WELCOME TO BUSKER GUITARS
Resophonic / Resonator Guitar Specialists
LOUISIANA RED PLAYING A MICHAEL MESSER BLUES - PHOTO BY LIZ AIKEN ©2009
NEWS UPDATE!
6 Sep 11
B Grade Stock
Over the past few years we have been setting aside guitars we consider B grade stock. Why don't you give us a call and see if you can pick up a prefectly playable second at a bargain price?
Contacting Busker Guitars
One of the difficulties of living in a rural area is that we are right at the limit of phone and broadband connections (plus we have no mobile coverage!). We regularly have dropout on the phone and internet, particularly during bad weather. Please re-send your message if you have not had a reply in a reasonable time!
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INTRODUCING THE
BUSKER CALIFORNIA
The Busker California is a solid mahogany Weissenborn style lap guitar. She is fitted with Newtone Aloha strings and comes in a hard case. If you are looking for a solid mahoganny Weiss' rather than a laminate then at only £385 we think this instrument is an excellent choice.
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The BUSKER TENNESSEE
I've been wanting to have a squareneck spiderbridge in the Busker range for quite while and was recommended to try this guitar. A sample arrived and we set about giving it the the full Busker treatment; cutting a bone nut, installing maple bridge inserts, fitting StuMac tuners and setting up the cone and spider assembly. And what a sweet sounding instrument she has turned out to be. I love the pragmatic functionality of the Tennessee and at only £340 she is a great do'bro to take to pub sessions and gigs.
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Ian McWee at Diamond Bottlenecks has been busy! He has produced a special slide that is available only from Busker Guitars and Diamond Bottlenecks. She is a real workhorse with a huge tone, cut from cobalt blue soda lime bottles produced in North-East Italy - the area with the best reputation for quality glass in the world. The slide has a 19mm ID and so will fit most pinky sliders. Ask for the:
BUSKER BLUE DIAMOND
Phew! What turmoil in the worlds financial markets lately. Big name banks going bust, share prices falling, where will it all end? Well, this is not the first time we have been here. The great excesses and greed of the banking and finance markets in the 1920s all came to a halt when the bubble burst on the 21 October 1929, ushering in the Great Depression.
But some companies faired better that others throughout the 1930s. The National String Instrument Corporation produced great sounding, highly practical resophonic instruments enabling professional players and street musicians to continue to make a living during hard times. And what classic instruments, players and music sprang from that era - Guitars like the Duolian, Style O and Tricone; musicians like Son House, Booker White, Blind Boy Fuller, Tampa Red... the list goes on.
Our philosophy at Busker Guitars is to step into those shoes by providing great instruments for live music at affordable prices to enable you to creatively pursue your musical career during uncertain times.
Robin Clark
THE MICHAEL MESSER BLUES AND LIGHTNING GUITARS ARE FAST BECOMING THE "INDUSTRY NORM" FOR MUSICIANS WANTING WORKHORSE RESONATOR GUITARS - THE FEEDBACK WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM HUNDERDS OF OWNERS OF THESE MODELS HAS BEEN EXCELLENT !!!
VISIT MICHAEL MESSER'S FORUM FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.
Michael Messer has recorded some great sound clips of the Blues and Lightning models. The recordings are "clean" (no eq or effects) and give a real flavour of the tonal pallet offered by these guitars. You can hear the classic difference between a steel-bodied and a brass-bodied single cone guitar.
Enjoy!
Michael Messer Blues - 12 fret steel-bodied single cone
Michael Messer Lightning - 12 fret brass-bodied single cone
Gwyn Ashton gigging with the Busker Delta 12 Fret steel-bodied single cone.
Check out Gwyn Ashton on MySpace playing live with a Busker Delta.
INTRODUCTION
At Busker Guitars we are passionate about providing musicians with practical, realistically priced resophonic guitars in the tradition of the guitar makers of the 1920s and 1930s. We source direct from a small guitar workshop overseas, and have carefully specified design features to ensure the dynamic tone and playability of each of our models.
Busker 'Deco - Brass bodied Tricone
The following sound clips illustrate our various models. All the sound clips on this site were recorded "clean", with no eq, reberb, compression, artificial colours or preservatives!
Feel free to browse this site for information on our guitars and resophonic guitars in general.
You can purchase securely and quickly from this web site through PayPal.
Or you can call us on 01654 712671 to discuss your resophonic requirements.
Busker Guitars recommends Michael Messer "National" Strings by Newtone:
All our guitars are fitted with these great strings in either phosphor bronze or pure nickel
The "Michael Messer Blues" steel-bodied 12 fret with a 1930s "greyburst" finish.
All photos copyright Michael Messer
Featured Artists
The Lightning - front and back, sides, headstock and serial number!
Michael Messer with the very first production model "Michael Messer Lightning" guitar. Brass-bodied 12 fret single cone.
Stewart-Macdonald Golden Age Restoration Tuners
About 80% of musicians have asked us for these tuners, so we are now fitting them as standard to all models.
