Of Charles Brasher, Resonator Guitars and Broken Biscuits…

Early on in my internet searches and trips to see instruments and instrument dealers I found a resonator guitar labeled “Reliance” in a store in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada called Van Haltren’s Music Centre. I found out that it was a Canadian instrument and that the maker was C. Brasher. I have since found a number of Charles E. Brasher resonators on the net and have even been able to acquire two of them myself.

Charles E. Brasher

Mr Brasher appears to have only produced resonators for a relatively short time during at least the mid 1930s. I have found very little information about him, in fact if it weren’t for one internet poster I would have next to nothing. Mr Brasher was reportedly a musician, inventor and a chauffeur. His cone design was patented in 1934. The guitar bodies on the wood models were made by someone else (and I can say the two I have appear to be Arthur Hensel). Because of the Hensel necks and the “Reliance” and “Artist” branding one can assume these were products of R S Williams and Sons in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is also stated that during the Second World War he worked as a “machinist, tool and die maker, and lathe operator” for Research Enterprises, and later Inglis Home Appliances.

Now, I am quite certain this is only a fraction of the story and I have no exact dates and as usual, I will return to this tale if new information comes along… now, on to the second part of the tale, the examination of the cone and biscuit/saddle…

The Cone

I laid the two instruments side by side and removed the hardware until I had the cones exposed. The pleats are different on the two but the visual cues on both are such that I can say they are both original Brasher cones. They are folded and creased into shape I assume on a press of some kind not spun, and they are made of aluminum. The cone on the “Reliance” (smaller f-hole model) looks like it has been trimmed in places to avoid piercing the cone with coverplate screws and has no patent markings. The cone on the “Artist” is pierced in places to facilitate the coverplate screws. It also has the “C. Brasher” and patent number markings that are either never present or cut off of the other model. Otherwise for all intents and purposes the cones themselves are pretty much the same. I don’t think either cone had a complete outer rim but it would likely have been around 10.75″ across to catch the screws and still be hidden behind the coverplate.

The Biscuit

At the base of the biscuit/saddle assembly of both guitars is the original 2.5″ glass disk, roughly 3/16″ thick and glued… slightly off center (this is important) directly to the cone on both instruments. The “Reliance” model then has a standard wood biscuit with a wood saddle topped with bone… NOT original, but functional and with the fragility and rarity of these… at least it is the original cone and it works. The “Artist” is the real deal though, a small course of wood on either side of a metal saddle (the size and shape of the wood can vary greatly… in my case it is 1/4 rounded pieces that extend the entire length of the saddle). I would assume the wood was likely glued to the sides and that then provided a broad base to glue down to the glass biscuit. It also looks like there was then gold paint applied to the entire biscuit/saddle assembly.

Now… as I said, both of the models had the glass biscuit installed off center… it also appears that the cone assemblies themselves are on both guitars installed just slightly left of center… this is where it gets fun, I think this may have been the product of a jig that was set up either by accident or on purpose slightly left of center so they compensated by installing the saddle so it can be off center as well, thus still lining up with the center of the fretboard. Yeah, whether true or not as convoluted as it sounds, I put the cone in the “Artist” so that the offset was to the right, with the cone assembly to the left. That put the saddle in line with the middle of the fretboard, then I moved the tailpiece to line up with the strings and neck, not the coverplate. It plays fantastic and holds tune decently and the strings are no longer crowding the top of the neck.

Fret Markers

As is often the case with old guitars this guy had been very dry for a long time and the fret markers had actually fallen out. The original ones were off center and the ones I have in my parts bins are bigger than the original so I used a large pin vise and a brad-point drill to make bigger holes that were more straight (couldn’t quite get them dead in the middle but closer at least) and I installed new ones then applied mineral oil to the fretboard.

The Guitars

Here is a small gallery of the two of them. I must also thank John at Townline Vintage Instrument Restoration & Repair for getting the bulk of the heavy lifting done on the “Artist” for me, including the neck reset which is a trick I have not accomplished yet.

I have posted this in the History and the Repair sections because there is useful information here on both fronts…

Sources

Folkway Music: https://www.folkwaymusic.com/vintage-instruments/all-vintage-guitars/1935-charles-brasher-0715

notecannons.com: https://www.notecannons.com/charles_brasher/

wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brasher

National Music Centre: https://amplify.nmc.ca/artifact-donations/