Reso-T

Having been informed by she who must be obeyed that I will be losing my Garage/Workshop in mid December for an unspecified period, but about a couple of months, due to family soft furnishing storage, I determined to use my power tools whilst I can and rough out my future builds. Mainly in my head at this time, there are a few that I shall document and then I can do my finishing work indoors, (she has agreed small works but no power tools in the kitchen) Number one of this series is the Reso-T, basically a slightly jumbo Tele with a resonator, single coil in the neck position and piezo on the cone. I have a Regal Resonator acoustic and have had some success with piezo pickups when recording.
I started with some seasoned pine, glued the 3 pieces and clamped. I drew the shape, (later modifying to give me some more meat). I measured the 25.5 scale length with my chosen maple neck loosely clamped in place. I worked out the position for the cone, spider and cover. The extra wood on the rear will permit me to use a hardtail string anchor. (I have had problems with the regal trapeze anchor. The other issue with my Regal is the intonation, Resonators traditionally use a maple fixed bridge, a bit of engineering needed!
I levelled the wood bridge supports on the spider and drilled either side to enable a tunomatic bridge to be used. I tapped the holes to M4 and fitted machine screws. I fitted brass bushes to the bridge holes that gave me a snug fit on the M4 screws. I drilled a centre hole in the bridge and filed slightly the D and G saddle sides so as to enable an allen key to be inserted once the guitar is assembled to adjust the cone tension (it was originally a cross head screw, substituted now for an M3 machine screw. I still have some tweaking to do on the bridge/spider assembly, including replacing the nuts with knurled height adjusters.
I have started some body shaping while still clamped (impatient!) and the alignment all looks to be ok (at this time) My plan at the moment is for an Aluminium back to this guitar to assist with the reflected tones. This will also enable me to run the electrics as and where needed as the back will be screwed on. Probably going for simple 3 way switching 1V 1T, I may need a pre-amp on the piezo, but getting ahead of myself there.
As previously stated I will do the rough work on this one then put it aside to finish later


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Oooohhh.. This is a nutty one!

Interesting build. I'd like to know how resonator like it sounds with the metal bridge, as a wooden bridge is normally seen as a fundamental part of the sound.

I actually have a brass bridge (single piece that should be a two piece to allow for tensioning) in my Regal and together with a brass nut for open tunings, it firstly allows me to use lighter gauge strings and moves the tone toward the all metal types. I’ve had the old Regal for years, as my only acoustic, it does everything that I want.

nutty!🤪🤪🤪 I can live with that Sonic!

Here's my Regal, a parlour. Not sure of the exact age, but definitely post-WW2 (from the original Kluson tuner patent number), but probably no later than 48 when they are supposed to have stopped making them. I've had the back off as all the struts needed re-gluing, and as a result it's now got a new nitro clear finish over the top of the touch-up work, and new Kluson strip tuners as the originals were too worn to hold tune.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/QRMY2f.jpg

The bridge could do with a deeper saddle slot and a new saddle to match, as it is a shallow rout and the saddle is leaning forwards a bit. But it plays OK given that it's got no truss rod (at least no adjustable one but the neck is pretty chunky so I assume there's none at all). It sounds OK, if not remarkable. These were cheap guitars and weren't made with the best tonewoods. A better bridge/saddle arrangement and I think it could sound a bit better. Just need to get the courage to attack it with the Dremel router.

That is a lovely looking instrument Simon. When I needed to do some routing recently on a friend’s acoustic bridge, I built up a platform around it using scrap ply and double sided tape, then made a template to guide the dremel rout cage. Lots of prep but no tear out or tears 😭! Slow shallow cuts with sharp tools and I got away with it, but is was scary though!

This is my old Regal, not an antique but mine from new for the last 30 years or so. When about 5 years old it was attacked by my old rescue greyhound and the headstock broke clean off. I tried a dollop of outdoor Resin W just before I binned it and its still with me today. The only mods are a brass nut and bridge, it holds tune forever and I run it on 10's for comfort. Loud and jangly, not worth a lot but I will never sell it.
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I managed a bit more hacking at the T body to get a rough shape, still quite a bit to remove though. I routed the neck pocket, neck pickup and rebate for the cone. Set up a rough assembly to check centre line and scale length, I have 25.5 at the high E which saddle is forward in the bridge, so happy with that. Centre line is ok. Just using cotton, the action at the 12th fret is high (about 3/16ths inch) but that will change with strings as they compress the cone under tension. I will probably have to actually raise the bridge when stringing up.
I have been doing a bit of research and have found many people on youtube don't really understand these instruments, one 'luthier' actually screwed the cone to the guitar!
Having said that I am breaking many rules with this one and we will see if I get away with it. Its fun though and not too expensive if it all goes pear shaped!
Pic shows current state next to my (for Frankie) Seafoam Snakehead for scale comparison. Incidentally. I picked up the Seafoam Tele while in the US last year for $99 brand new and can't fault it
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Nice Regal. Definitely a working guitar rather than anything too fancy.

Reso-T is coming along nicely.

Nice oddball creativity Impala59, I thick this is a pretty cool project. Looking good already. Good luck building it in the kitchen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

The bridge could do with a deeper saddle slot and a new saddle to match

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Why don't you just take the saddle out and sand that down?

cheers, Mark.

I have done, but the saddle isn’t very high at all and it’s leaning forwards. It had been glued in place before I did the refurb, which is not ideal. If a normal acoustic saddle is typically about 10mm tall on average, this is about 5mm tall and the slot only about 2mm deep and a bit wider than it should be. More of a notch than a slot. The top strings are buzzing slightly on it as that end isn’t seated well. Plenty of height in the bridge to accommodate a deeper slot.

I managed a few hours on the resonator today (sneaked off work early to catch some daylight)
I fitted the 3mm aluminium plate back with screws. (still with protective cover in picture) I test fitted the neck pickup (temp red mount) I fitted only one of the round grilles, and only then because I felt that an opening was necessary to allow equalisation of pressure for the resonator?? I test fitted the Musicman control plate (not as good a fit as I had hoped)
I have assembled and test strung which has revealed some issues to address
1 The long string length from tail to bridge needs damping, there is so much resonance that these parts of the strings all vibrate together when any note is played.
2 The action is too high in my lowest bridge setting so some trimming will be necessary.
3 String trees will be needed
4 For open tuning I will make a brass nut
5 The bridge springs need attention, due to the high level of resonance/vibration it shows up weak springs and rocking saddles
6 When I lower the bridge I may have an issue with the break angle to the tail piece, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it
Some good things! the sound is very nice and is loud acoustically even though this is a solid body, incidentally, no sound seems to come out of the grill, all volume is projected from the disc. Backing off the tension screw gives a wonderful acoustic fuzz box sound! With the the tail strings damped, the sound is crystal clear and bright even though I have used relatively light EB 10-46 strings. The intonation will be ok once I get the strings a bit closer at the twelfth fret. It is a heavy b****r but actually seems manageable. The structure seems solid and braced by the back plate and the top disc I think it will be ok. So plenty still to do but moving forward ok

Well I finished putting it all together, though not too happy with the paint (automotive rattle cans) Probably rushed the prep due to workshop constraints too. I may revisit the finish at a later date and use decent nitro c paint. I used a 2vol 1 tone control panel, slightly modified MM type. It works fine but the piezo pickup is about half the volume of the neck single bar tele type. I sort of expected this, so may fit a pre-amp, for now running with the neck at half works fine. The resonator sounds authentic, with a metallic, banjo-esque tone which is nice for picking. The neck pickup is capturing some of the resonator tone and is deep and solid. With both on it has a good usable tone with a very acoustic feel at low volumes. I have not yet put it through the AC30, but through the Pignose at full volume the piezo feeds back like Hendrix on acid! Acoustically, the guitar is loud enough to not need an amp and has a nice resonator tone even with the light strings that I have used (EB Slinky 10-46) The action is pretty much Ok and will be finally addressed when I fit a brass nut so that all contact will be metal to metal. With heavier gauge strings I believe this would be a good slide guitar. I finished the headstock with roller trees and my circle37 logo

Pics show kitchen table workbench (wife at work) the piezo attached to the resonator, the solution to the over vibration of the string tails (rubber sleeve on strings, tail piece dropped by about 3/8" to improve the break angle from the bridge) and the guitar front and back (showing 3mm aluminium back which contributes largely to the weight)

ALL in all, I am fairly happy with this attempt at something different and as a working prototype it does actually work! It is playable, despite being larger than a regular tele and apart from being on the heavy side, is not too uncomfortable. Many lessons learned, particularly in wood choice, whatever this was it did not like being worked and fought me with chips and splinters plus even a bit of resin!