What most people think about is the Style O that Mark Knopfler had on the album cover of "Brothers in Arms". Mark says "it's like an old movie, cheesy but cool". As far as playing it is concerned he says "since you can't bend the strings you have to think of other things to do, so the beauty actually comes from the guitars limitations". Well, that and the engraving of Hawaii sand blasted onto it.
These instruments were resonator guitars with a metal alloy amplifier inside that looks like a tin pie dish. They and were not cheap when they were new. $65 was a lot of money in 1930, equivalent to about $775! Production standards were quite loose in the factory, so quality varied extremely widely between individuals. Here especially you have to play it before buying it to know what it's worth. They were originally used in the Hawaian music craze (and I'm not just trying to justify the engraving) but they were loud enough for Jazz guys to fight off those crazy horn players. Standard acoustic guitars were not audible in a big band concert and of course electric guitars hadn't been invented yet, so these gave them a fighting chance. Sounds great with acoustic blues, though. They were played by some successful Blues guys like Son House and Tampa Red, but were just too expensive to be a realistic alternative for most musicians living in the Delta.
They're back in Production here at National. I don't know anything about how the new guitars sound. Here are more details on the old ones.
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