Mule

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

  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....

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....

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...

"Most precise...exacting...perfect....unwavering quality"  We hear a lot of words and phrases like that used when being referred to what makers make don't we?  Whether those words or true and honest or not is a subject for...

What is the boring composition chart you see above?  This is the composition of a tricone cone I sent to Metaltest in Washington state to have tested.   I'm in the process of getting my lathe set up to start spinning my own...

  You have to do what you  have to do, and getting going with these resonator guitars was no different.  I spent about a year and a half at the first 'Shop", two years in the basement and the last six months at shop...

A bit of a philosophical tangent now.  What is handmade? I think this a conversation I've always heard phrased in more questions than answers.  I think that's a great thing and I think it proves it's own point- that...

Guitar festivals. I want to go.  When I was a wee lad of 18 or so I found the Healdsburg Guitar Festival website and would use that as my research.  I found links to websites for Jeff Traugott, Judy Threet, Linda Manzer,...

Guitar bracing. I love ladder braced guitars.  I had an Gibson LG that really opened my mind to what's going on inside the box.  Fraulini guitars... same thing.  Dale Fairbanks uses X braces, but they are unscalloped and they...

Charley Hicks on Mule Resonator Guitar records every Charley Patton Song https://youtu.be/SuWJm4RobXQ If that's not a worthy news headline, I'm not sure what is.   Charley has #42, and tow more mules, a steel tricone and a...

The e-mail sometimes goes like this: "Hey Matt, I love resonators and have always wanted to make one.  How?" I totally get the feeling.  I worked at Huss and Dalton guitars for a while and went to a guitar making school, so...