2018 Beard Deco-Phonic Model 27 Roundneck Resonator Guitar

January 26, 2019

2018 Beard Deco-Phonic Model 27 Roundneck Resonator Guitar

I'm so stuck in the past with the flow of gear that comes through here that I don't often get to see much brand-new in the way of toys. A customer of mine bought this US-made Beard new from Elderly Instruments and had it shipped over here for pick-up locally. While it hung out I gave it a quick setup, though Elderly's action adjustment was pretty dang good right off the bat.

I have to say that, just like on something like a Collings/Waterloo or modern National, it's easy to be impressed by the comfortable workmanship of boutique-y guitars these days. I like the retro styling, the satin sunburst finish with its woodgrain popping-through, and the no-frills (but very sturdy, effective, and competent) approach to the build. It adds-up to a guitar that looks like an old '30s roundneck Dobro but handles like a modern, fancy box. I'm not a fan of the medium-gauge strings it has on it (they feel a little tense), but that's easy to solve, no?

My only quibble with the instrument is that, like many resonator guitars, it was built with improper matchup of the cone to the scale length of the instrument... by which I mean... they built it so that the bridge wasn't able to be put in the right place for good intonation "as-built." All the makers (from low-end to high-end) do this pretty regularly -- they're off by a little bit due to the necks and bodies being built separately -- and it's been that way since resonators were "born" back in the '20s. Suffice to say, with the spider-bridge on-center with the cone (as that's how it needs to be for best/safest install), this would always play flat and needed its high-E side of the saddle to move closer to the neck by 1/8" or thereabouts.

So either you recut the soundwell's upper ledge/cone retaining bit so you can move the cone forward, or you muck the cone instead. I chose the latter -- shaving off a little over 1/16" of the cone's outer "lip" so I could move the whole thing closer to the fretboard. After doing that, I managed to finagle the saddle and bridge into place (and compensated the B-string which makers never seem to compensate on resonators) and... voila! It now plays in-tune. As the owner is primarily fingerpicking (and not bottleneck-sliding it), this was important.

Bad news aside, the tone of this is quite a treat -- it's like an old Dobro in character but fatter, wider, with a little more sustain, and a lot warmer and louder than the old guys. It's also nice to play one of this general style that has a 25" scale instead of the 24" or 24 1/2" that became popular on latter-era Dobros from the '60s through the '80s.

Scale length: 25"
Nut width: 1 3/4"
String spacing at nut: 1 9/16"
String spacing at saddle: 2 3/16"

Body length: 19 3/8"
Lower bout width: 14 1/8"
Upper bout width: 10 1/2"

Side depth at endpin: 3 1/2"

Top wood: ply birch
Back/sides wood: ply birch
Neck wood: mahogany
Fretboard: morado

Neck shape: 16" radius board with medium, C-shaped rear

Bridge: maple/ebony spider-bridge

Nut: bone

Weight: 5lb 4oz