Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars
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Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars (index.html) Good Vibrations How Sweet e Sound! Mark Simon and the Terraplane resonator guitar. One hundred years ago, in 1916, the Martin Guitar Company manufactured a new model called a Dreadnought. e most o vious characteristic of the Dreadnought"to this day the most popular acoustic guitar style in America"was its larger ody si$e, meant to help players in their e%orts to e heard amidst the rass and percussive instruments that made up many popular ensem les of the day. Later, in the 1920s, a violin repairman named )ohn Dopyera addressed the pro lem in a di%erent way when he made the *rst resonator guitar for George Beauchamp, a ,audeville lap steel guitar player from Te.as. Rather than rely on the instrument0s wooden top and ody to amplify the sound waves from the strings, Dopyera devised aluminum cones that received the string vi rations through a variety of com inations and con*gurations, producing a sound much louder and righter than that of a traditional acoustic guitar. Dopyera and Beauchamp egan manufacturing tri1cone, metal1 odied 2ational Steel guitars in Los Angeles in 1927. A year later, Dopyera le5 to form his own company with his rothers, naming it Dobro Manufacturing, producing a single, larger resonator cone that sat inverted under a perforated metal cover plate. e Dopyera rothers were a le to eventually com ine oth 2ational and Dobro into one company, while Beauchamp, himself no slouch when it came to innovation, went on to achieve supreme audi ility y developing the *rst electric guitars. Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars Today, the words Dobro or 2ational Steel identify the resonator guitars commonly used in lues, luegrass and country music. Really an entirely di%erent instrument than the conventional derivation of the Spanish guitar, a resonator is oen played 6at on the musician0s lap, and almost always with Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars a slide or ottlenec7, with the strings usually set high o% the fret oard. e sounds from those guitars are some of the e.pressive and memora le in American music. It’s not hard to nd a factor stamped, mass-produced resonator guitar. Were ou in the market, however, for one of these ama(ing music machines, custom-made and tailored exactl to our tastes, ou’d think that Nashville or Memphis would be good places to look. Or even ,ustin, Texas. .ut ou’re best bet might be in .ridgewater, New /erse , where Mark Simon makes both his home and the astonishing Terraplane resonator guitar. Mar7 came of age in Livingston during the garage and era of the mid 860s, where his passion for guitars was e9ualed only y his love for British sports cars. Along with thousands of other udding su ur an guitar players, he learned a out the rich heritage of the instrument and the great guitar manufacturers"Gi son, Martin, :ender, Ric7en ac7er, and others"on trips to 2ew Yor7 City music stores, where all the guitars heard on records and seen in maga$ines, awaited close1up inspection. Among the most respected shops was Mandolin .rothers, (http011mandoweb.com1) on Staten Island, which egan in 1971 and 9uic7ly gained a reputation for dealing in vintage mandolins, anjos, u7uleles and guitars. “Stan )ay and Hap Ku%ner created this great guitar shop in Hap0s apartment a ove a an7 on Bay Street. It was the *rst Mandolin Brothers location. I was *rst there looking at mandolins in 1973,B says Mar7, remem ering the place where served as head of repair at age twenty1three, from 1976-1981. Simon0s forty1three year career as a luthier has ta7en him many places and laid his hands on thousands of instruments, including some of the most revered in Guitardom. Only the most s7illed cra5sman would e trusted to wor7 on that *rst Ditson Dreadnought, made y Martin Guitar (https011www.martinguitar.com1) a century ago. De guitar elonged to the esteemed collector, Scott 2hiner Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars (http011www.themomi.org1museum12hiner 1).E Mar7 has also designed and uilt his own line of guitars, anjos and mandolins. Twelve years ago, Mar7 decided to start uilding metal1 odied resonator guitars, partly ecause he saw a mar7et ut also ecause he was e.cited a out using a new medium. “I thin7 they stopped ma7ing great acoustic guitars in 1939. :or some reason it just stopped,B says Mar7. “I don0t 7now what it is, even when some of the these guys use the old wood, it0s gone. It died with the factory wor7ers. ey were not aware that they were ma7ing future collecti les. It was just their jo , and they were really good at it. e wood has de*nitely changed, the *nishes are di%erent. 2itrocellouse lac9uer has de*nitely changed with plastici$ers, and who 7nows what else. It used to e more li7e shellac. ey have not ruined shellac yet, which is still made from lac ug e.crement scraped o% leaves of trees. e environmental changes have ta7en away a lot of the tone woods. But even when using the correct older woods, hide glue, and all the mysterious tric7s in acoustic instruments, myself included, its just not there. I feel these older guitars were always great, even when new. B In 1936, the great Robert )ohnson recorded his *rst hit song called Terraplane .lues, (https011www. outube.com1watch?v4It-t/8DO7Ik) referring to the popular “muscle carB of that era, uilt y the Hudson Motor Company. Fhen the renowned contemporary guitarist, Arlen Roth, as7ed Simon to uild him a resonator guitar with cover discs to resem le the hu caps on his own classic Terraplane, the name ecame Mar70s rand too. Terraplane Guitars incorporate the acoustic 9ualities and tactile intricacies pri$ed y virtuoso guitar players, pac7ed into a gleaming, and handcra5ed sculpture of wood and metal that re6ects a rare com ination of s7ills and sensi ilities. Fhen I as7 him what he had to do to hand1ma7e a resonator guitar without the ene*t of factory presses, Mar7 looks at me li7e “Are you ready for thisGB e guitar ody was relatively easy for Mar7 who, from years of wor7ing on his cars, had learned how to shape metal panels y hand. :or its tonal elements and Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars wor7a ility, Simon prefers rass instead of steel for Terraplanes. Emulating the s7ills employed y European post FFII auto ody wor7ers, who hand hammered smaller pieces of aluminum welded together to form a larger panel, he forms the guitar sides in two pieces formed over a ta le edge with hand pressure, “how Morgan used to and still hand forms panels for their cars.B e side panel, eaded on oth edges, called a 8wired edge0, is hand hammered over a rass wire. e ac7 is hand hammered over a leather ag *lled with irdshot, then English wheeled to planish all the walnut si$e umps out. A Zydeco body hangs in Simon’s shop awaiting resonator assembly and cover. To hold the aluminum resonator cone, a circular piece is *rst metal spun on a lathe to create a *rst step, then pressed into a created set of steel dies to create a second, deeper step. is cone receiver is then silver soldered to the underside of the top. Early 2ationals had the top with all the cut outs, the cone receiver and the sides formed in one piece, proba ly in less than a minute. Terraplanes employ a do ro1style spider ridge that sends string vi rations from the ridge saddle to numerous points around the cone, oth the center and along the edges. Mar7 uses factory aluminum spiders in the higher action s9uare nec7 Dlap Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars styleE guitars. However, he did not li7e they way they were sounding in the lower action round nec7 guitars and set out to create his own spider with car on * er. Aluminum factory spiders are sand1cast. Simon0s spiders are hand placed threads of car on * er and epo.y placed in a specially made mold. “:irst I had to uy the e9uipmentI I didn0t even 7now if it would wor7,B says Mar7. e mold is vacuum agged and all the air and e.cess epo.y is removed, “I ought a vacuum pump and hooked up pressure sensing controls that turn the pump on when the air pressure falls to a pre1set low point. is way the pump does not have to run for twelve hours straight until the epo.y cures. e pump will cycle may e once every half hour for thirty seconds. I installed a low o valve so nothing can e.plode. It can ta7e up to three days to ma7e a single spider. I have two di%erent styles. But the car on * er is very strong stu%, very 9uic7 in transmitting tone, much faster than aluminum, and, it0s one1third the weight of aluminum. It0s a ig selling point. Articulation etween single notes is li7e nothing ever efore heard. e Terraplane has it0s own uni9ue sound. It0s not a copy of anything ever uilt efore.B The spider, made with carbon fiber, sends string vibrations from the bridge saddle to numerous points around the resonator cone, both the center and along the edges. Mark Simon's Terraplane Resonator Guitars e resonator cone acts li7e a typical loudspea7er, sending higher fre9uencies o the top of the cone, out the vented top cover. In the Terraplane, the cutout name in the front panel act as the ass port.