Product: Gold Tone GRB Paul Beard Signature
Price Paid: US $600.00
Submitted
03/12/2006
at
12:45am
by
dannyC
Features
:
8
2005 Korean made, Florida USA set up, 12-fret nickel-plated steel body, f-holes, ribbed sieve coverplate with removable hand strap (super cool feature), mahogany neck with bound, dot-inlaid rosewood fingerboard, bone nut and adjustable truss rod, solid headstock with nickel tuners, and nickel tailpiece. When it arrived, the Beard cone was smashed in, so I replaced with a National cone & maple biscuit.
Sound
:
10
I play mainly bottleneck & fingerstyle style blues. Some avant garde acoustic stuff etc... Sold all my electrics, wanting to get back to simplicity & purity of working on the tone I produce with just my slides, fingerpicks...all that purist stuff. After I got the new National & biscuit cone set up, and a set of 16 guage reso strings, I am extremely pleased with the sound of this guitar. Perfect for bottleneck or fingerstyle. Amplfies quite well, nice full ringing bell tone, you can go from sweet to mean, classic hard attack, quick decay & resonate after tones. Good bass response, crisp highs, hollow mids.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
After some research, I decided to try the Beard Signature series since it has the American set up from Asian parts, I thought the extra QC would help avoid the horror stories of some of the other imports. Other than the cone being smashed (I read some others stories that this can happen in shipping, especially to biscuit style cones) the dealer I got it from did pack exremely well, and the rest of the guitar was just about perfect. It plays in intonated tune as close as any reso I've played. No buzzes or rattles anywhere, stays in tune, frets well even with the action raised for slide with heavy strings. Neck at the perfect angle, Nickel finish flawless minus 1 pinhead sized nick, and some slight tarnishing on the inside, neck and fingerboard flawless, a couple slight imperfections in the neck binding, and a little glue visible from the neck joint. Had to shorten the screws to the biscuit cover so they didn't touch the new cone, which is slightly tallet than the original. A very stunning instrument.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This guitar is built like a tank, thats part of the reason other than tone I always wanted a steel bodied resonator. Finish should last, will only get cooler when it doesn't. All parts are quality, tuners may go in time, since they are Far Eastern, they probably have plastic gears that will wear with time, but can't call that one 'till it happens. Holding fine with heavy strings (in open G & D). I treat all my instruments like they are made out off balsa wood, so I expect this one will last. I would gig without a backup.
Customer Support
:
10
The dealer did pay the cost of the replacement cone, offered to take it back, re-set up a new cone himself, send me new Beard cone...took real good care of me after the sale, haven't had to deal with actual company.
Overall Rating
:
10
Scary to say I've been playing about 20 years now, serious slide for the last 15 or so. My other guitar is a Martin DM, I have had lots of guitars, mostly electrics, from Carvins to Gibsons to Danelectros to Fenders etc...I really wanted to get it simple, just the sound from the guitar without all the electric mumbo jumbo. This guitar really stands up in quality & sound against others priced much higher, if lost I would replace it with same or similar, but would be pretty upset just the same. Favorite feature is the tone! Second is playability, third is price. Well done Gold Tone!
Product: Gold Tone GRB Paul Beard Signature
Price Paid: US $1000 with hard case and shipping.
Submitted
10/26/2005
at
11:14am
by
wwp
Features
:
10
Round neck, metal steel body, vintage 12 fret neck to body joint, Paul Beard cone designed for metal bodies, mahogany neck and chrome finish.
Materials & Parts
Finish
Chrome finish Back and Sides, Top Brass
Nut and Saddle
Bone Nut, Maple Saddle
Fingerboard
Ebony
Fingerboard Inlay
Snowflake
Neck
Mahogany
Cone
USA made Beard Cone, Spun Aluminum
Tailpiece
Dobro Style
Tuning Machines
Sealed adjustable w/steel buttons
Neck/ Headstock Binding
Curl Maple
Dimensions
Body Depth
3-1/4"
Neck Scale
25" 1/4, 19 frets
Neck Width Under Nut
1-3/4"
Total Length
39"
Weight
9.5 lbs
Options
Beard/Fishman pickup
Hard Case
Suggested Retail Price: $1199
This is an absolutely beautiful 12 fret, brass body resonator. It looks just like a National Resophonic except that it does not have a slotted peg head.
Sound
:
8
It sounds good. No buzzing from the cone. The cone is said to be made in the USA in the Paul Beard shop. There are some issues with the sound that I will discuss in the "Action, Fit and Finish" section.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
5
The fit and finish of the guitar itself is excellent! You really couldn't ask for any better. It just looks superb.
Now for the bad news. The setup on this guitar is TERRIBLE! The action is way too low. They say that this guitar is made in Korea but the cone and the setup is done by the Paul Beard shop in the USA. Well if that is true either (1) They don't know what the hell they are doing or (2) They had a bad hangover the day that they did the setup on this guitar. The neck needs some relief and the bridge is cut too low. The slots in the maple bridge are also cut too deep. I am very disappointed with this so called "professional" set up. It just plain sucks! Now please understand, that does not mean that this is not an excellent guitar. It is awesome! If you are looking to purchase a 12 fret metal body reso and don't want to spend a small fortune for a National then this is the guitar for you. Just realize that you will probably have to have it setup and a new maple bridge.
I am giving this category rating a 5 (not because of the guitar itself but because of the poor setup).
Reliability/Durability
:
10
It should last a lifetime and beyond. It is very well made.
Customer Support
:
5
I e-mailed them a couple of times about the setup. They were fast to respond. I was told to adjust the neck. Martin would have told me to take it in to a tech. I wish these folks would have done that. They might have received a better review! The neck relief is not all that has to be done to this guitar in order to make it play and sound right.
A word about the folks I purchased it from: EF Productions Music and Sound-Ebay. These folks were very friendly and helpful. I recommend them.
Overall Rating
:
9
A great looking guitar indeed. Head and shoulders above any of the other Asian import resonators. It is first class all the way. It's just too bad that my experience is spoiled by a very bad action and setup. I am still going to give it a 9 for this category.
