Eddie McRae - BluesHound biscuit-bridge resonator

[Eddie McRae]

Thought I'd post a few pics of one of my resonator models. Just completed this one today. "BluesHound VintageBurst". Laminated mahogany body with cherry binding. Solid mahogany neck with black walnut fretboard, cherry binding, cherry headstock overlay, and MOP dot inlays. Nitro lacquer vintage-burst finish.

[Eddie McRae]

More pics...

[Eddie McRae]

More pics....

[Samuel Hartpence]

Drooling and thinking of the Mark Knopfler tunes I could tear up on this axe!

[Chuck Tweedy]

Yea, that is realllllllly nice.

[Eddie McRae]

Thanks guys. I'll be finishing up with a tricone as well in the next few days as soon as the hardware and parts arrive for it. All the finish work is done, just waiting on the cone, bridge, and coverplate to come in.

[Rodger Knox]

The sunburst is very nicely done, as is the rest of the work.

[Eddie McRae]

Thank you Rodger. At least 80% of my finishes are bursts.

[Darrel Friesen]

Sweeet!

[Eddie McRae]

If anyone's interested and would like to see, the link is to a photo album of pics taken during the building process.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?s ... 318&type=3

[Thomas Dooher]

Nicek work...I will have to give up being envious.

[Mike Dotson]

A real beauty! Love the burst and Trovador-style 'f' holes.

[Eddie McRae]

Thanks all. I've always been a BIG fan of the old Nationals. Never cared much for the Dobro line. I've built quite a few of these, and as I've progressed in building them, I have learned an interesting fact. They're basically the opposite of what you would think....and the opposite of an acoustic. It seems with these, the heavier and stiffer the body, the louder the volume and the better the tone.

[Pete Halliday]

What is your preferred method for applying the burst? I'm close to finishing a resonator guitar and am trying to decide between methods for my first.

[Eddie McRae]

Pete, read thru this thread. It pretty much sums up how I spray my burst finishes.
http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=513

[david frassetto]

Great job! That burst is beautiful. Can't wait to see the tricone.

[Eddie McRae]

Thanks David. With this one and the tricone, I was experimenting with some laminated mahogany that I'd gotten my hands on. I pretty much built them side by side, so the tricone is pretty much the twin to the guitar in this thread. I've gotten overwhelmed in the shop lately so I haven't had time to fool with the tricone or my challenge build. But this is a pic of the tricone just after I finished spraying it. Hopefully, I'll have time to finish it up pretty soon.

[chris broad]

hi,
Really like the look of your BluesHound,nice workmanship.With your obvious expertise I was hoping you could help me with a few queries.
I want to make a national style wood-bodied biscuit bridge resonator,using aircraft grade birch ply for the body.I've got 5mm. for the top and back,and 3mm. for the sides.Will these thicknesses work,and,more importantly, can the 3mm.ply be shaped using traditional methods(I'll be using a bending pipe)? If it is possible to bend the ply would a fox type bender be better to avoid burning and the subsequent sanding(the 3mm.has 6 layers),or are laminated sides normally made up layer by layer on a mold?
One other question,if I may,I like the look of your fingerboard to body fixing,very solid,do you do this because you find screwing it down into the neck block extension less trustworthy?Its certainly more work!
Thanks for any reply you,or anybody else here,can give.
Chris.

[Eddie McRae]

Thanks Chris. I don't see any reason why the woods you mentioned wouldn't work but I think that 5mm might be excessive in thickness. I might lean toward using 3mm for all. In the case of a resonator, the excessive thickness really wouldn't hurt, and might actually even help, the performance but I think it might add to weight quite a bit. That being said, I will say this. Out of all the reso's that I've built, the one that sounds the best wound up being quite a bit heavier than the others that I've made. Another member on here recently made the comment that the body of a resonator guitar is nothing more than a glorified speaker cabinet and that's actually true. The more solid it's built, the better the cone can do it's work. As for bending, I don't use a pipe much at all so I can't comment there but I can say that a Fox-style bender should have no trouble bending the 3mm especially since the bends on a National shape are so gradual. As for my neck attachment system and my construction design.....I designed my reso's (as well as every other guitar that I build) for practicallity and ease of maintenance. I completely eliminated the neck-thru stick and redesigned my neck block/fingerboard extension and with this 3-bolt system, I can remove a neck in just a few minutes. Removing a neck on a reso built by standard methods would take much longer and would require milling out 4 or 5 of the dot inlays on the fretboard.

[chris broad]

Hi Eddie,
Only just got around to thanking you for your reply,my apologies,many thanks.
I've been rethinking the ply bending process and think I'll make bending jig "à la fox",as I'm worried about burning the thin
plys on a hot pipe(if this guitar turns out o.k. I'd like to try a parlor guitar next,so the jig hopefully won't be for a one-off).
Again I've got a couple of questions if you ,or anyone else can answer them.
Due to cost I would like to use lightbulbs as a heat source,as opposed to a heat blanket,but in France where I live you can no longer buy ordinary bulbs,only the economy type that have a lower wattage and thus a lower heat output,and the limit is 100watts.Have you any ideas about using heat bulbs (ceramic or infra-red) as used for raising chicks and the like,as those I can get?How would the wattage equate,any thoughts?
The other thing is the question of how much to dampen the ply prior to bending and at what temperature to bend,also whether the combination of heat and humidity will have any adverse effect on the glue holding the ply together.
Grateful for any ideas.
Chris.