Quick and dirty project - resoelectric

[WezV]

My first ever guitar project was a telecatser from a cheap kit.  It was pretty naff but i learned how to do a pretty good oil and wax finish


A couple of years later i decided it would be better as a semi hollow tele, so i very roughly sawed the top off - planed it up - hollowed it out and attached a spalted beech top. That was my second ever building project and it really brought it to life.



Not been playing it lately though - infact i dont have the neck from it anymore!!

So time for some fun!!!!

 i decided it was time to do a reso electric experiment and have just spent the evening routing out for the cone

i couldnt resist throwing it togther so grabbed a neck (which doesnt fit) and added a string.

here it is at the moment



i also decided to add a few holes to the back, since the cone is set into the back of the guitar i thought they might help the acoustic sound



Well, i think i am going to have to spend a bit more time on this because my initial impressions are pretty damn good!!  It sound like a quieter resonator which is better than i was hoping for at this stage

what to do now?

I have room for a humbucker at the neck so i think i will look if i have any spare in the parts bin.  Probably not going to have a BKP on this one - sorry!!

I have the big shiny cover plate

I obviously need to find or make a neck that fits the guitar

And i may have another go at goldleafing a guitar - actually i think i still have some silver and chrome leaf that may look good.  the wax finish thats already on ther may make that more work than i want for this thing!!


I suppose everyone has noticed the dents in the cone - it came like that but the supplier are already sending me a replacement.


Obviously thanks go out to sollophonic for the great idea.  I want to do a proper reso at some point and this is a great introduction!!

[Twinfan]

Hey - that looks cool!  Looking forward to seeing the finished article!

[WezV]

thanks, i am currently trying to decide what pickup to put in it.  Not BKP's yet because this is a cheapo project but if it all turns out nice i might add one later

In my parts bin i found some epiphone humbuckers which are complete pants.  Some stew-mac golden age humbuckers which are ok but very generic.  A kent armstong/sky P-90 and some fender black dove p-90s.  I have to say the fender p-90's are the worst pickup construction i have ever seen.  warped bobbins and very delicate connections to the coil wire - i am surprised i ever got them in a guitar without snapping something

so really its a choice between a cheap humbucker or a cheaep p-90 and either way i might change it for bkp later

[ToneMonkey]

P-90, I love P-90's

Or if your doing it for looks, a lipstick pup.

[WezV]

A lipstick would look good but would limit my choice for future upgrades - maybe a p-90 and i can get a chrome cover

[plastercaster]

well done that man!
an excellent example of how even a humble saucepan lid can be recycled to musical good use.  

[WezV]

Ah - the saucepan lid joke.  I suppose i had better get the cover plate on quick sharpish!!.

i decided to get myself a mini-bucker for this - i think it will look best.  Only a cheap one but if i can either try to convince tim to do me a minibucker later  or get him to rewind this one.

Actually i ahve been thinking about minibuckers lately  and what i really want is a johnny smith style one.  For anyone that deosnt know minibuckers come in 3 main styles.

the epiphone/LP deluxe version has screw polepieces on one coil, a bar polpiece on the other and a alnico magnet underneath.

the firebird style one has alnico bar magents as the polepiece with the coil wrapped around the magnets as well as a ferrous metal shim underneath contacting the two magnets.

the johnny smith one is apparently a comination of the two.  It has one coil with screws, one with an alnico magnet  bar polepiece and a ferrous metal plate on the bottom to magnetise the screw polepieces.

the firebrd pickups should have a bit more attack than the LP/epiphone ones and i reckon the JS one should be somewhere in the middle

just thinking out loud though - can anyone tell i have been reading up on my pickups a bit more

[38thBeatle]

Has to be P90's Wez-looking good though and I am looking forward to seeing the outcome.

[WezV]

Has to be P90's Wez-looking good though and I am looking forward to seeing the outcome.

well since i have decided to go with a minbucler it doesnt really rule out p-90's in its future.  My plan is to make a pickup ring rather than buy an overly priced firebird one so i might as well make the  whole thing P-90 sized the way gibson did with LP deluxes

[gingataff]

Actually i ahve been thinking about minibuckers lately ...

Strangely enough I had a dream about a guitar with minibuckers last night, must be some of that halloween voodoo floating around.

Anyway, are you planning to fit some kind of transducer for the resonator for an 'acoustic' option?

[WezV]

i dont really want to spend to much on it at this stage but that will be an option i can look into when its together

[ToneMonkey]

the firebird style one has alnico bar magents as the polepiece with the coil wrapped around the magnets as well as a ferrous metal shim underneath contacting the two magnets.

That's what I'm trying to get....... for as close to free as I can  

Maybe we sould get to work on Tim and errrr, "test" some of his prototypes on a permanent basis.  Still it doesn't help with the banjo tuners I need to find  :roll:

Does your tele have a neck angle?  We've been slightly redesigning the metal reso's that we're building and trying to increase the break angle over the bridge.

[WezV]

it has a 2mm shim in the neck pocket at the moment to create the angle - i will do more work to get the angle right once i have a neck that fits!!