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Bass/lead hybrid resonator!

Hiya folks!

not sure the world is ready for this but I've just finished my first license plate bass/lead hybrid! I read a tip that works very well - put the pup below the plate cos it's magnetic.

I built my own box to fit the plate. Learned a lot about basic woodwork in the process!

I'm pleased how it looks, but got to admit the lead strings sound a lot better than the bass ones, so I'm going to restring with all lead strings to make a resonator. But I'm not going to give up on the bass/lead "baytar" just yet and make a similar design to this but instead cut up an old oak table to make a solid body license plate one. Can't wait to get started!

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Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on August 11, 2017 at 8:40am

Curious...what is the benefit of a solid body license plate build? I mean, I get the resonator thing for a license plate on a box, but it seems like a plate on a solid body would just be decoration (which is cool if that's what you're going for.) Again, just curious.

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Permalink Reply by Geordie Hillbilly on August 12, 2017 at 1:52am

Purely decoration! All my mates have said it looks cool with the Elvis plate so I thought it would be a shame if I didn't have it to use onstage (I'm our bands bassist/singer).

The one thing I was thinking about was whether to again position the pick up below the plate? I'd still like to try and get a more rattly sound on the bass to add a bit of roughness to our sound. Plus the plate looks good without another hole in it I think.

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Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on August 12, 2017 at 2:38am

Sounds like a good plan. It is a really cool plate. Maybe you could hollow out a little space underneath the plate.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 12, 2017 at 9:06am

You still get a little plate influence in there.
If you guys get a chance, check out Duesenberg Guitar's Rezobro guitar. It looks like a Les Paul guitar with a round plate on top, but it has a unique bridge/pickup feature to maximize/minimize the resonator influence and sounds awesome. http://duesenbergusa.com/product/pomona-6-lapsteel/

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 12, 2017 at 9:18am

One of the guy's over on the TDPRI guitar forum removed the middle pickup of his Strat type guitar and replaced it with a 2 pole Delta Groove pickup and plays bass while playing guitar at the same time.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5L3iRxyIo
Bass pickup to a on/off toggle switch, then to one of the tone knobs converted to a volume and run to a separate jack to a bass amp.

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Permalink Reply by Geordie Hillbilly on August 15, 2017 at 9:44am

That is a great sound! Sorry, but how does he get the bass sound? Is he using an octaver?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 15, 2017 at 10:03am

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/presenting-blackie-my-guitar-bass-proj...

Here's the thread for details.

You can run a guitar signal to a bass amp and get convincing bass sound at least using the low strings. His pickup only gets the low E & A strings. A octave pedal would enhance it well.

There's a couple of companies out there making pickups in a humbucker housing that will do this, but they are very pricey. You can make your own fairly cheap.