cork sniffers resonator project

[cork sniffer]

I've been following FrankenWashie's build thread, don't want to hijack so started another for a similar guitar.
The ESR-1 Resonator kit arrived today, fast service by Adam and Australia Post, thank you both.
Like FW's mine also has the mini humbucker cutout a little too close to the end of neck. I think the answer will be to widen the recess on the bridge side of hole, comments please?



My cone appears to fit OK into body without any additional machining unlike FW's. It's 40mm from top face to bottom of recess. The bottom of recess is wafer thin and under it there's reasonable size air gap before the outer ply back.



FW says his measures exactly 24.75" nut to bridge. Mine is approx 1/16" longer from inner nut to inner bridge, is that OK or should I correct the length?



I'll be watching FW's thread, particularly the piezo & pre-amp situation.
Thanks in advance for any help or comments.

[FrankenWashie]

If you go back further with the pup rout, make sure that you don't foul the PUP ring on the front of the Cone Cover.
It sounds as though your sound well was deeper to start with, which is good, how deep is the body at the edge? Mine measured up at 1.875" or thereabouts.
Does yours have the through holes for the PUP and the piezo pre drilled? Inquiring minds wish to know. Also how are your screen holes? are they actually circular or are they a bit iffy as well?

[cork sniffer]

Think I can get away with moving humbucker and still clear the cone cover.
Tenths of inches don't compute with me, check the photo, does that help :-)
No "through holes" drilled :-(
In some parallel universe the screen holes may be called circular but not in mine, slack isn't it! Not to worry about that as the chrome covers will hide them.
What do you think of my scale length being 1/16" longer than your 24 3/4"?

[Roger79]

If I survive my current build, this one will be next !!
Good luck !! Will look forward to your work !

[cork sniffer]

It sounds as though your sound well was deeper to start with, which is good, how deep is the body at the edge?

I may have found the difference between your kit and mine.
You commented in your build thread about your cone not being spun ...
Check the photo of yours and then mine.

[cork sniffer]

Another little problem to work around with this resonator kit.
Comments please ...
To get a centre line, neck through body I push (lightly) on neck to the left and run a straight edge down neck binding and across body to get the purple lines. Then I equally push neck to the right and get the blue lines. Then average them and decide the red and black lines will be a nice neutral position to clamp to when setting the neck.



Using the created red edges and new black centre line I test fit the cone and cover to find them off centre with the body but correct with the proposed neck position.



That doesn't look very good!
Do I work the neck pocket to get it running down the centre of body?
All suggestions welcome :-(

[cork sniffer]

Removed enough timber from the mini-humbucker recess today to allow the pickup to fit between the neck and cone cover.
Baby steps, lots of lateral thinking and not much building going on.
Also figured out how to get around the off centre cone recess and have the finished job look symmetrical.

[Simon Barden]

You could always reshape the body, so the top edges are the same distance from the cover as the bottom edges. But you;d have to be prepared to re-do all the binding and cut new binding channels where you've narrowed the body. That's quite a tall order, though achievable. Or you could reshape the body, forget about the binding and paint over it all with a solid colour, so you don't have to worry about re-doing the binding.

[cork sniffer]

You could always reshape the body, so the top edges are the same distance from the cover as the bottom edges. But you;d have to be prepared to re-do all the binding and cut new binding channels where you've narrowed the body. That's quite a tall order, though achievable. Or you could reshape the body, forget about the binding and paint over it all with a solid colour, so you don't have to worry about re-doing the binding.

Reshape with or without binding is a little too much for me on this my second kit. I am collecting interesting looking timber for a body build in the future, some now sitting and aging in my garage.
I'm planning on setting the neck "slightly" off centre, move the cone accordingly and the cone cover a little more off centre again. The result should look balanced and the workings still true with the neck.
My real concern is the preamp issue. I'm also reluctant to go with a pedal and hope to get all required within the guitar. I've been talking with FrankenWashie and hope to get direction from him or your good self :-)

[cork sniffer]

Two problems show up today prompting two questions.

I've found the wafer thin bottom of the sound hole has warped (been sitting in a hot room), now the cone doesn't sit correctly, it's resting at two places on bottom.
Given the very thin nature of the material and the cavity between the warped bottom and the ply back of guitar body, is there any reason why I shouldn't use a Stanley Knife and cut the bottom out? This won't weaken the body at all but will make the air volume greater under the cone. Possibly this may give the electric guitar a "slight" acoustic advantage?



The second issue, I assume I'll have to drill a hole through the spider to allow the piezo wire to pass through?
When the piezo sits in the bridge recess I think the wire would have to be bent to an unacceptable level. A hole would allow a less strained cable on it's way to the control cavity.