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I have built 6 guitars and would like to try a resonator. I like the idea of a wood body with a biscuit bridge and sound posts supporting the ring against the back. I have cut up an Ash log and have plenty for the top,back, sides and neck. I would like to make a solid wood guitar and am thinking of leaving the top a little thicker - maybe .17-.19?

Any ideas on the solid top and back? Are there plans you can recommend for a biscuit with sound posts? I can adapt the plans to the shape I want to build.

Thanks

Ed

Resonator Outfitters (Paul Beard's parts division) has a set of plans for a round neck metal body biscuit. It should be fairly easy to modify these to work with wood.

http://www.resophonicoutfitters.com/product/RNB-2.html

Some things to think about with a resonator - first, most of them have some sort of neck stick altho I have built a tricone with a conventional bolt on neck. (I've also tried to repair a cheap PacRim reso with a dovetail that was a complete disaster). You usually use the neck stick and some little "mushrooms" to adjust the neck angle which is how you set the action (you have a limited amount of adjustment at the saddle). The fretboard extension is traditionally screwed to braces in the upper bout, the screws are hidden under fretboard marker dots. Here is a picture of a metal biscuit showing the neck stick and sound well.



It would not be hard to duplicate that in wood.

Second thing about building a reso is that the location of the bridge becomes locked in stone early in the build (when you route the soundhole). You need to carefully decide scale length, whether you want any compensation, action and neck angle at that point - its not like an acoustic where you put the bridge on last. Think about your bracing under the neck and if you are going to have a truss rod how it will adjust (I made a slot head and put the adjuster in the body - its a hassle but it does work). I would suggest getting all your hardware before you start and carefully working out the plan view of the neck, cone, cover plate and tailpiece. People say that the cone compresses under string tension, that has not been my experience (at least its pretty negligable)

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of my tricone woodie





Top and back are approximately 0.125, top is flat, back is domed. Body is a bit deeper than traditional which is a trend with spiders - don't really remember why I did it here. Cone well is birch plywood - I did a couple of mockups to figure it out - a round well would be much easier. Wood is koa - makes a really nice combination - play it gently and its almost acoustic sounding, dig in hard and it barks.

Let me know if I can help.

Freeman

Thanks - great information. My daughter plays a 1937 National Duolian, and I can use that for a lot of measurements concerning the height of the bridge and the neck angle. I have to give my neck blank a little more time to age before I get going, but this will be fun.

Ed

It will be interesting to see what you think of the difference between the Nat and a woodie. Also she should be able to give you some very good input as to fretboard width and radius - I'll just say that the guitar in my picture is a 1980 Dobro Duolian and I happen to hate its neck (which I took into consideration when I built the tricone).

Freeman

Thanks for the photos. Good information. I am thinking that there is not a lot of stress on the body that you wouldn't have on an early Gibson L- body with a tailpiece. I think the robust construction is to take the resonance of the body out of the picture and make it more like a speaker cabinet - the words you hear in reading about these instruments. I am thinking that 2 sound posts centered on one of the back braces and a bolt on neck is all the structure that is "needed", and I may thicken the Ash top a bit to help around the perimeter of the well. What it wil sound like will be a mystery, but thta is part of the appeal of this project to me.

Here is my daughter's guitar in action - a song she wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3J0tnDKLU

I am not interested in playing slide so much as getting a sound similar to that - but first I will have to learn to play like that.

Ed

Thank you so much for sharing that - I've got to admit I wasn't familiar with her but that is exactly my kind of music (and the kind of music that needs to be played on an old reso).

I think you are right on with the construction details and I, for one, will look forward to the results.