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little ray - Posted - 09/11/2024: 18:28:23
What did he do that was so genius in building a guitar?
docslyd - Posted - 09/11/2024: 20:56:02
...there were essentially no "boutique" or custom resonator guitars before Rudy. (I know there were probably some little known builders...but they were not on the radar"). Particularly those using solid wood construction as opposed to plywood. Prior to that, pretty much all you could find was an OMI Dobro or a vintage dobro/regal. Rudy had some new techniques and designs...such as open soundwell with a baffle. His guitars have been praised and/or criticized with regard to their construction. I do know, that I purchased a guitar directly from Rudy in 1980 and I wouldn't sell it. It's sweeter than anything that was available at the time.
hlpdobro - Posted - 09/12/2024: 08:23:43
From my personal recollection (and agreeing with Eric) , Rudy was innovative with his larger body, "open" designs.
His guitars ranged from spectacular to almost unplayable. Mike Auldridge and Jerry Douglas both played an RQ Jones at one time or another.
Rudy was also a quirky builder. Examples of weirdness are out there, including necks that had me scratching my head, trying to figure out why it just sounded "bad" when I played it. Putting a ruler or fret guide on the neck showed that fret placement was, uh..."arbitrary".
When I asked Jerry about his, he basically said that over time he learned how to "play around" and ignore the fret placement.
Just another character in the history of the spider bridge, resonator guitar.
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SamCy - Posted - 09/13/2024: 13:45:20
To the best of my knowledge, Rudy Jones and Bobby Wolfe were working completely independently on the same idea at the same time: no soundwell and a baffle across the waist of the Dobro. By confining the air under the cone in a smaller space and having small openings to the upper bout, the air that the underside of the cone is working into is tighter in the bass because of the smaller volume, and tighter in the treble because of the smaller openings. The goal is better energy transfer from the cone to the air. See the Jones pictures. Paul Beard uses a similar baffle today.
Edited by - SamCy on 09/13/2024 13:48:33
Dan Mahoney - Posted - 09/15/2024: 06:46:05
Looking at the pictures that Sam posted I thought the Jones looked just like mine. As it turns out it is. The pics (in my profile) are from years ago when I decided it was time to try to put the Jones back in shape after the top had sunk so much the cone wouldn't sit flat on the ledge. Everything Howard said is correct about the intonation and build quality. I just got used to it over time. I ordered it from Rudy in mahogany with gold parts. It came in walnut with chrome. I put a lot of miles on that box and certainly got my money's worth. I think I paid $750 for it. I finally got around to putting it back together this year.
Dan Mahoney - Posted - 09/15/2024: 17:50:59
Just for some clarification, Sam's use of my pics is perfectly fine with me, and I was pleased to see them. I consider pics in my profile to be public domain. And any post from Sam is enlightening. In re-reading my post it may have seemed like I was upset, but not at all. Just bad communication on my part.
MarkinSonoma - Posted - 09/16/2024: 10:02:35
I guess the first builder of squareneck resonators after the Dopyeras that was of any consequence prior to Rudy Jones and Bobby Wolfe was Shot Jackson with the Sho-Bro guitars. Though Shot never came up with the idea of a bass baffle, I believe they were all open body construction.
They never really did for me. I've test driven and heard up close a handful of Sho-Bros over the years and I guess the sound I've always heard in my head was a Dobro, along with the modern builders and the "hybrid" designs. I was sort of excited a number of years ago to play a pristine Sho-Bro at Gryphon in the Bay Area which looked like it had rarely ever been out of the case, but after messing around with it for several minutes, it just wasn't doing it for me. Big body with kind of "mellowish" sound.
After many decades of hearing certain instruments I think you have sort of an expectation of a sound you hear in your head. For example the Martin dreadnought - along with bluegrassers, hearing the likes of Stephen Stills and Neil Young playing them when I was growing up, you develop a mindset for what sounds good to you. And of course there is the seemingly endless parade of small company luthiers offering their own take on the original D-28 and D-18. So when I've played Sho-Bros and sometimes they were very reasonably priced in music stores - I was just never tempted to pull out the credit card. The original Dobro sound was already imprinted in the brain cells.
Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 09/16/2024 10:03:11
Andy B - Posted - 09/18/2024: 04:10:29
Dick Deneve was building great sounding resonator guitars in central New York beginning in the 1970s. He was both well known and highly regarded enough by 1984 that Mike Auldridge recommended him to me that year when I asked about an upgrade from my D60.
MarkinSonoma - Posted - 09/18/2024: 12:21:15
I wasn't aware that Dick Deneve was building in the 1970s.
You learn something new every day...
Alluding to what Sam wrote earlier, it's interesting that in the pre internet days these guys were likely working in isolation in different parts of the country coming up with their own take on the guitar invented by the Dopyera brothers.
Ivan Guernsey is another pioneer of the modern Resophonic guitar. Does anyone know when Ivan began building?
docslyd - Posted - 09/18/2024: 15:42:00
Mark...I believe it was after about 1985. Certainly, as mentioned above, the absence of the internet limited exposure of those builders mentioned, nationwide. They are all well-respected, however, those that fell into my peripheral view (as a California boy) did so, due to their exposure within magazines or on album covers. Some of the other boutique luthiers, I never heard of until my reso-circle widened considerably. At the time I sought out Rudy, it was of course, because Jerry was playing one. Just graduated college and began a month-long cross-country trip with a buddy, Wanette Oklahoma was the first and most important stop on my list.
SamCy - Posted - 09/19/2024: 14:57:16
See the innards of an early Deneve reso. His view was that the cone shelf needed to be stiffly supported but with minimal material and the largest possible openings. See his idea of a sound well. See also his block-to-block stiffening tube to insure there would be no egging of the cone opening. His early ones used electrical conduit which was later replaced with a carbon fiber tube. He commented that any flex in the neck/box structure absorbed low frequencies, reducing the bass.
Edited by - SamCy on 09/19/2024 14:59:12
