The Resonator Guitar

Well .... what can I say ..... it came out Great and sounds Fantastic .... I missed it's first night out at the Manchester Bar & Grill last night, but plan to catch it's second night out at open mic at The Barn in Pawlet, tomorrow night ... Can't wait ...


Well, there was still a lot of stuff to do after the photos posted in June, and it was summer and there wasn't a lot of "spare" time, but Will is really in the home stretch now. All the finish is on and now he has to wait a week for it to cure before he can rub it out, shine it up and put it all back together. After some experimentation, he decided to go with a rubbed finish which exposed the stained wood underneath the black (second photo) . Since it is a kit and the body is plywood, I think the rubbed finish is a great choice. I can't wait to see it all back together .... and, I really can't wait to hear it .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

All top coats on

The understain .... The body is stained with an aniline dye from W.D. Lockwood ...

First notes 6 28 08 .... A smiling Mom looks on ... still lots of work left to do ...

My younger son Will has been working on a resonator guitar in his 'spare' time for a couple months now. It's actually a kit from Stewart MacDonald guitar supply. We bought it a while back but it seemed like kind of a daunting project so it had to sit for a while until he was ready to tackle it. Coming down the home stretch now ... the first strings were filed into the nut tonight .... It's been many hours of patient and careful work. The next one will go much faster I'm sure ....

6/20/08 first strings going on. The resonator cone is off to the left ...

The simple, elegant peghead star inlay in mother of pearl

Gluing the top onto the sides

Gluing the kerfed backing strips to the sides to reinforce the joint between the sides and the top and back

The fingerboard is glued to the neck after installing the frets and dots

Tuners installed on the peghead