pieces they are fragile .

Hope this all helps . Lemme know if you have questions .I dont mind .If I dont have the answer ,we'll find someone who does.

Reso's are NOT for the faint at heart when it comes to maintenance . But to me , half the fun is taking care of it .This little Gold Tone is exaclty the reso that makes me laff my butt of at guys dropping anywhere from $1500 to as much as $3800 for a reso uke .Get that puppy setup right and strung right and they'll be jealous of your sound and pissed about the access cash they spent .And thats not to say the guys who dropped a ton of cash on junk because they didn't . You just spent smart for an eqaul quality player withtout all the bling .Which as we know . BLING DONT SING . lol

Enjoy and let me know . If you want to , you can pm me and I'll drop my phone number on you and we can chat it out .


RAGZDADDY

patrick madsen said:

ukeon, i have the goldtone reso also. In your utube, you mentioned you put the fremont blacklines on; was that with a low g or high g? I like it so far but think it could use a little more punch. The fremonts sound like they may do that.

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