New Rogue Classic Brass Body Resonator

A couple of weeks or so ago, this thing was run on Musicians Friend's "Stupid Deal of the Day" at $230 with free shipping (it normally sells for $350), and I saw it a few minutes before midnight. Just couldn't pass that up. Mrs. R. made me hand it over for wrapping for Christmas, then didn't want me to get it out till the kids were gone. I finally got it out tonight, and I am thrilled! It's a beautiful instrument! Not perfect, but it's well done and everything's right that counts. Where they cut corners was on the polishing of the brass before plating. On the top you can see some buffing marks under the nickel. It's not as well polished as my Johnson. But you've got to be close and closely studying reflections to see that. The domed back of the body is mirrorlike and without blemish. The nut, fretboard and saddle are flat. It's sloped toward the treble side, so the treble strings are a bit lower than the bass strings, as they should be. I haven't put a ruler to it, but the string height looks and feels like what I have set on my Johnson Tricone, an excellent compromise for sliding and fretting up to the 7th fret or thereabouts. Easy to fret behind the slide up to 2 frets back, if desired. I haven't measured the strings, but they appear to be medium .013-.056" "bronze" (80/20 brass) strings, and they are in new condition with no tarnishing or rust. They were shipped wrapped in brown paper. The nut is white plastic, and binds a bit on the third string as they so often do. The saddle is ebony capped maple, well fitted. The cone is spun, obviously on an automatic machine that produced perfectly even spirals, rather widely spaced. The pressed in spirals don't have the peripheral cross-linking lines of the Amistar branded cones. Musicians Friend says the brass bodies are all European made, but they don't mention the "Continental" cone of the Johnsons, and this may well be a Chinese made cone. Automated spinning machines are used for a lot of metal fabrication nowadays. Inside, I can see "mushrooms" that look like the ones in my Johnson. What I can see through the F-holes looks neatly fitted and finished. The rosewood fretboard is smooth, and the small old-style frets are finished smoothly and most importantly, are all level. The fret ends are adequately smooth, better than those on my Johnson. (Those catch my fingers just a bit.) Tuners are no-name sealed ones, bright nickel finished, and tune up smoothly with no abnormal backlash.

I oiled up the fretboard and strings with olive oil before handling them. I've been doing this for many years, and last night I happened across a site on caring for brass castings that recommended this for preserving them. It greatly increases the useful life of guitar strings.

The real joy of this guitar is in the playing! I tuned it to Open D, got out my BigHeart Bronze Bomber slide and put on an extra heavy Golden Gate thumbpick and .025" Dunlop nickel silver fingerpicks and let her rip! Whoa! Serious volume, and an awesome "honk!" I'm going to have to quit talking about single cones having less sustain than tricones. This guitar sustains better than my tricone and at least as well as my spider, but the difference is that the instant loud twangy attack of the biscuit stands out above the sustained note. It has excellent bass output, much better than the tricone, with a strong clear singing tone with the slide on the first string up to the 12th fret. It'll take a little getting used to this being a 14-fret neck with a single dot at the 12th fret and double dots at the 15th, having the typical "X" pattern of five dots covering the fingerboard attachment screws at the 15th, 17th and 19th frets. It has fretboard side markers at the 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets. Man alive, this thing does put out the sound! You can't be shy and play this one. It also really amplifies finger and slide noises on the strings, and if you hit a wrong note it'll ring right out, too. But you can make yourself heard. It's a cannon! I'm going to have a lot of fun with it!
:mrgreen:

The Musicians Gear classical guitar case:

As the guitar came in the case. This thing is really shiny! These are flash photos, and the light reflected off somewhere else, making the guitar pics look dark.

This one's really hard to see, but is the arched back of the body.

Ready to play!