Square neck Resonator/Dobro lap guitar

[Kevin in California]

Herman
You do such amazing work. This is very cool

[Herman]

Thanks Kevin,

The plates are ready. With the braces and patches.
The back braces are low and wide, because the soundposts have to rest on them. A high and small brace would be too tricky for that. Normally I shape the back to a 15' radius. But for resting the guitar on the lap, a flatter back will be more stable/comfortable. So this one is shaped to my (top-)radius of 28'.



The OOO shape turns out to be just a little too narrow for the resonator rim to fit in.
Therefore I routed a little bit from each side. The lot of side bracing is because one side developed a crack. And since the string load is a heavy one, I decided to put some extra on.

[Herman]

There it is: Body glued together and the plate overhang routed off. Top dead flat and the back with a 28'radius.

You can see I lay my braces through the sides. Some builders make an effort to lay them in pockets inside the rim. But the binding will cover all things later, so I don't see why the hassle.

O, and you might think; Why is there a tiny hole in the lower part of the cone rim? Well, The wire of the pickup has to go through there, from the saddle down to the jack.

[Herman]

After sanding the sides flat the binding channels are cut. Below you can see what my jigs are. Home made copies of the expensive stuff.

The points of the cutaway will be done by hand. A slipping off router at those points can damage a nice fit.

[Herman]

After making the binding ledge nice and clean, the rosewood binding and the b/w/b purfling were glued in.
Overnight drying and this morning I scraped the surfaces flat. Looking good and a few tiny gaps will be filled later.
(When making a handcut binding you can find some minor gaps. If you have them, don't be embarressed. They come with te territory.)

On my O'Brien jig the dovetail was routed on a zero degree neck angle. All looking fine to me now.
You might see two oval holes on the centre of the neck. I routed them, because my jig has two 1/4" dowels for centering the neck allignment. I won't fill them, they don't hurt and will be invisable with the fingerboard on.

[Herman]

Bummer. I tried to shape the dovetail on the neck. But this wood is sooo hard, my chisels break the edge on it. Even my japanese rasp won't take material off as I like. So after two days of several attempts and glueing several shims on the neck, the construction is a mess.
I won't post a picture, 'cause that would be too embarrasing.
After a bit of thinking I decided to leave the dovetail imperfect for what it is and go for a bolt-on construction.
Bending my head humble to nature's forces.

[Kevin in California]

No harm no foul Herman
I prefer bolt ons myself. Now the neck can be removed easy for resets and repairs!!!