Mule Resophonic Guitars

Never measure. Sounds funny, right? Especially when making resonator guitars.  Isn't it all measuring to 1/32 of an inch? Well, it used to be.  Measuring, marking with the sharpest pencil you can find, hoping the ruler...

Charley Hicks' three Mules. Charley is the man, and recorded every one of Charley Patton's songs on youtube. I'll start you off with this one: https://youtu.be/QGvXbSd0Muw Steel resonator guitars versus brass resonators....

  When the motivation to make a steel resonator guitar dropped in from above I had never cut a piece of metal, nor attached one piece of metal to another by means of tapping and threading, soldering, welding or the like....

There are a thousand different strings you could use for your resonator. Everything from cryogenically treated strings to strings shot into space to strings blessed by a shaman in a rainforest in South America. Unfortunately...

I know a lot has been written, lied about, explored and forgotten about guitar slides.  It's one of those things that are relatively cheap and you can fit five of them in your guitar case so, why not?  My perspective on a lot...

I never wanted to be a business person.  It still makes me feel awkward just to write it.  I just wanted to make things and support myself doing it.  I had attached (have attached) a lot of misconceptions about what it means...

I think the most exciting part for me as a builder was that moment of "I wonder if I could make that?" leaving the Kelly Joe Phelps show four years ago where he was playing his National.  I think about that almost daily as...

Charlie Parr on his Mule: "So in 1927 National made a proto-type guitar that was a tri-cone fit into a single-cone body, it was some kind of test I think and they never made a production model out of it. My Mule is just...

Adventure. After three years of looking for a spinning lathe, an instagram acquaintance, Brian Alfonsi, found a sweet score. A spinning factory is going out of business and unloading their machinery. He's going down to pick...

  

   

Some will spend $8000 on an instrument only to hang it on a wall or in a glass box to display the craftsmanship - and while craftsmanship is important, it should always be in service to the sound. A beautiful car without an...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJiOijoqCY...

Applying the patina to our resonator guitars is a creative process and one that is something we're constantly tweaking, improving, and trying to make more beautiful. We could chrome plate them, but you wind up with a...