Done! (more or less..)

Well, I finished it! I need to order a new bone nut and swap that out, but I can do that at a later date. after getting the back glued on, I then put on the cover plate with the leftover screws from the set of cabinet hinges. They happened to be the perfect size for what I needed. First I had to cut a hole in the cover plate for the bridge to stick through, but I forgot to take a picture of it at that point.

Here are a few pictures of the finished thing all strung up sitting in its case!

I will get a video or two in the upcoming weeks of me playing it to show how it sounds. It actually is better than I was expecting and actually sounds pretty good. It will sound even better if I ever get around to plugging up the soundhole.

Finishing Touches!

I glued some extra brace into the top of the guitar around the existing sound hole. Resonator guitars done have a traditional soundhole, but I decided to not plug it for a few different reasons. 

1) I didn't plug it because I am making this 'original' and I sort of want to keep it (more like a hybrid of sorts..)

2) I didn't feel like cutting new ones

3) I just really didn't feel like it at all. hah

I forgot to take a picture, but after gluing the sound well, I checked to make sure everything was together as it should, and started to glue the back on. This picture shows my high-tech clamping system I have going on. I ended up adding three more pint sized paint cans for the extra pressure just to be sure.

Tomorrow I need to add the cover plate, and re-string, and I should be done for now! I want to update the old shot bone nut, but don't really have the time or the patience to do it right now. I really just want to play it and see if it works as I was hoping.

Almost there!

Got a lot done recently

Well, over the past few days I have gotten quite a bit done. I used a piece of Red Oak I bought at Home Depot for $3 along with a piece of ash I cut from a light switch cover to make the Biscuit bridge.

 This is the Biscuit on top of the resonator cone.

I then added a little extra support to the back by gluing some more Oak between the cross braces.

Lastly, I finished making the soundwell. I found an old piece of shelving (I think) that was about 1/4" thick. I cut two circles, one with an inner diameter of 6.25" and one with a 6" ID, both having an outer diameter of 7".   That gave me a nice little ledge to put the cone on. I Connected them together with 2 1/8" pieces of dowel rod. This allowed for enough support to resist the tension from the strings, while still being relatively light.

Making progress..

I'm trying to make this as functional as possible while spending as little as possible. I found the perfect parts for a cone and coverplate the other day. The cone is a dog bowl I found for 2.99, and the cover plate is an old "silver" (not real silver) saucer my sister was going to give away.

 My new "cone" that I found. May not be nearly as good as the real thing, but for $3.. I can deal.

 The cover plate just happened to be exactly two inches bigger than the cone. Perfect for my dimensions and what I need.

 I finished off the cone and plate by cutting the lip of the bowl off to lessen the contact area with the wood - this will in turn lessen the dampening effects the transition between the aluminum and the wood will have.
I then took my coverplate, drilled 8 small holes for screws to attach it to the guitar, and 8 larger 'sound holes' to let the sound from the vibrating cone out of the body. In my mind it should work. Hopefully it will in practice too.

I tried to find something to use for a tailpiece. I thought about buying the 15 dollar one online from Stew-mac.com, but decided to have one last look around before buying it. I found a $2.50 pair of kitchen cabinet hinges that will work perfectly. I matched it up with the old bridge from the guitar and noticed the ends line up with the existing holes perfectly. All I had to do was measure and drill 4 more string holes.

Back Removal

With the help of a box cutter and a sharp paint scraper I have finally removed the back. I started with the crack that had already formed along the seam, and worked my way around slowly. I did my best to not crack anything more than it already was.

 By looking at the inside you can the bracing.. or lack thereof. I will definitely need some extra support since I am converting to a steel string, and a higher tension resonator.

There's a very thin kerfing on there.. I'm surprised it held up that long. You can also see the fraying bracing from being so old.

Looks like I could have picked a much worse guitar to start with, but this will definitely need a lot of work to get it up to par..

Next up: Bracing, Fabbing the soundwell and cone, or fixing up the top! Haven't decided which yet. I'm pretty excited about it all though!

Starting up.

So, I am officially starting to put this together now. This is the guitar I am starting with. Its a little beat up. I have no idea how old or where it is from, but was told at one point by someone that it is a Sears brand parlor guitar from the 50's.

Here you can see some wear and tear on the bottom and a crack forming along the seam.

 The crack along the seam of the back and side along with a few scratches, chips, and dings.

 The head stock is pretty beat up as well. You can see two of the tuning pegs are bent on the 2nd and 3rd string.

The nut will definitely need replacing. It is bone, which is a good material for a nut, but being so old the strings have worn it down. Now the action is so low that the strings touch the fretboard just before the nut.

I will update as I go!

What's the Difference?

I have been doing a lot of research lately about the luthiering of a resonator guitar. Im not saying I can now build one from the ground up, but I feel like I actually know whats going on inside. So what makes a reso different than a normal flattop acoustic?

Many things. (These are just a few that are probably the most important):

1) The bracing structure is completely different inside of a resonator for two reasons. One being that I has a resonator and a soundwell inside, and two because the soundwell elevates the bridge more than on a normal flattop. Raising the action of the strings without raising the nut will create a lot more string tension. (A raised nut is only found on a square neck, which is another type of resonator that can only be played with a slide. no fretting involved and it is played like a lap steel.)

2) A lot of resonators have a completely metal body instead of wood in order to allow for the resonant frequencies to carry and amplify.

3) The entire cone and soundwell structure.

How this works is through the use of Resonant frequencies. This diagram shows an average single-cone and biscuit bridge ( there are other types such as the spider bridge and a tri-cone which has three mini cones for longer sustain). The strings rest on top of the bridge which is attached to the cone by a screw. As the string vibrates, it vibrates the cone, which then amplifies the sound throughout the body of the guitar.

There are other differences, but I have found these to be the most important.. Im now getting further into figuring out how I am going to go about making this conversion.