Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kirk on January 9, 2018 at 6:51am

That's been my observances.  Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  But the dog bowls and paint lids typically mute out any low tones and that natural distortion. 

That guitar LOOKS awesome though, Shane.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 9, 2018 at 9:21pm

I made a Reso out of a metal colander inside a metal mixing bowl and mounted into a cheap snare drum bucket. It sounded horrible. It did have acoustic strings on it instead of steel/nickle strings  and that could've made a difference.

I hit gold when I routed a cavity into a cheap plywood Strat body and mounted a metal frying pan in it. The frying pan had a good ring to it which gave me the idea. Not all pans, bowls and paint can lids will offer good tone due to the variables within the metal used.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on January 11, 2018 at 6:15am

Well, that is great advice from Shane. Pretty much my experience too. I love the LOOK of a reso, and have only used one of the 'Lightning" cones from Gitty and that on a very thick box. The dog bowl reso I did was less than stellar sounding but then again that trashiness can be considered an asset depending on one's tastes I guess.

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Permalink Reply by Snuffy Smith on January 14, 2018 at 10:47am

Well, this is good to know. I just ordered a resonator CBG from a builder. Makes me glad that I ordered it with an aluminum "Lightning" Charles Atchison resonator cone and cover, and not a dog bowl or paint lid.

So, interesting to hear about the neck issue on these things. I never thought about not being able to run the neck through the box. Shane, I'd love to see a pick of your build here "opened up". I' curious how these things are built. Shame you don't like the sound. It's a pretty build you did.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on January 17, 2018 at 1:26am

This is a cat bowl reso.You can see through sound hole the top of the through neck cut out to pass under the bowl,the underside is also cut away to clear the back

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Permalink Reply by George Jones on February 11, 2018 at 6:09am

Shane:  I had this same sound quality issue on my two paint can dobro (fretted and fretless) builds last year, but resolved it by dumping the wood and going for straight metal-to-metal contact to accurately transfer all the tone vibrations coming from the strings onto the resonating surface (both paint can as well as dog bowl) See attached photos + a sound clip of one of my baby-bluz resonators I recorded earlier today off my cell phone to show Richard how loud and clear these dog bowl resonators can sound without any need for amplification...

Here's a sound clip recorded on my 5 year old cheap android cell phone showing how the non-wooden metallic coupling improves and aids in transferring all the string tone vibrations onto the resonating surface:  Voice00037.mp3

Recommendation for Shane: Before discarding or salvaging components off your beautiful paint lid resonator build, try replacing the wood components in the bridge with metal and see if that doesn't substantially improve the tonal quality of your project in this regard.   

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on February 11, 2018 at 9:52am

You would get a great improvement in sound by increasing the downward pressure of the strings on the saddle.Rake the neck down to increase the height of the bridge .The strings on your photos will exert little downward pressure.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on February 11, 2018 at 9:56am

Agree, the above pic has little string break angle. That can be hard to acheive on these types of gits.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on February 11, 2018 at 10:14am

Don't see why it's a problem just rake the neck down 

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on February 11, 2018 at 10:24am

I'm saying it's difficult with everything straight in plane. Agree with you about raking the neck. A degree cut shim that covers the entire neck pocket/joint would do the trick just fine.

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Permalink Reply by Mikey Hearrold II on December 4, 2018 at 5:05am

I like the sound! thanks for doing the recording for us.  I will do metal on metal for sound transfer on mine. thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 9, 2018 at 1:43pm

Hi, I agree with the loss of decent sound from some dog bowls. I have noticed that when I bought a cheep thin metal dog bowl that it performed a lot better, thinner metal?. On another dog bowl CBG I removed the bowl and put a timber soundboard in the hole, sounded a heap better and it sold easily.

I also found that my most recent resonator CBG the "BIG Dog" bowl CBG works fine. It uses the biggest dog bowl I could find, which of course means building a bigger box, that also helps. To get better bass acoustically I play with a thumb pick and fingerpicks give clearer trebles. Enjoyable to play.

When plugged in the piezo gives it the bright tones and when the neck pickup is faded in you can hear the bass get more pronounced and warmer sounding, I love playing this reso.

Cheers Taff

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