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I'm very interested in lutheiry in general but have no practical experience beyond setting up an old stella 12 string for left handed play, that said i'm interested in making a resonator guitar. I'm basically looking for specifications, I'm going to inquire with a coppersmith in my state and see they would be able to fabricate a body for me as they do all sorts of custom work.

So I would then be handling the rest of the installation of cones and bridge and I'm leaning towards tri-cone. Of course I'd also be building a neck from scratch which again I only have theoretical knowledge of and would have to purchase some tools for the job specifically for fretting the neck.

So if anyone has any words of advice for materials like where I can get the best cones and such or resources for the actual build (specs) I'd love to hear. I'm just thinking of this at this point will still need quite a bit of preparation before I attempt also if anyone has any thoughts about actually using copper for the body which I know is not nearly as prevalent as steel, brass, or wood I'm all ears.

Well keep googling and you gonna find all sorts of stuff about resonators.

However since your prepared to make a "tin can" so to speak... The best of the very best are made form bell brass as it has the clearest vitreous ring of all the metals and as such will provide you with the best sonics. Copper on the other hand does not ring, is way to soft and gonna sound like cardboard. Well all this is in me opinion of course but then search google and see what others gotts to say.

For the rest of the junk that goes into a reso...lots and lots of suppliers on line ...again google and take your pick. For cheaper stuff check ebay...especially the far eastern suppliers and me don't mean Massachusetts.

best bet...http://www.resohangout.com/

more specifically...

http://www.resohangout.com/pages/search.asp?a=b&siteurl=http://www.resohangout.com/classifieds/search.asp?m=advanced&ShowActive=true&CCat=&CLocation=&CCountry=&CState=&CWithin=25&CZIP=&CType=3&CCondition=&submit=Go&cx=003343045014085398078:vujgnvkzkew&cof=FORID:9&ie=UTF-8&sa.y=8&sa.x=6&q2=metal%20body&refine=&q=metal%20body

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Welcome Buck and I'll offer some tips and pieces of advice. I own a few resonators and recently built a wooden tricone (there should be a thread on this page). I had also given a great deal of thought to building a metal bodied one - I was actually thinking of making one out of titanium (would that be a Ti-cone?) but decided that tooling up would be too much work (however I did work for a metal fab shop and we had laser cutters and all kinds of fancy stuff).

First, in the archives of the other lutherie forum, MIMF.com, there is a very detailed photo essay of building a metal bodied tricone presented by Chris Paulick - if you can't find it I have a hard copy and could probably help you with a link. Second, I happen to have an AutoCAD drawing and pdf of the top of National tricone that helped me a lot when I built mine.

Next, most metal resonators are built either of "bell brass" or steel - there are differenced in sound with brass being a little more mellow (if a resonator can be called "mellow" LOL). They are usually silver brazed, then painted or chromed. National, now National ResoPhonic, is the standard - their cones are by far the best. You can also get cheaper imported cones but since you are going to put a huge amount of time, effort and money into the body, don't scrimp on the cones.

While the neck is more or less like a normal guitar and you can find instructions for their construction, they are attached differently than a guitar, actually more like a banjo and this is what sets the playing action. I have photos of the insides of some resonators and can provide those when the time comes. But for the time being, let me suggest that you find the Paulick article (or PM me if you want help) and read thru this build thread of my woodie

http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Acoust ... p/28008053

Also, PM me an e-mail address if you want the AutoCAD drawing - its both in dwg and pdf format.

I'll agree with Padma about copper. If you want to use it make it because of the look, but if you want tone I'd go with German Silver, steel or brass (plain yellow brass, don't ask for 'bell brass', you'll just get dumb looks). Realistically German Silver is nearly unobtainable unless you are buying a bunch.

Copper is probably a bit too soft. You could get it copper plated. They copper plate it and polish it then nickel plate and then chrome if you want chrome.