How much more difficult is a dog bowl resonator to build compared to a regular cbg? Thanks, Bill

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I like those too.

Paul Craig

HI I would love a slide guitar like this . I like the idea of the 6 sting one to very much. I think I understand  you are saying the Dog Bowl works well and the responses are saying because it is thinner??

The idea of a strat body with the bowl cavity in it sounds good.  Do you like the idea of putting a big bowl in for a example a acoustic body guitar? What type of sound would this configuration have?  I would think deeper bass or perhaps the body would not interact as much but the bigger deeper bowl will interact and the acoustic depth of the guitar is only to the measurement of a deeper thin dog bowl. Do you make these disigne and sell them?

Great post and photos

Rick Washbrook

www.washbrookmusic.com

Hi Rick, I was saying that not all metal bowls will sound good. Some will have a dull tone to them. I think you should rap your knuckle on a bunch of them to find one that has a good ring to it.

My Strat-O-Res guitar build centered around a metal skillet(8" Silverstone skillet/frying pan) that I got free when I ordered something by mail. I dropped it on the floor by accident and noticed it had a nice ringing tone to it and it was thin enough(1.5") to fit in the Strat body I had which was 1.75" thick and the diameter just happened to be right. Sometimes the right combination of parts come together to make something great. The most time consuming part was routing the body and making the pickguard for it.

It has 2 single coil P90 like pickups and a piezo wired to a standard 5-way Strat type switch, 500k volume and tone pots with .022 cap. There's a slight popping sound when switching to the piezo because of the impedance mismatch, but the "Reso" tone comes through on all switch choices. P90's, Gold Foils or Lipstick Tube pickups are great for slide.

Dog food/water bowls in a acoustic guitar can be great, I think a resonator cone would be better in this application. The biggest problem with doing this to an acoustic guitar is cutting through the bracing for the top which can lead to top sag under string pressure. Got to know how to support everything without dampening the bowl and top vibrations. I haven't done one like that yet, so definitely get a lot of info from someone that's done one before you do it.

Taffy made a really nice one.

My experience with building a dog bowl reso git was mixed. I had a big, deep "Payback" cigar box, so it was a great box to work with. It was also my first bolt-on neck build, so there was a good learning experience involved. When completed and strung up it looked awesome to me. Upon playing it, the sound was dull and muddy. I switched several different bridges in and out, and a copper pipe bridge was the best compromise. I restrung it with lighter strings, but that didn't help very much. Ultimately, I pulled out the dog bowl, and screwed a license plate onto the top, covering the original dog bowl hole. I inserted a bolt bridge.It is a better sounding git for it. I believe the thick walled box and the questionable resonance of my dog bowl were the likely culprits on a low quality sound. So, I likely won't build another dog bowl reso, but the experience of the build was fun, and experience gained. I have since built two Lightning" cone resos, and they are far superior sounding, as expected. There was a generally pleasant response from folks who saw it....the usual "That's a cigar box?", followed by "A dog bowl?". Priceless!

Hi Granpa,

It looks like I better start experiementing.

So you wont use the dog bowl any more. Can you direct me a kit that could get me going? That you have heard and feel it is good??

Rick

Rick, I used the 5 1/2" aluminum cone made by Charles Atchison. It is available direct from Charles Atchison, and it is available from CB Gitty. I bought from Gitty, because I always buy a lot of parts and get free shipping. You will have to drill the holes in the cone yourself, but if you map it it carefully , it will go pretty easy.  A drill press is very helpful, but you can do it by hand if required.You can also get a 7" cone at either place, and Atchison also has copper cones available. You will want to buy or make a biscuit bridge, and maybe a cover for the cone. The cover is decorative, so you can use one or not, your choice. Covers are often pre-drilled for you, so that could be a useful template for drilling your cone. A google search will probably turn up many other options for reso cones, but the aforementioned places served me well. There are lots of images at Atchison, in these forums, and on the interwebs that may help fuel your design juices. Always fun to see what others have built. Do it!

Rick, I just checked out your website. You look like a guy that should have a dobro or two, maybe a vintage National Steel Body Triolian.

Hi again, if one understands the reason why the resonator "Dobro" guitar was developed, and also look at the workings of the cone, you can imagine the shortcomings of using a dog bowl or paint tin lid.

In the  CBG theme for being different, using found objects, doing it on the cheap, making do or to create a talking point, using a dog bowl is fine, it meets the above criteria.

But main reason the Dopera brothers had in mind for resonator guitar,I understand, was to have a guitar with more volume.

When I'm talking about the sound, volume and tone, I have to remind myself I talking about CBG's and to compare apples with apples. Being a builder of acoustic guitars I started trying to improve the qualities of sound in a CBG, this was not a hard thing to do, but I ended up with CBG's that sounded great, for CBGS, but if you could not see it being played you'd think it was a cheep acoustic guitar.

I think if you put the biggest dog bowl in any guitar it's gonna sound like a dog bowl, a lot of work for no gain.

cheers Taff

Another possibly good thing to try for a resonator is large aluminum serving trays. Also the spinner disc of audio turntables are made of aluminum and some have bracing formed in them that resembles a spider bridge.

Justin Johnson has a 6-string guitar made into a metal roasting pan/dutch oven. They come in all sizes and depths. 

Have fun experimenting, I can see a bunch of guy/gals at Walmart on the kitchen aisles and pet aisles banging and clanking all the metal bits. Hahaha

I was one of those guys. At Walmart, every single pet store and dollar store. I looked at a lot of bowls. Most of them I'd flick the side and they were dull, had weird cutouts or goofy looking dog bones or paws. I finally found a plain one at a Dollarama that rang like a bell. Unfortunately, they only had two. I think it sounds great in my 3 stringer. I also stretched two springs across the middle (inside of bowl). They add a really cool haunting reverb sound and a sustain that last for days. 

See, all the banging and clanking paid off.

Maybe the problem is using "dog" bowls, we need to be more kitty friendly...lol

Got these copper kitty bowls a while back to make a tri-cone res, mostly because I like the looks of them and thought it would be fun to build. Hoping the copper gives it a better "ring" if you will, when tapped on, sounds pretty good.

Since I have one extra, I may try and stretch the metal a little by pounding only the center of one, just a tad, to see if I can make sound changes without distorting the bowl too much, if not, I'll just use the remaining 3 as is.

and I have to incorporate the copper fish somewhere on the git, just have too lol

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