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The Hole in the Lowe Resonator Cone and other Mysteries

I've looked at all the resonator help on the site and it's impressive. I still have a couple questions. One -regarding the Lowe cone with the hole in the middle. I'm thinking the hole is to bolt on the biscuit, but want to be sure. Also, with screwing in the the rim of the cone, should you reinforce the edge of the hole you just made with a ring of plywood? I've seen that online, but not sure if Lowe's cone needs it. Likely it does, but it's not easy for me to make one with my lack of power tools. (Would a router cut this best?)

I think I can still put my neck through the body of the CB by adding another 1 x 2 strip under my neck 2 inches before it goes in the box. Maybe even another 1/2 inch strip too depending on the depth of the cone. Then I can cut out the room needed for the cone and screw in the remaining depth of neck to the back stop end of the box. If I do that do I still need to reinforce the box?

Any other suggestions would be very welcome.photo%20%282%29.JPG

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on March 9, 2014 at 11:42am

I have not built a lot of resos, but in my opinion, you don't need to reinforce the lid. I am doing the same thing on the one I am currently building, by cutting away the neck to make room for the bottom of the cone, then adding the additional wood to reinforce the neck.

When you are ready for final assembly, you should screw the lid to the neck, and that adds some additional strength too.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on March 9, 2014 at 11:45am

One important point:

I would install the cone first, then make the fingerboard and neck line up, since once the cone is installed, you can't move the bridge. I would add an additional .25 inches to the scale length to keep the intonation correct. I make most of my guitars 24 inch scale, and when fretted at the 12th fret, I always end up having to move the bridge an additional quarter inch towards the tailpiece to set the intonation.

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on March 9, 2014 at 11:51am

The hole in the reso is for wire acesss...handy if you want to use a piezo-element (rod or disc) biscuit bridge. Be sure to ground cone and strings to reduce unwanted humming, etc. Re-inforce if you feel it's needed. The cone displaces a fair amount of string pressure, as long as the top of box is not too weak. A nice look is to use flat head screws w/ cupped finish washers in brass, or if you have the aluminum cone, use stainless steel hardware.

The underside of the cone projects downward into the box 1 inch (minus the thickness of the box lid/surface). So, a neck-thru build is not really a good choice. By using a piece of wood that runs from inside box, tail to neck as a brace, you can either bolt on or glue on your neck. Think of it like a bolt on neck of a Stratocaster.

Make a tailpiece for the strings, that doubles as a means to drive a screw into the center of the tail end of the inner brace wood. Like where a strap pin would be. That anchors the terminal ends of the strings (at headstock and at tailpiece).

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Permalink Reply by Comrade Paul on March 9, 2014 at 1:21pm

great advice. I forgot i have to set up the neck to fit the bridge with a reso. I suspect i will have to have the neck ride higher that I usually do.

Good on the neck set too, i stretch a piece of wood under and glue/screw in. I will do the tailpiece, agree on the add'l screw stability. I think I'm going to use the smaller wood box on the right. It's so small that the cone will rest close enough to the side for serious support, plenty deep for a work around glue on neck.

thanks guys. will let you know how it goes.

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Permalink Reply by Karmakaze on March 9, 2014 at 3:54pm

It would be amazing if you or one of the replyers could post up a sketch of some sort so the rest of us who are planning reso builds could understand what you are talking about. :-)