Description
The Trifonium is a 12 fret wooden body tricone model from Royall Resonator family. Based on the original National tricone models, it has that distinctive tricone sustain and creamy tone, plus really nice tonewood harmonics and great punchy mids from the Maple body. It has a sound like no other resonator you’ve ever played.
We are sure you will love the new tone from Royall Resonators. All of our resonators go through a 20 point inspection by our skilled guitar techs before shipment. After inspection, and or adjustment, we double polish the frets, condition the fingerboard, stretch the strings, and tune to pitch. Giving you a wonderfully smooth action and playability right out of the box.
Royall Trifonium Smokeburst Finish Flame Maple Tricone Resonator Guitar
• 12 fret Mahogany neck with slotted headstock
• Smokeburst flame maple body
• Stairstep headstock design
• Bright nickel plated brass resonator cover
• Natural Matte Finish
• Satin Finish Neck
• Black Aluminum T-bar bridge
• Hard maple saddle
• 6lb 4oz weight
• 3×6” diameter hand spun aluminum Continental cones
• Rosewood fingerboard
• Aged cream fret board binding
• Split diamond pearloid inlays
• Vintage ‘C’ profile neck
• Vintage style Wilkinson tuners
• 25.5″ scale
• 1 13/16″ bone nut
• Upper bout 10″
• Lower bout 14.25″
• Body depth 3.25″
• Deluxe Royall fitted case included
• Walker And Williams Top Grain Leather Strap Included
Jim Rosthauser (verified owner) –
Royall Trifonium Smokeburst Finish Flame MapleTricone Resonator Guitar
I have been playing guitar for more than fifty years and resonators/slide for more than 30 years. I have more than 30 guitars and 30 amps. This is my fourth resonator. I have a 1991 Regal RD-40 spruce spider, 2024 Gretsch G-9201 brass biscuit, and a 2025 Gretsch G-9241 mahogany biscuit.
The Trifonium is the prettiest of the bunch. Fit and finish are immaculate. The flamed maple body is really beautiful, nearly as striking as the Brazilian rosewood on my Yairi DY80 12 string. The cream binding is perfect and really sets off the maple and mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard. I really like the matte finish on the body and satin finish on the rounded neck, which I believe makes fretting easier than high gloss ones. The split diamond fret markers add a dash of class and the bone nut was cut to perfection so there is no string hang-up with great tuning stability. The cutaway body makes not only fretting easier but also allows better access to the 12th fret with a slide. The open headstock with steps looks like the ones on the early National resonators. The Wilkinson tuners work easily and face down so there is little chance that they are bumped when putting the guitar in its case.
The case is the best soft shell one that I have ever seen and the guitar fits perfectly in it. I believe that it offers as much protection as a hard shell one. The complimentary strap is high quality leather and extra long so that it accommodates acoustic guitars with no strap button on the top of the bout or bottom of the neck.
The set-up was spot on right out of the box. The action is high enough to accommodate slide play but low enough to allow for easy fretting…very good compromise. The intonation is perfect. It plays like butter (I don’t know why people say this but I think it means that it is very smooth and slippery to the touch). Frets and fret ends are smooth. It weighs more than my other two wooden resonators (three metal cones instead of one) but nowhere near as heavy as my boat anchor brass one (with only one cone).
The sound that it makes is glorious; very creamy with the best sustain of all of my resonators. It is not as brash as the brass biscuit one and mellower than the mahogany biscuit one. It is much louder than the spruce spider. Bass notes are well defined and mid notes are crisp. High notes cut through like an electric guitar. I am very happy to own this high quality guitar with a relatively low price tag.