Here is a photo of my latest project. It is a metal bodied resonator. The body is constructed from 26 gauge sheet metal (Home Depot special). The neck is hard Maple with a Walnut fret board.
This is my second resonator project and my first metal body. Learned a lot about shaping and connecting sheet metal.
How does it sound? Exactly how you would expect a metal bodied biscuit resonator to sound. Slightly metallic and very loud.
Fun project.
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Here is a short sound clip for the new resonator Resonaor Sound Clip
Sounds great Tom.
Another method you could do would be using JBWeld. It sticks to metal and it's sand-able and takes paint well. Holds up good too, my Dad used it to seal a hole in a engine block once.
I've used JB Weld. it really is good epoxy based stuff. If the solder doesn't work out, I think brazing would be plan B.
I used to do a good bit of silver soldering back in the 90's. Love that stuff, told myself that I would never again braze with brass rod. It is a little more expensive though and not as easy to find.
There are a lot of variations in "Silver solder". Some are higher silver content than others. I agree it is good stuff, but you have to know now to solder.
To be specific, I did braze the top at about six spots. I had pre-tinned the contacting surfaces of the top and sides and needed them to stay in place as I soldered the remainder. It seemed to work pretty well. That is also why I think it will hold together unless I do something stupid like drop it.
I think that the overall best way to put this thing together would be some kind of fixture to hold it all steady and use silver solder.
Based on what I learned with this build, it probably will not be the last steel body. I like the sound, I specifically designed it to provide 14 frets clear of the body instead of the more common 12 frets. I love being able to slide to the 14th without a lot of contortions.
Overall, a fun build.
I loved the way silver solder flowed as compared to brass bubbling up in globs.
I was at Lowe's today and looked at the welding/soldering supplies. They had a couple of types of solder made for sheet type metal. I'm sure that works better than the solder I was thinking of, might have some silver content to it.
Hope it holds together well and I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
The solder will probably come apart on you soon with all the vibration and not sticking well to steel, it works best with copper due to the surface texture and lower heat. I would recommend brazing with silver solder or brazing with brass.
Did you use a brazing tip or just a regular torch tip?
A small brazing tip will help keep the heat to just the area getting brazed. Tig welding would be good or use a mig welder and spot weld to keep the heat down.
So far, so good. I've been playing "MetalBody" on a daily basis now since December. No signs of cracks or failures of the solder. I'm fairly confident that well executed solder joints are very strong and will hold up for a long, long time. BTW, I just love this guitar. The Reprogle cone sounds amazing and in open tuning with a slide it is all old school. Great project.
Great to hear. Glad your enjoying it.
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