View Full Version : Can a resonator guitar bridge be rotated easily?
Harley Marty
Dec-30-2018, 11:15am
I'm just wondering how easy it is to play around with a resonator bridge before I get out the spanners. The bridge on my six string is angled wrong for the steps in gauges of fifths tuning. My resonator bass is ok tuned in fifths as I don't play chords on it. It took a hard days work to get my Mike Soares resonator Tenor almost right in GDAE, I've got the A & E perfect the D & G are very close but not quite there with .013, .020, .030 & .040 if I steam the bridge & put a twist into it that should finish the job. Back to the subject, I'm theorising with the idea of making a multi scale (bolt on) neck 23" E to 24" G & fitting it to an electric reso body like that of the Eastwood Delta 4. To make it work the bridge would need to be be close to a 45 degree angle to the strings.
nmiller
Dec-30-2018, 6:47pm
The bridge and cone are just held in place by string tension, so if you detune it sufficiently, the bridge will rotate easily. Keep in mind, though, that resonators are not generally known for perfect intonation.
Harley Marty
Dec-31-2018, 9:08am
@nmiller: Thanks for that info, the funny thing is I tried to turn the bridge when I had the strings off & it felt like it is fixed, I've three resonators two have round wooden base with a slot for the bridge & one has a metal slotted rail to hold the bridge in place. I'm assuming that the timber type is of higher quality. The one I tried to turn is of the timber variety.
Cornfield
Jan-01-2019, 9:35am
Does the one with the metal bridge have a "spider"? There are three kinds of resonator, biscuit, tri-cone or spider. In a biscuit model, the cone faces downward, in a spider the cone faces upward http://www.acousticfingerstyle.com/ResonatorsExplained.htm
Harley Marty
Jan-01-2019, 1:22pm
@ Cornfield yes it has what l'd describe as a spiderweb shaped structure over the cone it certainly looks as if it is just resting on the cone. The intonation on that guitar is good, it's a Harley Benton ResoKing cheap & cheerful, it sounds great especially through the humbucker. I dropped the scale to 24"& tune it GDAE. It has a set neck so there's a limit to how far I'll go with it. I've been reading about this fan-fret or multi-scale idea & I'm keen to try it out. There was a suggestion in the Carbon Tenor thread to put a resonator on it. A full carbon fibre tenor guitar with jumbo body, resonator cone, 23" to 24" scale & an upwards facing sound-hole is extremely tempting. If I had the funds l'd order twin tenors, with and without resonator!, but I just bought two really nice saxophones last month (at least one of those is a tenor:-)
Cornfield
Jan-02-2019, 9:00am
The spiders are mainly used in bluegrass and C&W music and play lap style with square necks (Dobro). The blues guitarists normally use the biscuit type and have round necks so that they can be played with fingers or slide.
Harley Marty
Jan-03-2019, 9:28am
I just realised the boo boo I made with the string gauges. I must have had a brain fart & ordered heavy instead of the light phosphore bronze ball ended banjo sets (10 of them) from Clifford Essex in England.
You can still use them by tuning down a step or two, what are the gauges?
Clifford Essex make excellent strings (nice colour too) but their sets are often mismatched in my opinion!
Harley Marty
Jan-04-2019, 6:25am
You can still use them by tuning down a step or two, what are the gauges?
Clifford Essex make excellent strings (nice colour too) but their sets are often mismatched in my opinion!
.013, .020, .030 & .040 I'm just fussy about intonation. The instrument would had been built around CGDA gauges so I should have light strings on it to have any chance of smooth as silk chords. I turned the bridge around so the strings are resting on the back edge of it & swapped the .040 for a .039 which at least a help until l get the lights. I do a fair bit of singing so dropping the tuning isn't the go. The heavies will just have to go on my banjo or end up as give aways. Mullingar is loaded with the finest of banjo players (& accordionists) none of them seem to show the slightest interest in Tenor Guitars. I'll be moving on the Carbon Tenor in the next couple of weeks that's going to drain the funds!
If your instrument is a 23” scale then all you need is a .09 to give you a light set CGDA 9 13 20 30.