I built this little 3 string resonator in remembrance of my trip this spring to Mississippi. I visited THE crossroads in Clarksdale (highways 49 & 61) and picked up a small branch that fell off of the tree located at the crossroads themselves. I turned this into the fret markers. I used green mother of pearl side markers at the fret lines to help with slide playing.The nut is a piece on deer antler I picked up at the Vicksburg battle site just above the site of the iron clad battleship "Cairo". The ship was inspiration for the Victorian style brass and bolt motif. The neck is Peruvian walnut from CB Gitty and it has a brass Lowe cone and western star sound hole covers. I cut a clamping ring from brass and drilled it to match the cone. The box is a cheap and cheerful craft box which I braced and tightened up. A cabinet maker friend machined me a solid oak internal neck extension to mount the box onto. It is fitted with an Artec in-line preamp output socket and finally is is fitted with one of Randy Bretz's fine rod biscuits with a brass saddle. It sings very well with a high Dad stringing. I'm very pleased with this as it is my first real guitar build!
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Steve, I used a purpose made tarnishing chemical thinned down a bit and carefully worked it in with very fine steel wool. It works almost instantly and you can "tune" the degree of finish as you work it. I then assembled everything and used clean steel will to bring back the shine to the brass where it looked best. It is a permanent finish as it actually discolours the surface of the metal. I then waxed it along with the rest of the git.
I built a diddly bow once but it was fairly basic. I learned a lot on this one that's for sure but the wax wasn't even dry on it and I was looking at the parts for the next...I'm not joking!
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Steve, I used a purpose made tarnishing chemical thinned down a bit and carefully worked it in with very fine steel wool. It works almost instantly and you can "tune" the degree of finish as you work it. I then assembled everything and used clean steel will to bring back the shine to the brass where it looked best. It is a permanent finish as it actually discolours the surface of the metal. I then waxed it along with the rest of the git.
Looks awesome Tom !!!!!
How did you age all the brass to get such an even finish?
Cheers,
Steve
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I built a diddly bow once but it was fairly basic. I learned a lot on this one that's for sure but the wax wasn't even dry on it and I was looking at the parts for the next...I'm not joking!
Wow man, you pulled that off as your first build? Amazing. You have set the bar high for yourself and the rest of us too. Fantastic!
Not really....;)
Thanks for your kind words.
Now, that's smart looking. You've got me looking for resonator cones on ebay.