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The Vintage VRC-800AMF electro resonator has an eye-catching satin amber finish.

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• Review

Vintage already has three acoustic resonators and one National-style biscuit-bridge cutaway electro resonator in its range.

But the company has recently added this good-looking Dobro-style spider-bridge electro resonator with 12-frets-to-the-body neck joint, 626mm (24.6-inch) scale length, Telecaster-style covered neck single-coil and knurled-knobbed volume and tone controls.

The maple laminate body has some strong flaming, especially on the back, enhanced by the satin amber finish. With a maple neck that's not over wide (42.6mm at the nut with 54mm string spacing at the bridge) it feels good, quite electric solidbody-like and only the mismatched heel stack points to its cost-effective origins.

Sounds

Unplugged, the 800 certainly captures a resonator's honk. It's not over loud for the style and a little more refined than many metal-bodied National-styles. Plugged in however, the bronze wound strings are not suited to a magnetic pickup designed for nickel wounds.

The output is very unbalanced, the wound strings much quieter than the plain treble B and E and the Tele pickup sits some way from them. Then there's the electric set-up, which negates all but the very lightest of slide techniques.