2020s Royall Trifonium Tricone Woodbody Resonator Guitar

Overview: Royall resonators are, apparently, pretty popular at the moment. We've had a half-dozen in for either setup work or sales in the last few months. This one is a woodbody approach to a traditional, National-style, roundneck tricone body. It's lightweight and, post-repairs, sounds and plays like a champ. I will stress that Royall's factory setup is terrible and so these instruments require some fuss to turn them into good players. We've done all that and now this one's hot-to-trot.

Tone: Tricone setups tend to bridge the gap between the honky "Dobro" tone with warmth and sustain and the "biscuit bridge single cone" tone of snap, initial attack, and straight-up volume. This does exactly that, with good volume and excellent sustain but with less of the Dobro "honk" and more of a clean, balanced decay.

Feel: The neck is cut like a modern National in width and overall profile but the back is slimmer and faster.

Interesting features: Well, I mean, just the fact that it has a thin-ply body makes it intriguing because it's lighter-weight and easier to handle than a metal-bodied tricone. In addition, the maker uses steel soundwells which is a big improvement over the various wooden soundwells I have seen in more budget-oriented tricone designs. The finish is supposed to be "aged" and so has some "faded" areas under the clearcoat for effect and the coverplate and soundwell have their parts corroded/aged accordingly.

Repairs included: It got a good level/dress of the frets and a full setup -- which, in this case, includes adjusting the cones and saddle so it intonates nicely and pinning everything down with aluminum tape in spots so that the whole cone/bridge configuration will not move around if you accidentally pull all the strings off or bump the instrument in handling or travel. We do this for all resonators and it greatly improves their ability to be "bumped around" to and from gigs and keep delivering the goods. Jose did all the work (with some pointers from me) and this fella is buttoned-up and humming.

• Weight: 6 lbs 1 oz
• Scale length: 25 1/2"
• Nut width: 1 13/16"
• Neck shape: slim-medium C
• Board radius: 16"
• Body width: 14 1/4"
• Body depth: 3 1/2"
• Body: ply mahogany
• Cone type: tricone
• Bridge: T-bar with maple saddle insert
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 54w-12 lights
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium

Condition notes: It's basically a new instrument. It was probably built in the last couple years and shows very little wear and tear. The previous owner moved the strap button from the back of the heel to the side.

It comes with: It has one of those nice, foam-inside, violin-like, zippered, semi-hard cases.

Consignor tag: CHFM