Beltone Resonator Mandolin

[Mandolin Mick]

This is up on Ebay right now. Interesting, huh?

[JEStanek]

Link to auction. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-BELTONE-RESONATOR-MANDOLIN-ODD-8-STRING-BANJO_W0QQitemZ150430860748QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_D efaultDomain_0?hash=item230660c5cc)

Jamie

[nobullmando74]

Buffalo Bros. has one of these listed on their site as well. Strange breed indeed. :)
It will be interesting to see what this one sells for. I think BB wants 850 for theirs.

[allenhopkins]

Interesting, yes. Worth $850? -- not in my opinion. Laminated construction, weighs a lot, sounds pretty muffled. The development of resonator instruments -- both the banjos with external rear-mounted "dish" resonators, and the National/Dobro instruments with top-mounted vibrating disks, also called "resonators" -- led to a significant number of copy-cat ideas in the '20's and '30's. Building a mandolin with a sort of "dish" resonator and sound-holes around its circumference, to reflect the top's vibrations outward, must have seemed a good idea. Look at it as an alternate approach to what a Tone Gard does. Except - it doesn't seem to do much to enhance either volume or brightness, in actual practice. Perhaps if the mandolins had been better constructed it would have been more of an innovation.

I've played a couple of these instruments, and enjoyed them as novelties, but had no desire to acquire one for its musical qualities. And you know me; I'll buy anything.

[MikeEdgerton]

Every thread with Beltone in it is listed here (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/search.php?query=beltone&exactname=0&starteronly=0&forumchoice%5B%5D=&prefixchoice%5B%5D=&childforums=1&titleonly=0&searchdate=0&beforeafter=after&do=process). You should be able to learn more about them. The same mandolins were sold under different brand names, such as Blue Comet. You could probably buy 3, maybe 4 for 800.00 most days.

[wamjr52]

I bought one ebay 2 years ago, 157.99. It was beat up and had a rough life but the body and the resonator seems were OK. The finger board and frets were very worn so who ever owned it played it, a lot, it was not a closet queen. There are small thumb tack sized holes along the rim of the body where the painted on binding is and also spaced evenly around the peg head. the only thing I can possibly think of is rine stones? Any way I put a set of strings on it and was very surprised. I think that its chop is great. I keep it at work so people passing my desk will say what kind of banjo is that. When you take it to a jam it will draw a lot of attention and other pickers wanting to play it. I think 250 -300 would be more in line. A great ice breaker if you are picking at a new place.
Also very hard to find a case for it.

[realhuman]

Well, I'm the sucker that bought the one in the photo above... but I'm a happy sucker! Winning bid was $212.

What's amazing is that for its age, this one is in nearly new condition, and the aged wood sounds really good. Not sure if it's the resonator, but it's a REAL ringer and the tone is sort of unique... Tuners are tight (I've been playing a little every day and haven't adjusted the tuners in 2 weeks). Set up with new strings, the action is nice, intonation good (bridge cocked down about 1/8" towards the G string makes it perfect). Sorry folks - I'm gonna be holding on to this one for a while!

Thanks to all who posted - I used your comments as a reference before I placed my bid. Glad to find this site - lotsa good stuff!

[bmac]

Realhuman:

Nice!! had I been aware I might have been competing for it. An interesting oddity. I think you paid roughly the right price.

[allenhopkins]

For that price, you got a very decent deal. What are you doing for a case, or did one come with it? That big round "resonator" body won't fit in to most mando cases.