Help With Reso

Mike Winfield · Post by **Mike Winfield** » 13 May 2001 7:14 am

Just got a new Liberty Black Widow reso.Nice guitar for under $300. The tone is warm and evenly balanced but I'd like to have it just a bit brighter and increase the sustain. I'm using "E" tuning with Pearse medium bronze strings. It has a plastic nut, birch saddle, and a spun cone(not a Quarterman). What should I try first? Bone nut? Maple or ebony saddle? Quarterman cone? Thanks in advance for the help.

Mike Winfield

Aaron Schiff · Post by **Aaron Schiff** » 13 May 2001 8:40 am

The bone nut and maple/ebony saddle inserts cost less than the QC-1 and are much easier to do. On someone's suggestions (I think from the Resoguit List), I put those in my Fender first and discovered that the stock cone was fine, at least for now. Volume increased about 300% and the sustain also increased a lot. At the same time I went to an 18 for both the first and second string. I am sure that helped also. My suggestion is to try the same for now, play it for a few months and then decide on the cone.

Tim Rowley · Post by **Tim Rowley** » 13 May 2001 9:40 pm

Maple/ebony saddle inserts and bone nut. Cheap and utterly effective. Betcha it will sound just fine.

Tim R.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 14 May 2001 9:08 am

I'd spend another 50 bucks for the spun Quaterman cone. It makes a BIG differnence. When you hold a stamped cone by two fingers and flick it with the fingers on your other hand you hear a kind of sustained "THUNK". When you do the same operation to a spun cone you hear a sustained "PING". What does this have to do with anything? In my experience, changing the stamped cone of my Flinthill for a Quaterman gave me a dramatic increase in tone, sustain, and harmonics.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 14 May 2001 at 10:10 AM.]</p></FONT>