Reso-T

[DarkMark]

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

[king casey]

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

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

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

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.

[impala59]

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

[impala59]

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!