Resonator Guitar Upgrade: National Hotplate for Live Blues!

I’ve been looking for the best option to electrify my National Delphi Resophonic guitar, and the Hotplate is definitely a solid contender. It’s easily reversible, which is a huge plus. Nothing quite matches the sound of an SM57, of course, but for practicality and achieving a more reliable stage sound, I’m pretty impressed with what the Hotplate has to offer.

The Krivo pickup also seems like an interesting option, but—just like the Hotplate—I’m not crazy about the aesthetics. On the other hand, I absolutely love the look of the Tomthumbucker used in Mule guitars. The catch? Cutting a hole in my Delphi is a huge commitment, and it’s hard to go back once you take that step.

There’s also the idea of using a piezo system with an impulse response pedal, but that starts to feel a bit too far removed from the tone and vibe I’m after. Honestly, I keep circling back to the idea of cutting a hole for a mini humbucker and just embracing it.

What do you guys think? I know many of you are awesome at coming up with creative solutions I may not have considered. Hit me up with your thoughts—I love hearing from you, and I’m really grateful for all the interest you show in the channel.

As always, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and all that good stuff if you can. Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll catch you next week.

Cheers,
Jase

[philiprourke]

Another very interesting video Jason. I have a guitar just like that..I used to use it for maybe 4 songs at a gig...but I always took it to every gig..mine is the full shiny one..people would always look at it sitting on the stand..when I picked it up it always got their attention ..so it wiĺ always add to the entertainment level purely on looks.
Didnt have hot plates 22 years ago when I was gigging, tried a gel patch style thing under the cone with a preamp box...sounded awful...so I used a small con denser mic off a gooseneck mount on my vocal mic stand. I mostly used cheap in ear monitors with a cable connection to the headphone out of my mixer so feedback was never a problem..but at some venues, that condenser mic would pick up all the room noise.
The hot plate sounds great...the important take for me was how good your slide playing is.. and that's all that really maters here..
Go and gig that guitar plugged in with the hot plate and forget about any concerns, just focus on adding more songs to your set list using it..adding more variety to your show is a goal isn't it ? This will do that nicely..it sounds great and looks fine..

[larrykendrick]

I screwed up my input jack trying to clean with a gun barrel brush. It was getting a hum from the single coil pu. I've been using mics lately.
So, I've been questioning whether a pickup picks up the tricone sound. Anyway, love your technique and I learned something. The reso looks great!

[stringybarkin]

Just hack a hole in the green one, it's not a sin😅😅😅 also aluminium work hardens over time, which is why the old ones sound so good, i think it's actually cool for live, most punters wouldn't be able to tell

[virtualobject]

Have to say, really hope you don't hit the guitar with some black. Be a crying shame, the gold and green is an unexpected pairing but Really Nice and much improved aesthetic to the standard guitar and gives you some stage bling like you said you wanted. Don't do it man!

[halvach]

How hard/expensive would it be to get it powder coated?