2020s Recording King RR-41 Rattlesnake Resonator Guitar

Overview: This Rattlesnake model has a pickup installed and I'm not sure if it's a factory unit (and thus a 41E model) or a Fishman Nashville resonator pickup of some sort. It has an aluminum base that fits on the bottom of the biscuit and the piezo is built into the biscuit. It's interesting and sounds good! The output is passive and average as far as oomph but it's easy to dial-in a close-enough tone to the acoustic sound depending on how much tweak your amp can give.

That aside, these Recording Kings are lightweight, affordable, nice-sounding instrument but, like all budget resonators, they really need to be properly adjusted to sound and play well. In the case of this guy, it had been living with its saddle more than 1/8" off proper positioning since it was built and I needed to do a little monkeywrenching to get it situated well. After adjustments and setup it now sounds excellent and has a good, loud, punchy voice. I believe these use Continental (Eastern European) cones and it, overall, sounds a lot like a woodbody National.

Repairs included: I repositioned the biscuit bridge farther aft on the cone and then shored-up its front edge with some backfill to keep it level on the top of the cone and secure. I then tidied-up the wiring, added compensation to the saddle, cleaned it up a lot, and set it up. It's playing bang-on and ready to go.

• Weight: 5 lbs 6 oz
• Scale length: 25"
• Nut width: 1 3/4"
• Neck shape: medium C
• Board radius: 16"
• Depth at first fret: 55/64"
• Depth at seventh fret: 15/16"
• Body width: 14 1/8"
• Body depth: 3 1/2"
• Top wood: ply mahogany
• Back & sides wood: ply mahogany
• Bracing type: soundwell
• Bridge: maple with maple saddle
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany or similar
• 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-bigger

Condition notes: It's lightly-used and in good order, though it was played-enough to get some wear/tarnish on the coverplate. I've cleaned it up a bit and it only shows mild usewear here and there. It looks shopworn more than anything else. If you look closely at the biscuit-bridge area you will notice that the biscuit is partially under the circular opening of the coverplate, but not touching it. This was required to get the saddle fit in the right position. Note that in the included photo of this positioning, I hadn't yet added extra compensation to the saddle. The frets are essentially new and with very little wear. I have "under-strung" the tailpiece to give the most extra pressure on the saddle that I could get and this has tons of projection as a result.

It comes with: It has a gigbag and a pickup installed.

Consignor tag: MFRT