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Crossroads memorial resonator

I built this little 3 string resonator in remembrance of my trip this spring to Mississippi. I visited THE crossroads in Clarksdale (highways 49 & 61) and picked up a small branch that fell off of the tree located at the crossroads themselves. I turned this into the fret markers. I used green mother of pearl side markers at the fret lines to help with slide playing.The nut is a piece on deer antler I picked up at the Vicksburg battle site just above the site of the iron clad battleship "Cairo". The ship was inspiration for the Victorian style brass and bolt motif. The neck is Peruvian walnut from CB Gitty and it has a brass Lowe cone and western star sound hole covers. I cut a clamping ring from brass and drilled it to match the cone. The box is a cheap and cheerful craft box which I braced and tightened up. A cabinet maker friend machined me a solid oak internal neck extension to mount the box onto. It is fitted with an Artec in-line preamp output socket and finally is is fitted with one of Randy Bretz's fine rod biscuits with a brass saddle. It sings very well with a high Dad stringing. I'm very pleased with this as it is my first real guitar build!

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Comment by Paul Craig on March 10, 2018 at 10:32am: That is beautiful Tom. A top notch job.

Comment by Jeff 'Bones' Reilly on March 10, 2018 at 9:29am: Perfect indeed .

Comment by Tom Lauten on March 25, 2017 at 10:35pm: Thanks very much Ron!

Comment by RonCrosswhite on March 25, 2017 at 12:17pm: Beautiful! Good job.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 16, 2013 at 7:36am: Hop on the Loch Ness ferry, go out to the middle of the loch, have a nice single malt, and play a tune to summon the beast. In fact, have one for me; I had a great time at Castle Urquhart last time we were there.

Comment by Tom Lauten on June 15, 2013 at 6:55am: I would but Clarksdale is a looooong way from Inverness in the Scottish highlands! Perhaps I should see if Tam O'Shanter offers any options!

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 15, 2013 at 5:12am: Tom,

Gorgeous execution. Take it back to the crossroads at midnight.

Comment by Tom Lauten on June 15, 2013 at 5:07am: Thanks David.

I loved making this guitar. I was so pleased when I came up with the clamping ring idea, it made a HUGE difference in the way I could put it together. The box wasn't super strong in that it is a soft wood with a weak grain so rather than relying on the holes in the lid to hold the cone in place it is now pinched in place. The holes are just notches now and the stress is really off the wood. The brass plates also helped to give me clean and strong mounting points.