Royall Trifecta Nickel Plated Bell Brass Tricone Resonator with Case

I have been playing guitars for a long, long time, and never have I been more pleasantly surprised and pleased than I have by this one. I has a lovely, ringing, bell-like tone. The action is perfect. It couldn't be any easier to play without the strings buzzing. Plus the guitar is just beautiful. Everybody who sees it ,including me, says,"WOW", or something to that effect. A cool, cool guitar and a great value.

I bought a Royall Trifecta 14-fret cutaway (shown in the picture) last year from Passport Audio here on Amazon - a slightly different model, but one from the same company. I'm a pretty experienced fingerstyle, jazz and slide player - I bought it to tear out some ragtime, tidewater blues, and fingerstyle jazz.The guitar arrived new and in great shape in a wonderful case. The truss rod worked decently and the thing was loud as heck, which was what I wanted. The main problem, as my headline indicates, was that bad intonation made it out of tune with itself for any chords fingered above about the second fret. I took it to a good luthier, and he said intonation adjustments one a tricone are especially tricky (think of the way that tricone bridge is seated in three metallic domes and it makes sense). He did his best, but after receiving the instrument back, I found intonation was still all over the place at the 12th fret - some strings almost a half step sharp, others nearly a half step flat. Regrettably, mediocre tuning machines don't help the shaky intonation situation. Assuming that other models are similar, I wouldn't recommend these instruments at all. Props for the otherwise decent workmanship - the thing even came with an awesome leather strap which is very comfortable, but man, this resonator actually makes me feel physically unwell to play due to pervasive dissonance. I would recommend quality control for this company play this chord (10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 15) on every instrument that ships out - you can be perfectly in tune up at the nut, but my luthier and I could find no way to make the instrument playable, and that high G chord particularly showcases how bad its intonation is. I donated mine to a thrift store because I didn't think it was right to sell it to someone.Other concerns may simply come from not being a long term resonator player, which isn't the manufacturer's fault. The 1 7/8" neck, while standard to Nationals (I believe) is not only wide - it's also a meaty C-shape. Another concern (and again this isn't the company's fault) is that it's an absolutely tiny guitar - with a 15" upper bout and a miniscule 10" lower bout, making it roll over in your lap counterclockwise like a banjo when you play it. (No upper strap button is installed, either, so you'd need one of those to strap it on so it doesn't flop all over the place.)I feel a little harsh critiquing the makers of a nifty specialty instrument like this, but good grief, for $800 I expected an instrument that played in tune. Hope this is constructive and helpful, and they may well have addressed these manufacturing problems by the time you read this - mine was purchased in September of 2019.