Resonators

Hi Dawayne,

First, some home-made resonators don't need a cover plate. So, you might not need one if your resonator is hub cap, a paint can lid, or a tuna can turned up-side down. Cover plates are necessary when you use a real delicate item for a resonator cone, such a real resonator cone. You can damage them if you are not careful. So, to protect them, builders either use a resonator cover or a metal arm rest (hand rest?) that covers the cone area to prevent you from destroying your cone when you are madly striking the strings as you strum your latest heavy metal lullaby. Then there are those folks who use them for purely aesthetic reasons.

Since real resonator cover plate cost as much, if not more than the resonator cone, I assume you will be looking for items which can be easily re-purposed as a resonator cover plate. My advice would be to search CBN using the key words "reso cover plate", "resonator cover plate", or just "cover plate". The search facility is located at the top right hand corner of most pages on this Ning-based website. You should see a text box and a icon of a magnifying glass.

I think most of the folks who build their own resonator cover plates are probably accomplished metal workers with lots of experience and the proper tools. Maybe one of these guys can pipe-in and tell you how they go about it. I have never build one, but if I had to, I'd go to the kitchen supply area of my local discount department store, or a second hand shop, or a flea market and try to find a cheap aluminum colander (a kind of metal bowl with lots of holes in it for staining the water out of vegetables or noodles). Then take a pair of heavy tin snips and cut the bottom out of it. You may also need to find something else to make a circular rim to cover the rough look of the hand cut colander bottom. This circular rim you could drill a few holes in to help mount the colander bottom to the cigar box. Hope this helps.

-Rand.

Replies

Rand Moore September 18, 2011 at 4:07am

Hi Dawayne,

First, some home-made resonators don't need a cover plate. So, you might not need one if your resonator is hub cap, a paint can lid, or a tuna can turned up-side down. Cover plates are necessary when you use a real delicate item for a resonator cone, such a real resonator cone. You can damage them if you are not careful. So, to protect them, builders either use a resonator cover or a metal arm rest (hand rest?) that covers the cone area to prevent you from destroying your cone when you are madly striking the strings as you strum your latest heavy metal lullaby. Then there are those folks who use them for purely aesthetic reasons.

Since real resonator cover plate cost as much, if not more than the resonator cone, I assume you will be looking for items which can be easily re-purposed as a resonator cover plate. My advice would be to search CBN using the key words "reso cover plate", "resonator cover plate", or just "cover plate". The search facility is located at the top right hand corner of most pages on this Ning-based website. You should see a text box and a icon of a magnifying glass.

I think most of the folks who build their own resonator cover plates are probably accomplished metal workers with lots of experience and the proper tools. Maybe one of these guys can pipe-in and tell you how they go about it. I have never build one, but if I had to, I'd go to the kitchen supply area of my local discount department store, or a second hand shop, or a flea market and try to find a cheap aluminum colander (a kind of metal bowl with lots of holes in it for staining the water out of vegetables or noodles). Then take a pair of heavy tin snips and cut the bottom out of it. You may also need to find something else to make a circular rim to cover the rough look of the hand cut colander bottom. This circular rim you could drill a few holes in to help mount the colander bottom to the cigar box. Hope this helps.

-Rand.

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