TD's Resonator (GHR-1)

[Trevor Davies]

Thank you Moparnut.
The razor blade jig idea came from McCreed! It works a treat.

Today I have sanded back the CN glue marks around the neck and made a 3-ply truss rod cover. The kit came with a black spearhead shape truss rod cover, but I like the look of the 3-ply with the white edge.

[fender3x]

Much nicer than the one that comes with the kit!

[Trevor Davies]

Thanks fender3x.

I have also given the neck join area, body front and sides 3 more coats of satin poly. I must admit that spraying a whole guitar was a lot more difficult that the individual neck and body. I think I need another jig! It has now rested for a week.

I have now also glued in the nut and added the tuners and truss rod cover.

[Trevor Davies]

Today I have added the screened sound hole covers - the sound holes need a slight sand to get them to fit.

Then added the bridge to the spider - to access the screw between the spider and resonator cone (which is in the middle of the bridge support on the spider) the bridge needed to be cut down the middle and about 3mm taken off.

Added the spider to the cone.

Then I added the tailpiece, which was positioned right in the middle of the base of the body so as to get the strings parallel down the neck.

Then added the strings and tuned up. The bridge ended up slightly angled to the body to get good intonation.

But it all worked and sounded great.

[Trevor Davies]

Then I undid the strings and removed the bridge.

I then added a maple/ebony spider bridge. It needed to be sanded quite a lot to fit the bridge support on the spider. I have it about the same height as the bridge that came with the kit. Cut it in half and shaped the ebony top to a triangle. I did not worry about staggered lengths as I want it solely for slide.

Also placed on the coverplate. Added the strings again. The coverplate holes allow you to move the spider/cone/bridge assembly to align the bridge and change the string intonation length.

Tuned to open G , grabbed my slide, and had a play. It sounds great.

I will get some better pictures soon.

[fender3x]

That is such a cool guitar. Will be interested down the line in whether you stay satisfied with keeping it acoustic or succumb to the temptation to put a pickup in it ;-)

[Trevor Davies]

Thanks fender3x. Anything could happen, especially as I have a few spare pups laying around!

[Trevor Davies]

All stock parts except for the Grover 98 series open back tuners, truss rod cover and the maple/ebony bridge. The colour is a diluted FW jarrah (though I could have used FW cedar!). There is a slight darker brown burst around the neck pocket. Finished with sprayed on coats of Cabots water-based satin poly. The logo and staff pattern are Cricut cut vinyl stickers.

I have the string setup quite high for use as a slide guitar. I love the sound it produces! It feels nice to play, (the body is a bit smaller and shallower than my old acoustic which I find uncomfortable to play!)

Final pictures:

[fender3x]

That is a really great looking guitar. Glad it sounds as good as it looks!

I think there is an opportunity to be the first to post one on the galleries forum ;-)

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...hp?f=58&page=2

[colin2121]

Question from left field (pun intended!).
This is listed as right handed kit but with a change of nut and adjusting the intonation by turning the spider, do you reckon it could be made up as a lefty?