Body Shapes: Baby Dred and Resonator

[Darryl Young]

Thought I would get you opinion on a couple of things.

I drew an updated shape for a scaled down dreadnaught roughly the size of a Martin 000. It's not perfectly scaled as the width and length don't shrink by the same percentage so you do the best you can. I used 19 3/8" for the body length and I used 15 3/16" width for the lower bout (I believe John Hall said this is the true width of the lower bout on a 000). So I printed the "Baby Dred" shape and then set a Drednaught building mold over it to see how the shape matched up and it looks fairly good. Here is a pic, what do you think? (the shapes are aligned at the 14th neck join):

IMG_0344.JPG

Now I'm wanting to build a squareneck resonator for a friend (and I need to start immediately). I don't have a mold or bending form for the traditional, 12 fret, Dobro shape (I do have the Beard plans which is a similar shape). A lot of custom bulders are using larger bodies.....even dreadnaught sized bodies for resonators and they seem to like the tone better and the reduced waist on a dred seems to fit against the body better. So I could make a mold and bending form for the body shape shown above and build a resonator out of that body shape. The mold/bending form could be used to build a guitar afterwards.

Another option is I already have a mold and bending form for a Martin, 14 fret 00 that I bought from John Hall. I now have the cone and coverplate in my possession so I thought I would see how the 14 fret 00 shape compares to the 12 fret Beard resonator plan. Turns out if you let the neck join the 14 fret 00 body at the 13 fret, it's a nice fit. Here is a pic......what do you think? The body of the 00 is a bit wider than the resonator, moreso in the upper bout.

IMG_0346.JPG

IMG_0347.JPG

[Darryl Young]

And how would the coverplate/bridge position look like on the Baby Dred body? Here is how it would look joined at the 14th fret using a 25.34" scale (Dobro's use a 25" scale):

IMG_0350.JPG

And here is how it would look if I joined the body at the 13th fret (seems to fit better to me):

IMG_0354.JPG

So which do you like better? I like the larger body Baby Dred for body fit and potential tone. I like the 00 shape better because I have the mold/bending form and can start building right away and it will be easier to find a case that fits. Thoughts?

[tippie53]

should work

[David L]

For the resonator, I like the way the Dread looks a lot more than the OO, as for potential tone, I have no clue, sorry.

David L

[Tony_in_NYC]

Baby dread. Get to work on your mold!!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Darryl,
I don't know much about resonators, but I like the baby dred shape....
I say MAKE IT!

Kevin

[David L]

Darryl, I know the thread that we started several moths ago about making a scaled down version of the dread and my concern was that if you reduced the outline all the way around the perimeter of the guitar, problems would arise such as moving the bracing, sound hole, bridge, etc.. aft by as much as guitar was shortened at the neck end. By showing the mold lining up at squarely at the neck mount position in relation to the print, my concerns become a non-issue! Thanks for clearing that up for me! + 1 for the baby dread!

David L

[Darryl Young]

A guy in the area custom builds entry doors and recently purchased a CNC machine to do some of the work. A co-worker and friend of mine (who is a wood worker and does automation like myself) is working on setting up and programming the CNC for him. I sent him the DXF file for the Baby Dred and hopefully he can cut out inside and outside templates for me to make a mold and bending form.

How difficult would it be to get a case made that fits the Baby Dred body? Does Tamarkin do this sort of thing?

[David L]

It seems that somebody here on the forum is connected to Tamarkin (if my memory serves me) perhaps they could find out.

David L

[tippie53]

they may not be able to make custom but you can send them a pattern and they can find something that will fit