Luthier making custom resonator and electric guitars on the Isle of Man
Chamber of Horrors
People sometimes wonder what’s so difficult about setting up a resonator guitar. Well, when you take off that coverplate you never know what you’re going to find. Here are a few examples, mostly from my own workshop - You can click on most of them for a closer view. My thanks to all who’ve contributed photos and allowed their guitars to be shown:
This is a biscuit bridge cone which has been damaged by too much pressure on the biscuit.
Here is a spider bridge cone which has been pulled out of shape by overtightening the tension screw.
The cone ring on this “famous name” resonator has been cut out badly and dips on one side so that it does not meet the guitar top. The ring should be completely level.
This Beltona biscuit bridge cone got too much pressure on the strings when someone fell on it!.
Here’s another spider cone where the tension screw was over-tightened. If you look closely you can see that as well as it being pulled out of shape the spider legs have dug into the cone rim.
Someone sometime decided the action was too low on this one, so they stuck another piece of wood on the top of the bridge.
This tricone cone has had a bad knock. See how the underside of the T piece has dug into the top.
The neck is straight, but the neck stick isn’t. It missed the tailpiece screw completely.
This soundwell has been glued in the wrong place.
These assorted bits of loose wood & sandpaper all came from one guitar, and were used to pack the bits that didn’t fit together properly. The largest piece of wood is the tail block!
