What do you string your resonator with?

[Charlie Bernstein]

I have a squareneck and a roundneck. I'm wondering about the roundneck tuned to open G. I mainly play finger-style slide — blues, folk, and rock.

It's an OMI Dobro F-60 with a spider bridge and Quarterman cone. I use D'Addario phosphor/bronze twelves.

Are there other strings you'd suggest? What do you use? Why do you like them?

Thanks!

[hat]

Depends. If you are staying in open G then 12's are fine. If you drop to open D or Dropped d, then you might want medium gauge strings. Resonator cones typically need more energy to drive them, but again it depends on the tone you are looking for. For slide work, you want the heavier treble strings.

[Cameleye]

I string my F-60 with D'A pb lights, with the b and e bumped up a bit. B is a 17 and e is 15.

[Monty Christo]

On my tricone I use D'Addario EFT17 flat tops in .013 - .056. I'm usually in open D or open Dm, but they work fine for G or standard.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by Cameleye

I string my F-60 with D'A pb lights, with the b and e bumped up a bit. B is a 17 and e is 15.

Oho. Might try it. It's the G that I bump up — to a .28.

[L20A]

I loke Martin Retro medium gauge sets for my Beard round neck.

[LemonOswald]

I heard on line somewhere that Charlie Parr recommends Thomastik flatwounds on his Mule, so I tried them (12s, standard tuning mostly) and love them. But obviously it all depends on the sound you're looking to get. (I play with bare fingers and like the somewhat dull sound that they produce.) The downside is that they are expensive.

[Mandobart]

On my Gold Tone round neck spider bridge Paul Beard (in standard tuning) I've used medium phosphor bronze, monel and Ernie Ball aluminum bronze strings.

Overall I prefer the twangy sound of the EB aluminum bronze strings the best for this guitar.

[Mycroft]

Phosphor Bronze, usually either John Pearse or D'Addario. Sometimes mediums, but I often put lights on it as I really like to fingerpick it. The Rayco is pretty responsive. Usually bump the high E a couple of gauges for supporting the slide. I also like Pearse "New Mediums" when it is going to be in Open D a lot. (again, bumping the high E.)

Maple body, spider.

[jt1]

I have a late-1929/early-1930 National style 1 Tricone:



I tune my guitar to either open D or open G. I like John Pearse "Slack Key" strings:

[Mark L]

That is one beautiful vintage Style 1 !

Plus, you might be shocked at what that vintage cast iron love seat goes for!!

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by LemonOswald

I heard on line somewhere that Charlie Parr recommends Thomastik flatwounds on his Mule, so I tried them (12s, standard tuning mostly) and love them. But obviously it all depends on the sound you're looking to get. (I play with bare fingers and like the somewhat dull sound that they produce.) The downside is that they are expensive.

I recently read a Charlie Parr interview where he mentioned using flatwound strings on his Mule so I put a set of GHS Flatwound Electric guitar strings (.12's) on my National Tricone to try out and they work fine, plenty loud even if they were meant for an electric. The flat winding really cuts down on the string noise. I have some D'Addario Flat Tops on order which I'll try next.

[MissoulaFlood]

IMG_7480.jpg

From StringJoy

[Silly Moustache]

Not that I'm using them much currently, but

My National Estralita usually tuned to DADF#AD -
D'addario EJ17s with an extra .017" on the first (to help with smooth bottleneck.



Gibson made Dobro Model 27 Deluxe with Beard
Cone and corrective spider (All Gibson made resonators are built with intonation issues:
D'addario EJ42 plus replaced 1st with a .017 or .018"



Note, I used to use Dunlop PB Reso sets which came with an extra .018, but dropped them when they excluded extra string.

[RomanS]

I have GHS White Bronze strings on my squareneck spiderbridge resonator.
I originally chose those because they work better with the Lace Sensor magnetic pickup I have on that guitar - but it turned out that they also sound great unplugged.