Stunning Brass Resonator Cones

I’m pleased to announce my new quasi-partnership with Mike Lowe from The Nation.  Mike has been spending a good amount of R&D time with a buddy of his (a retired Machinist) coming up with a resonator cone that sounds fantastic, is easy to install, and priced to move.  Just look at these things!

Brand new or antiqued.

These cones are turned by hand on a lathe using tools custom made for the job.  They are made from high quality brass and are therefore more durable than the paper-thin spun aluminum cones that the big guys sell.  The brass material itself provides a unique and one of a kind sound; at once bright and lively and extremely responsive.  I had Mike send me one of these cones so that I could personally evaluate it before adding it to the line up on this site and I couldn’t be more happy with the skill that obviously goes into these.  Simple things that you might expect to see from an item turned out of a fella’s garage, things that you might even accept (a jagged edge here or there, perhaps a little kink or dent), just aren’t to be found here.  The mounting ring forms a perfect circle, the screw holes are perfectly symmetrical, and the bowl of the cone itself is uniform and beautiful. 

At a 6" diameter, these will fit just about any box you can find.

 The cone comes to you packed carefully in a box that Mike cuts to fit and is polished to a vibrant shine.  If you prefer a more old school look (as seen in some of these pictures), I’m sure you can contact Mike directly and ask him to touch it up a bit for you before shipping it out.

Installation literally could not be any easier.  Gone is the need to construct a sound well perfectly sized to fit the cone and set its height properly.  The center biscuit rest is set to be perfectly level with the mounting ring.  All you do is cut a hole in your lid, mount the cone to it, and make the thickness of your bisquit such that it could ride on the surface of the lid itself (fool proof action).

The strength of the cone when fully locked in place to the lid is amazing.  These cones will support the full load of a six string guitar with no trouble at all.  If the lid of your box is strong enough to carry the load of the strings, you can bet the cone is as well.

So how about it?  Have you been wanting to build a resonator guitar for a while now but just can’t bring yourself to spend $150 or more for a national cone and cover, tail piece, etc, etc?  Have you been driving yourself crazy trying to source a resonator kit for a ukulele (something small enough to fit most cigar boxes)?

How about popping around $25 for one of these babies and putting something in your guitar that the vast majority of the population has never even seen before (and that you know was crafted with love by human hands and not turned out of some mill)?

For any questions, please contact Mike Lowe directly at oldlowe@yahoo.com.

Shane tries out the latest guitar that I made for him.  The look on his face is priceless.

Features

• 25.5 inch scale
• Red Oak Neck
• Poplar Fingerboard
• Buffalo Bone Nut
• Two Way Truss Rod
• Dual Rail Humbucker (Bridge), reverse-mounted for treble bias on bass strings
• Master Volume Push/Pull Pot (Push-Humbucker, Pull-Single Coil)
• Preamp treble booster and frequency expander
• All parts, plates, and covers are handmade Indian Rosewood
• Brass saddle

This is another custom guitar that I made for Shane Speal.  If you know who he is (just Google him – he’s everywhere) then you know he’s a fanatic for a three string guitar.  Well, in his never ending progression through insanity, he asked me to design a three string guitar with the sound of an old school Rickenbacker 12 string.  It’s a little nuts when you think about it; if you know of a three string guitar that out-fancies this one please let me know, okay?  I’d love to see it.

Well, it’s another year and I’m on the cusp of another epiphany.  I think it’s just another logical step in my growth as a guitar maker.  The immediate result of this is that I’m not using premade guitar necks anymore.  I’m just putting too much of my instrument and reputation in the hands of some machine.  It’s disgusting and I’m not doing it anymore.  This will require me to raise prices on a lot of my guitars.  Ultimately, this is a good thing as you will get what you pay for.

Josh