Resonator guitar

[Ken Hundley]

Ken,
Do you have any new pictures of what you're working on?

Kevin

Been workin on my bathroom lately....ripped it out the floor again, all the way to the joists. Actually aren't any joists, just a hodge podge of twobys layed over pipe, nailed everywhich way....what a nightmare! There was no way to improve it either without droppin through to the floor below, so I covered it with 3/4" ply and 1/2" backerboard...seems secure now, bathroom finished and patching the ceiling below. Not a fun job.

I was actually referring to the Fylde Whiskey Barrel Guitars:



I'll post what I have been doing guitar wise shortly. Black Beauty is almost done....

[Darryl Young]

I'm about to start a resonator build as well.

Anyone know how close a 00 body is to a Dobro style body? Was wondering if I could build a resonator using the bending forms and molds for a 00 body.

Any palce to just buy a hardware kit (cone, cover, tailpiece, etc.)?

[deadedith]

Darrell - if you go to Beard guitar's web site you will find hardward and some beautiful instruments.
DaveB

[Darryl Young]

Yeah I seen the hardware listed individually......and I seen a complete kit including back, sides, top, etc. I was cuirous if I could buy just the hardware as a kit (hopefully cheaper) as opposed to buying the pieces individually.

[Freeman]

I'm about to start a resonator build as well.

Anyone know how close a 00 body is to a Dobro style body? Was wondering if I could build a resonator using the bending forms and molds for a 00 body.

Any palce to just buy a hardware kit (cone, cover, tailpiece, etc.)?

Darryl, are you building a spider or a biscuit? I have both and can take some measurements if you need them. The standard size for most reso's is very close to a triple ought - that is what I used for my tricone. Remember that you need to fit a 9-1/2 (biscuit) or 10 (spider) sound well. Most are 12 frets clear, but a few biscuits are 14 - they do that by pushing the upper bout down just like an OM. Common scale length is 25.0. Most are built with neck sticks, however I did the tricone with an ordinary bolt on neck.

As far as hardware - you can buy cones, coverplates, spiders or biscuits, tailpieces, soundhole covers, etc from Beard, NRP, StewMac (a limited selection), or Bryan England (mostly spider parts). The general feeling is that Beard or Quarterman are the best cones for a spider, the new NRP hot rods are the best for a biscuit. If you buy an NRP biscuit cone it will come with a new maple biscuit.

Btw - England also has premade stick necks - if you want to make it in the correct fashion and don't want to carve your own consider one of them

http://www.custominlay.com/

[Freeman]

A great resource for reso builders is here, go to the sub forum

http://www.resohangout.com/forum/

primarily squareneck spiders but a fair representation of biscuits also.

[Darryl Young]

Thanks for the heads up on England Freeman.

This definitely will be a spider bridged squareneck for steel guitar player. He has never played a resonator guitar but he is very good on a foot pedal steel.

I need to do more reading but I'm sorta leaning toward a larger body......or at least a deeper body if it truly brings out the bass more as I've read. Any thoughts on the body? What about on open construction with no sound well. Do youknow where there are pics of the inside built like this?

I signed up for reso hangout......and I can see the first post of the forum questions, but I can't see any of the responses.

[Freeman]

I would start with the reso hangout - there are quite a few builders there and they often discuss things like sound well design. I have a very old Dobro, traditional sound well, and have some pictures of it if that would help.

There are some things about building a resonator that are completely different. You start with the bridge (both location and height) - everything works back from there. Normally there is no compensation (you have the worlds best compensator between the fingers of your left hand), so locate the bridge perfectly, then that determins where the fretboard goes. Neck angle sets the action - you don't have much to play with at the bridge (but again, it isn't as importand since basically all you want is the strings 3/8 above the f/b). I think the sound well lip is 1" deep but the best thing is to get your cone, spider and bridge and take measurements from there.

The neck is not glued or screwed in - the stick extends into the body and is shimmed to set the angle. There are a couple of screws thru the extension into a big hunk of wood under the top - the screws are hidden by pearl dots. Fretboard is usually flat and wide (my old 'bro is 1-7/8) - make it a slot head and turn the tuners up. I would consider making a roundie - you can play a round neck lap style, the only problem is that it slides around. You would then have the option of putting a short nut in it and playing Spanish style if you ever wanted. Square neck might be a little stronger for high G tuning, but I've been playing my old roundie with a nut extender for quite a while now.

Mine is pretty shallow, but I deepened the tricone quit a bit and am really happy with the sound. Again, I think the reso hangout would be the place to get your answers. OLF and MIMF are really slow for reso stuff - there is some archived threads at MIMF. I would be very happy to take measurements off mine and I do have some pictures of the inside with the cone out.

Btw - I'm in the process of building a couple of Weissenborns right now (pics in the current projects thread at OLF) - they are a whole lot easier than doing a resonator, and for certain kinds of music I think sound better.

Keep some pictures of yours and do a thread