An Investigation of Resonator Guitar Sound

Abstract

Identified by the cones that transduce string vibration, resonator guitars have a sound quite distinct from the rest of acoustic guitars. Sound processing by the body is crucial. To illustrate that, a standard single-cone resonator is compared to two design variants, to a banjo, and to a flat-top wood guitar. Similarly played and recorded music is presented for reference. Likely candidates for signatures of the metallic sound are identified in spectrograms and spectra. Almost all of the discussion is descriptive. The only quantitative measurement and calculation relate static physical measurements to the observed main resonance of a cone.

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