The Resonator Guitar
When I think of really great instrumental blues, bluegrass and country music, they all have one thing in common: the resonator guitar. It's sound is so distinctive, so uniquely soulful, that it needs little or no accompaniment to have an immediate emotional impact on its listeners. As you hear the first few bars played, (listen to the Master, Jerry Douglas, for example) you are immediately drawn into whatever story the player wishes to tell.
Today the resonator guitar is a staple of southern blues, country, bluegrass, jazz, and rock music, but it started out back in the early 1920's, primarily for Hawaiian music that had become the rage, and the instrument was played horizontal, like a lap steel guitar. Back then, musicians wanted a stringed instrument that was loud and pitched so that it could be heard in live performances before audiences...in those day's there were no amplifiers, of course. So, a guitar was built using an inverted metal cone inside the body and it had a perforated head cover on top that amplified the sound, and the resonating guitar was born. It was quickly adopted by some of the best blues artists of the time, and while it's use has waxed and waned in popularity in other genre's, it still is the signature instrument of the traditional delta and country blues sound. |
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