Jay Turser JT-900 Res Electric Resonator Guitar
Having just made some tough decisions and selling off three guitars I liked but wasn't using much so I could order one I
will use (Carvin NS-1), I was down to four on the wall and one incoming. So I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then this thing showed up for R1,600 and at that price (plus R600 for a case to ship it in), and I couldn't pass it up. All Skylark's fault for being good at taking photos (good pics are ten times as likely to be GAS inducing, don't you agree?).
Here it is, as advertised (Pretty,
n'est ce pas?):
It arrived yesterday and it
is pretty and in absolutely immaculate condition (did you ever really play it Skylark?). Strings were too light for me, the action was too high (I don't play slide) and the truss rod needed a tweak, so I whipped it to bits (as is my wont). It also sounded a bit constrained for a resonator, the electronics were a bit odd and the string balance was way off, so I had a good look around inside, did a few things and saw what else would need doing in the future:
- The first thing I found was a large chip of wood between one leg of the spider and the cone (which was probably damping the cone a bit
- I sanded the fuzz from around the underside of the soundhole edges
- Cleaned up lots of glue squeezeout from kerfing and joints and some drips from the back
- Smoothed out the cone ledge to get rid of the worst bumps. The finish buildup here is very thick and uneven, so while I removed the worst lumps (the multiple layers of finish on fuzz type), I'm actually still going to have to go back in there again later and rout the finish off the ledge to make sure the cone seats properly (which is crucial to tone in a resonator guitar)
- I levelled the bottom of the rosewood saddle to fix the uneven string balance (it's an Artec UST - a piezo crystal type)
- When I reassembled, I left out the three screws that held the cone to the ledge (shouldn't have them at all - everything is supposed to be held down by string pressure and screws) and filed the bent edgesaway from where the screws tapped through the aluminium
- Not much I can do about the electronics now - the magnetic pickup and piezo are blended together passively, which means there is an impedance mismatch. For now I'll just use an external DI box to handle the piezo's highZ, which already improves the tone no end. If I keep it, I'll put in a proper resonator pickup (which sense the cone rather than the strings) probably with a proper blending preamp - not sure on that side yet
- The one thing I couldn't do was adjust the cone properly, as the tension screw is in the traditional place, but saddle and pickup are full-length, which means you can't get to the screw when the guitar is assembled. With a proper resonator pickup and split saddle I'll be able to do the adjustment properly , through the hole in the middle of the bridge cover.
Back together again and with a set of nickel wound .011s, the guitar is already louder and with a lot more resonator tone. Early days yet, but I'm quite pleased already.
More of Skylark's pics:
