The Resonator

[GreyFloyd]

Received my kit today and it looks complete but as this is a new build of a very different guitar I'll see how I go as to whether all the bits are included!! Built seven kits so far but the resonator is a completely different animal. Wish me luck!

[kuanjb]

Awesome! I shall be watching as I also have a resonator kit waiting to be built.

I'm curious how you'll do the piezo pickup. In my kit it came with an under saddle rod pickup but that will cover the central screw for adjusting the cone. Plus the under saddle will require drilling through the cone to route the wires. I'm leaning towards using a disc piezo under the cone myself.

Pot values and whether you use a preamp or stereo out are also a couple things to consider.

Good luck with the build!

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[JohnH]

Cool! Interested to see what you do with it

[FrankenWashie]

Awesome! I shall be watching as I also have a resonator kit waiting to be built.

I'm curious how you'll do the piezo pickup. In my kit it came with an under saddle rod pickup but that will cover the central screw for adjusting the cone. Plus the under saddle will require drilling through the cone to route the wires. I'm leaning towards using a disc piezo under the cone myself.

Pot values and whether you use a preamp or stereo out are also a couple things to consider.

Good luck with the build!

Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk

Hi kuanjb,
Once you've got that cone tightened up to the spider, you shouldn't need to touch it.
As far as the wiring for the kit one goes, I ran the wiring across the spider leg closest to the control cavity and popped a 3mm hole into the very corner of the ledge the cone sits on to feed that little jack through.
Currently routing and filing out new holes in the body sides to house a fishman pre-amp and a battery case.

[FrankenWashie]

Received my kit today and it looks complete but as this is a new build of a very different guitar I'll see how I go as to whether all the bits are included!! Built seven kits so far but the resonator is a completely different animal. Wish me luck!

Hi GreyFLoyd, I would do the following checks, based on what i learned from my kit. Hopefully yours is a better example than mine was.
- Check the scale length to the bridge
- Check the neck pick up fit with the neck in place at more or less the correct scale length. (Both Corksniffer and I had to modify to get it to fit)
- Mount the cone up into the recess and make sure that it seats around that ledge and doesn't just sit on the bottom of the sound well, both Corksniffer and I had to re rout the bottom of the well to get the cone to sit where as it should.
- Check your fit on the "Tea strainer" screens at the upper and lower horns, mine are loose, and their recess is a loose interpretation of "Circular".

If you've done a few then you'll be familiar with the other things to look for, out of whack tuner holes etc so I won't gild the lily on that stuff. Hope you strike none of the issues that Myself and Corksniffer had and best of luck with it, look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Cheers, FW

[kuanjb]

Hi kuanjb,
Once you've got that cone tightened up to the spider, you shouldn't need to touch it.
As far as the wiring for the kit one goes, I ran the wiring across the spider leg closest to the control cavity and popped a 3mm hole into the very corner of the ledge the cone sits on to feed that little jack through.
Currently routing and filing out new holes in the body sides to house a fishman pre-amp and a battery case.

Hmmmm. I thought you were supposed to adjust the cone tension with the strings on. That's why resonators have a split bridge right?

https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Onlin...tar_Setup.html

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[FrankenWashie]

Did your kit actually come with a split bridge? I'll be filthy if it did. All I got was a 3mm wide strip of Ebony that sat loosely in the 1/8" bridge slot meant to hold it. I might experiment with gluing that bit to some hard maple i have lying around to get it fitting properly as it ain't gonna work the way it is.

I shall have to read that full article when I get closer to the noisy end of the build, thanks for the link. I forget that StewMac isn't just a tools and supplies resource sometimes.

Have you struck any of the other issues I raised? Be interesting to see.
Apologies for the Thread Jacking GreyFloyd, though it's kind of relevant??

[king casey]

Did your kit actually come with a split bridge? I'll be filthy if it did.

(Closes PBG web page, flings Ipad across the room).

cheers, Mark.

[kuanjb]

No it was a single blank like yourself. I was planning on cutting it.

Another link of interest re resonator pickup options:

https://www.guitarchalk.com/resonato...spider-bridge/

Maybe we should start a new thread somewhere where can all share our knowledge, tips, tricks and pitfalls.

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[GreyFloyd]

Hi fellow resonators! Thanks for the tips so far. I have a bunch of questions but feel I should look at the stewmac links to get a handle on some of the issues. I'd be happy to keep in touch on any new thread if you want to steer clear of an amateur like me. Not sure what the sound holes/tea strainers actually contribute; one of the holes is also a loose interpretation FW. The Piezo has me beat; not sure how that fits (to bridge??); also have a small ebony blank. It seems that the routing issues you guys had may have been solved in mine, although it still looks a bit rough. Would be nice to have a wiring diagram - did check the w-I-p instruction manual and its link to wiring but no luck there.