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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLadder-Braced Guitars<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early 20th century, as steel strings came into common use and manufacturers began mass-producing inexpensive guitars, it became important to design durable products that could be made cheaply. As the name implies, ladder-braced instruments forgo the more complex X and fan patterns used on the soundboards of costlier steel-strings. In their place are heavy transverse struts\u2014usually four\u2014above and below the soundhole and on either side of an enlarged bridge patch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although roughly finished inside, some early examples are fancy on the outside, heavily appointed with bindings, decals, and stamped-out inlay work. But Plain Jane is generally the rule. Some of these guitars are petite, barely larger than a baritone uke; others, like the fabled long-scale Stella 12-strings, are massive. Many, like the Kalamazoo brand made by Gibson, were crafted to resemble their pricier counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sound of such guitars is generally less complex than that of the X-braced equivalent, but ladder-braced examples tend to be loud for their size, and their mid-to-high register is bright with a long decay rate\u2014good for blues. A combination of hide glue, hard use, and history makes older guitars of this type\u2014Washburn, Regal, Stella, etc.\u2014in original playing condition a rare find. Their increasing value, however, has made some well worth restoring. Additionally, the designs have been adapted and improved by builders like Todd Cambio, with his Stella-inspired Fraulini models, and high-end manufacturers such as Collings, whose Waterloo line includes a variety of ladder-braced guitars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blues Resonances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Four decades after that 1929 Memphis session, Joe Callicott clearly remembered the lexicon of now-legendary artists who were at the studio in the Peabody Hotel that day. Among these were Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, ready to score a major hit with their \u201cBumble Bee Blues.\u201d Notable in Callicott\u2019s recall were their instruments: A gleaming pair of brand-new National Style 1 tricone resonators\u2014the first guitars of this type that anybody around Memphis had ever seen or heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, National guitars had been available for barely a year. The sound of the resonator, now so widely linked to early blues, was absent from the original recordings of blues guitar pioneers such as Blind Blake, Lemon Jefferson, and Lonnie Johnson, who recorded well before that. Even when popular players like Memphis Minnie, Tampa Red, and Bo Carter began using Nationals, their high prices put them out of the range of guitarists more accustomed to $11 Stellas. In 1935, a Style 1 was priced at $125 (about $2,300 in today\u2019s money), more expensive even than a Martin D-28 ($100, or around $1,850 now).<\/p>\n\n\n\n These days, National Reso-Phonic and several other custom builders offer a variety of resonator guitars. Regardless of body style or whether they\u2019re made from metal or wood, resonators feature superior volume and projection, thanks to spun aluminum cone(s) mounted inside the body and connected to the bridge. This aspect of construction has remained unchanged since the 1920s. Another characteristic that has remained unchanged is price. Quality resonator guitars, new or vintage, are not cheap, and buyers should be aware of budget lookalikes\u2014especially those that profess to be \u201cjust as good as.\u201d They\u2019re not worth having, as their lesser sound, volume, and resale value will attest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New Cheap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So what to do if you, like Callicott, don\u2019t have a lot of money to spend but would like a nice- looking, good-sounding, playable guitar? Keeping in mind that the new $11 may be closer to $400 or $500, a look around the local music store will turn up some new items that fill the roots\/blues requirements. These include instruments like Seagull\u2019s Entourage and Taylor\u2019s BBT (Big Baby Taylor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the \u201cpreviously owned\u201d category, a number of budget guitars made in the \u201950s and \u201960s, notably by Harmony, are still around in one piece. Affectionately known by people with lots of cases in the closet as \u201cbeaters\u201d or \u201cfishing guitars,\u201d these stamped-and-stenciled assembly line products, often ladder-braced and made with laminated construction, will play in tune and deliver a lot of twang when properly set up. They look kind of cool, and if nobody\u2019s busted \u2019em up by now, it probably ain\u2019t gonna happen. (By the way, Harmony acquired the Stella brand in 1939 and used that logo for decades on some of their cheaper guitars. Just so you know.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen properly set up\u201d is an important phrase to remember when trying out what may be your next guitar. A plywood beater in good repair with properly adjusted intonation and string height will play better and more in-tune (and deliver more sound) than a pricier piece that\u2019s out of whack. Buy your guitar from someone who is ready to talk about its condition and ready to demonstrate its playabilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have a guitar you like, treat it that way! It\u2019s commonly supposed that a dirty, poorly maintained instrument is somehow bluesier or more authentic than one that is kept clean, freshly strung, and carefully stored. That\u2019s an incorrect assumption with no basis in musical reality. Finally, remember that the \u201cnew cheap\u201d may be not so. Finding the guitar you need can be kind of like seeing a rattlesnake or a bald eagle\u2014you just know that\u2019s what it is. When that happens, remember another thing that people with lots of cases in the closet like to say: \u201cJust get the instrument in your possession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpted from Steve James\u2019 book, <\/em>Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations, now available here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article originally appeared in the December 2018<\/a> issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The sound of blues players on a budget remains an aesthetic legacy to the present day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":108452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"A guide to Old-School blues guitars and their modern counterparts. Here are a tips that may be useful for selecting your next acoustic guitar.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1669,1146],"tags":[730,1053],"ppma_author":[1631],"class_list":["post-108326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-guides","category-vintage-and-collectible-guitars","tag-december-2018","tag-roots-and-blues-explorations","post_format-post-format-video"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AG312_Roots-and-Blues-Guitar-Explorations-Roots-Ladders.00_07_12_25.Still001.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1631,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"steve-james","display_name":"Steve James","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Steve_James.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Steve_James.jpg"},"user_url":"https:\/\/stevejames.com\/","last_name":"James","first_name":"Steve","job_title":"","description":"The late, great Steve James was a noted roots musician and raconteur. He is the author of several well-regarded books on blues guitar<\/a>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108326"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136622,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108326\/revisions\/136622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108326"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=108326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/first_Waterloo_steve_james.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1\")
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