Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my Resonator 3000 from Canyon Gear in 2020.

The Resonator 3000 is milled from 7075-T6 aluminum alloy plate and then clear anodized. Mine is 140 mm. tall, 125 mm. wide, and 9 mm. thick. The rope hole is 42 mm. high and 51 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 9 mm. The shaft length and width are 56 mm. and 48 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 39.6 mm. high and 13.8 mm. wide. The eye measures 14 mm. by 14 mm. The ears are 27.2 and 36.3 mm. long. My Resonator 3000 weighs 178 g.

There are no markings on the Resonator 3000.

Comments

The Resonator 3000 falls into my miscellaneous figure eights with ears category.

The Resonator 3000 is an experimental advanced descender designed for recereational canyoneering and technical search & rescue. It reminds me of a CRITR that suffered DNA damage so that the arms and legs bifurcated. On-line literature says that it has more than 30 adjustable degrees of friction, and one can find numerous ways to rig the Resonator 3000.

The Resonator is one of a growing population of canyoneering descenders that are essentially figure eights with a multitude of horns and/or ears that provide a variety of friction arrangements by looping the rope around various combinations of horns. I find this idea to be rather humorous - how many different ways to rig a device does one need?

The value and need for horns strongly depends on the rope being used. On stiff mud-covered PMI pit rope, descending with an eight sometimes requires hand-feeding. At the other extreme, rappelling on clean, thin, polyethylene "strings" can be bloody fast, and one can appreciate almost anything that provides more friction.

To be fair, I see nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept of multiple horns, I just don't think their value offsets the increases in device size and complexity. One can debate whether adding horns to a constant-friction device is a better approach than using a variable friction device (or even a constant friction device that provides the right amount of friction for the user), but it really boils down to personal preference. I prefer to K.I.S.S.

The eye is small and there are many normal carabiners and maillons that will not fit through it. This is a fatal flaw, in my opinion. A tiny eye restricts versatility, and eliminates the option of using two carabiners for redundancy.

The eye has an annoying o-ring insert. In my mind, this is just a bad idea that won't go away.

• The o-ring keeps the Resonator from moving freely on the carabiner.
• It makes attaching and removing the Resonator more difficult.
• It catches in the notch in some of the carabiners that will fit.

Plan on dedicating a special carabiner if you want to use your Resonator.

Canyoneering descender designers and users may love o-ring eyes, but I hate them. O-ring eyes increase cost without providing a corresponding benefit. I see too many disadvantages to the small o-ring eye design and no advantages.

• Reducing the chance of dropping the device in one unlikely scenario by adding another item to drop doesn't count as an advantage, proper technique solves the dropping problem.
• I'm told that the tight o-ring guards against cross-loading and rollouts, but proper harness design and proper technique completely eliminate this concern.
• An o-ring eye may keep the orientation of the rappel device more stable when unloaded, which might help speed the process of coming off rope. The one place that I see this being relevant is if you're floating/treading in water over your head, but proper flotation is a much better and safer choice to address this concern.

You may disagree with me about o-ring eyes, I don't mind, but the undersize o-ring eye alone is sufficient for me to eliminate the Resonator from serious consideration.

The Resonator 3000 got its name because you can hit with a carabiner and it will produce a long lasting eerie sound resonating at a frequency of 3000Hz. I like to hang mine from a string and spin it so that I get a beat to the sound.