page_title: Resonator
section_title: Stringed instruments
hierarchical_section_title: Resonator / Acoustic / Stringed instruments
caption_attribution_description: Steel guitar in the Dobro style by KayEss
context_page_description: A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical. Resonators are used to either generate waves of specific frequencies or to select specific frequencies from a signal. Musical instruments use acoustic resonators that produce sound waves of specific tones. Another example is quartz crystals used in electronic devices such as radio transmitters and quartz watches to produce oscillations of very precise frequency.
  A cavity resonator is one in which waves exist in a hollow space inside the device. In electronics and radio, microwave cavities consisting of hollow metal boxes are used in microwave transmitters, receivers and test equipment to control frequency, in place of the tuned circuits which are used at lower frequencies. Acoustic cavity resonators, in which sound is produced by air vibrating in a cavity with one opening, are known as Helmholtz resonators.
context_section_description: String instruments such as the bluegrass banjo may also have resonators. Many five-string banjos have removable resonators, so players can use the instrument with a resonator in bluegrass style, or without it in folk music style. The term resonator, used by itself, may also refer to the resonator guitar.
  The modern ten-string guitar, invented by Narciso Yepes, adds four sympathetic string resonators to the traditional classical guitar. By tuning these resonators in a very specific way (C, B♭, A♭, G♭) and making use of their strongest partials (corresponding to the octaves and fifths of the strings' fundamental tones), the bass strings of the guitar now resonate equally with any of the 12 tones of the chromatic octave. The guitar resonator is a device for driving guitar string harmonics by an electromagnetic field. This resonance effect is caused by a feedback loop and is applied to drive the fundamental tones, octaves, 5th, 3rd to an infinite sustain.
caption: A Dobro-style resonator guitar
exif: {}