Roasting pan resonator

[Peter Wilcox]

I was asked in another thread to post some info on this guitar that I made during a challenge in 2010, so I'll post pics, and feel free to ask for any further detail - I have higher res pics if needed.. Unfortunately at that time threads scrolled off the site, apparently to be lost forever.

The pan

The neck glue up

Neck and tail blocks

Bracing

[Peter Wilcox]

Construction of the fiberglass bridge.

[Peter Wilcox]

The tailpiece.

[Peter Wilcox]

The cone, from glued together plastic plate and bowl

The sound box assembly

Soundbox assembly inside the guitar (upside down)

Soundhole pattern

~236 soundholes drilled

[Peter Wilcox]

Slotted headstock

The saddles

Neck

Finished instrument

[Jim Hepler]

Peter, thanks for the quick response! A few questions come to mind: How much work was it removing the handles etc from the pan, and how did you do it? My experience with drilling stainless steel is that it's usually difficult. Did you use special bits or anything for all those holes? Also in the other thread, you mentioned that you weren't that pleased with the sound. Would you say that's mostly due to the unconventional (but very imaginative) material for the spider, cone, bridge? It looks like you used the bottom of the pan for the top of the guitar and the lid for the back. How did you attach them?

I really like the creativity and whimsy in this project, and just the idea of using a pan for a body makes it possible to think of making a metal body dobro. The mimf is sure an inspiring place. thanks again,
jim

[Peter Wilcox]

Jim, I don't remember having any trouble drilling out the rivets on the handles, or any of the holes, so I'm pretty sure it's just chrome plated steel. I used the holes from the handles to screw on the neck block and tail block. The frame in these pics screws onto the blocks on each end, and the cover of the pan (bottom of the guitar) screws through its handle holes to the two legs attached to the frame.

I'm sure the sound suffers especially from the fiberglass spider bridge that is too flexible and loses and modifies a lot of string energy transmitting it to the cone.

I'll try to find a clip I made of the different guitars, upload it to soundcloud and post a link.

[Jim Hepler]

Thanks for the information and the quick response time Peter. By the way, that's quite the view you have in the background. It's 30 below here right now, so I won't be building anything right away, but lots to think about.
jim

[Peter Wilcox]

Jim, here's the sound clip of 5 resonators, in 4 bar sections. The order is as seen in the pic, left to right - the last 4 bar section is a Chinese squareneck that has pretty good tone for comparison. My playing isn't very elegant - sorry about that.

Hope the link works.

https://soundcloud.com/crazydoc/jesse-james-demo-3

Sorry about your weather - my daughter lives in Duluth MN which must be in the same area you are, having the same temps. We're having a hot spell here in notheastern CA, 20's at night, 50's in the afternoon and no wind. I sprayed some lacquer yesterday and planning on the same today.