Resonator Ukuleles

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Resonator Sound Comparison

I always liked resonator instruments. I’m partial to their peculiar quality of sound and I like the mechanical nature of the beast. At a guitar builders convention sometime ago guitar builder hero Harry Fleishman included into his presentation some pictures of resonator instruments that used automobile hubcaps as their cover plates. Inspired by this I went back to my shop to see what I could do. Well, only one instrument was built with a hubcap and I quickly figured out that there was some accurate engineering necessary to make a resonator instrument that worked well.

My preference for the reso-ukulele sound leans more towards the Dobro instrument of the 30’s which used a spider style cone arrangement which is much more difficult to manufacture compared with the simple biscuit bridge style resonator arrangement which practically all modern instruments use. It took a bunch of prototyping for me to arrive with a simple elegant solution to the task. The ukuleles which use a biscuit bridge in my opinion have too much bark to their sound  and lack note clarity; they seem muddled especially when playing chords. Also after having played and examined a bunch of resonator ukuleles the longer scale lengths seem to work out better. These are the reasons the instrument I designed and build is a tenor scale length spider bridge ukulele.

To solve the problem of making the cover plate I opted to vac-u-form my plates out of .060″ ABS plastic. This allowed me to design a cover which exactly suited my needs and desires. My inspiration for the design obviously comes from the vintage plastic radios of yesteryear, there sure were some elegant designers working in that era. And ABS plastic; while not a conventional material for ukulele cover plates has proven to be entirely suitable choice. It’s a strong and stable material which lend itself into being molded into clever shapes.

Resonator instruments definitely aren’t the instrument for everybody. It takes a particular playing style to make these things sound good and if you’ve got the style – then more power to you, strum away!