Posted by Tuskmountain on October 25, 2009 at 10:27pm
Hey im looking to build my first Resonator box guitar. I watched this video http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational/watch/v15490875esMqkEhD and im wanting to build something similar to his ideas. However I want to make a 6 string using a bolt on electric guitar neck. My question is will the way he reinforces the box in the video be able to hold a 6 string together? Any ideas on how to make this all hold together?
Thanks
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Hi, Sorry for the late reply-I have been away for a few days. The resonator was a proper 7" resonator cone I got off an ebay seller - I was going to bid on a smaller uke cone but the seller said it wouldn't cope with the string tension of 6 strings and sent me the 7 inch cone I used free. I cobbled together a soundwell but made the ledge the cone sits on in two halves so I could lift one half to get to the cone in future. This was because I couldn't find a front cover I liked/could afford so opted to just have the biscuit bridge visible above the top of the box meaning the cone access is from below. I went overboard with the screws as I was unsure how the box would cope with the string tension.
Soundwise it sounds good - better with the heavier gauge strings but I didn't reinforce the neck pocket enough to cope - If I do another I'll probably omit the neck magnetic pickup so I can use a more substantial lump of wood for the neck socket. I also added 4 piezo discs which sound great (2 above on the underside of the "soundboard" or box lid and 2 below on the sound well base. (all linked in parallel ) For more great reso CBG ideas check out Ted Crockers slide show recently added to the forum. Regards, David Tuskmountain said:
cool looks good. How did you make the resonator? How is the sound?
Hi, Almost finished a biscuit resonator with a 7inch cone and a six string bolt on neck. A big problem I had was finding a box that could cope with the fixed position of the biscuit bridge (added 31/2 inches to the length compared to a hardtail bridge) and still be small enough to play easily. The design in the video seems less picky as to where the bridge sits so hopefully will be easier. Due to the limitations I had (fixed fretboard length and position of the bridge)I had less space to fit and reinforce the neck than I would have liked
For the cone to resonate fully I used 11 gauge strings (as suggested by the man who gave me the cone)- it sounded brilliant for a day and then the action started to get higher as the neck started to bow. A few extra screws and a change to 9 gauge saved the day. I also made the mistake of not giving enough of a string angle over the bridge by leaving the tail piece a bit too high so when I changed to smaller gauge strings I got buzzing - I have corrected this with a shim at the bolt on neck, string trees to bring the string height down and will make a higher bridge saddle.
The box in the video is for an acoustic style neck, if you are going to use an electric bolt on neck you will need a solid flat plank inside the box, and a neck pocket routed into it for the neck to set into. And then a huge hole at the back end of the plank for your cone.
Replies
Soundwise it sounds good - better with the heavier gauge strings but I didn't reinforce the neck pocket enough to cope - If I do another I'll probably omit the neck magnetic pickup so I can use a more substantial lump of wood for the neck socket. I also added 4 piezo discs which sound great (2 above on the underside of the "soundboard" or box lid and 2 below on the sound well base. (all linked in parallel ) For more great reso CBG ideas check out Ted Crockers slide show recently added to the forum. Regards, David Tuskmountain said:
For the cone to resonate fully I used 11 gauge strings (as suggested by the man who gave me the cone)- it sounded brilliant for a day and then the action started to get higher as the neck started to bow. A few extra screws and a change to 9 gauge saved the day. I also made the mistake of not giving enough of a string angle over the bridge by leaving the tail piece a bit too high so when I changed to smaller gauge strings I got buzzing - I have corrected this with a shim at the bolt on neck, string trees to bring the string height down and will make a higher bridge saddle.