Here is the project for the next few weeks: slide guitar fest installment 1.
I will be learning how to record resonator guitar, play it, and pick up the ins and outs of my new digital field recorder, a Marantz PMD 671 with the basic preamp mod by Oade Bros. More on that another time.
I just got a new guitar, a Rogue cheapo resonator model, made in Korea. The neat thing about resonator guitars is that most of the tone is in the tin pan that sits under the strings, so I (actually Ty at Guitar Works) replaced the one that came with it with a spun aluminum jobbie from Beard Guitars and put in an ebony/maple bridge and it sounds awesome.
The recording is through two matched Oktava mics set in an X about level with the twelfth fret from about three feet away to get a little of the room. I am going to try some different positions, maybe putting one mic on the resonator and the second a ways back to pick up the room ambiance next.
Update: I had the good fortune of playing a 1936 Dobro today and have come to appreciate that a vintage Dobro has certain advantages over the Rogue! Sweet guitar, so thanks to the folks at Pasadena Guitars for letting me try it, along with some nice acoustics and some sweet amps, especially the Matchless Independence 35. A steal at $3395, but I left it there, can you believe it?