Darryl Young wrote: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/