Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi, all. I am Doug D, a "newbie" from the Houston, Texas area. I have number one ( a D style in Indian Rosewood) ready to finish (actually, started finishing twice with disappointing results each time - trying to avoid lacquering but probably postponing the inevitable.)

I know it's a different animal but I have a round neck resonator in my future soon. Are there plans or is there a "best" book for me to purchase for guidance on this area?

Go to Paul Beard's site and there you can buy plans and parts for everything you need.




1000 posts!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Stewart MacDonald also has plans and parts (round neck and square neck)...they may even get theirs from Paul Beard.

StewMac aren't listing reso guitar plans any more - Paul Beard is the only source I know of. At the moment he's only listing spider bridge models on the website but I'm told he has a biscuit bridge plan coming out very soon.

There isn't a construction book on the market (I've been thinking about writing one myself) but there's a set of articles about building a squareneck spider bridge on www.reso-nation.org . Also there's some good information in the MIMF archives on both types.

_________________
Pete
http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com

Congrats Don!

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Is either the biscuit or spider significantly easier or harder to build?

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Biscuit is easier. But it's a question of which sound you like best... I like the spider bridge sound, or the "Dobro" school, as opposed to the biscuit bridge, or "National" camp. Both sound good, but different.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I just finished a reso using Beard`s plan. Mine is a square neck but he has both. It is a spider bridge design. I put a Quarterman cone in it and it sounds great! The plan is easy to follow and construction is much simpler than an accostic. One suggestion I would make . Relieve the holes in the sound well. I left about 3/4" between the holes which I cut out sort of square. I actually got the idea from a friend, Carrol Benoit who builds a great guitar. You can see a pic at benoitguitars.com.

I think that if you use the more modern tone ring and support post method of construction, rather than a soundwell as shown on Paul Beard's plans, a spider bridge is easier to construct than a biscuit bridge.

That's because you don't have the complication of making a well for the biscuit cone and getting the neck stick angle right. In terms of finding the best tone and volume I also think you get more leeway with the neck angle than you do with a biscuit bridge.

_________________
Pete
http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com