Resonator Setup Question

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

I am doubting one aspect of my current setup. I have a cheap resonator, a Flint Hill. I put a Quarterman cone in it and did my best to set it up. The center screw is just tight enough to stop any buzz, and it's not very tight at all, So, I think everything is level and good. In fact it sounds pretty good! WAY better than before the cone and work. My question:

When I was younger a guy told me to put the strings on by going under the tail piece and up through the holes. This, he said, would increase the downward pressure on the bridge and increase the volume etc. I have done this on all my resos since, but never seen anyone else do it.

Is there an advantage to slightly more pressure on the bridge, or is something lost by doing it?
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RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer 1963 Gibson Falcon

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Not for a properly set up guitar.

Also, the tail is not designed to be lifted constantly and tails have failed when under strung.

I am not aware of a single builder that under strings a tailpiece.

h

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

Are you saying that nothing is lost, or gained, by the added pressure if the guitar is set up right?

So far, no issues with continual lifting, but I'll probably change it when I change strings next.

Thanks, Howard!
_________________
RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer 1963 Gibson Falcon

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Something may be lost with the additional downward pressure on the cone.

I've seen the spider legs crush the outer lip of cones.

If the cone shelf isn't level, causing the cone to rattle some folks would force the cone downward, hoping sheer pressure would stop the rattle. The would make the cone less responsive. Sometimes the downward pressure would make the outer rim of the cone collapse.

Never a good thing.

A properly set up guitar will always allow the components to react as designed. Everything else is a bad idea.

h

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

I follow you.

I leveled the shelf and made sure the cone rested easily without binding anywhere around. I flattened the bottom of the spider's legs by putting a piece of fine sandpaper on a piece of glass and gently working it until all was even on the cone side...didn't take much. I may get a better spider.

Also, it seems to me that too much pressure sounds "compressed," or something. The center screw is less than a turn tighter than "just held together." I must have everything pretty flat. There was just a tiny rattle when I put it together. Over the winter it developed a strange buzz, a quarter turn stopped it.

Definitely going to change the strings to top-feed, but I feel pretty good about the rest. It's still a sow's ear.
_________________
RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer 1963 Gibson Falcon

Robert Allen · From: Tennessee, USA

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

I am not surprised.

Saga does not build Regal. They distribute low end Chinese imports. The Regal brand.

h

Robert Allen · From: Tennessee, USA

I didn't mean to imply that Saga builds Regals. I agree they are only the distributor for Regal, Kentucky mandolins, Gold Star banjos, Blue Ridge Guitars, and Mahalo lap steels, all of them made in China. Maybe the builder is a 9 year old girl chained to the bench in China. Very Happy

My store sells instruments purchased from Saga. I restring the Regal dobros correctly before selling them.

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Ben Elder · From: La Crescenta, California, USA

John Dopyera would emphatically say no--and did so in old issues of Beverly King's Dobro Nut/Resophonic Echoes etc. newsletter. The tailpiece was designed to achieve a very particular break angle from the saddles by going on top of the tailpiece and down into the string holes. Stringing under the tailpiece destroys John's delicate geometry.
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"Gopher, Everett?"

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

Well, if it weren't cinched before...THAT cinches it...I'll correct the error of my ways just as soon as I get a #14 spider...mail can't move fast enough!

Cool info, Ben.
_________________
RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer 1963 Gibson Falcon

Brian Evans · From: Nova Scotia, Canada

I play a round-neck Gold Tone Paul Beard Special, which obviously has a different neck geometry than a square neck. I had it set up for my preferred action height, and took it to Paul Beard's shop for a new nut install. He looked at it before and after, and agreed with me that under-stringing the tail piece was a better solution, although not ideal, than normal stringing because of the very shallow break angle over the saddle. I don't play with ridiculously low action - maybe 3/32" - but Paul left it the way I had it. I think I may put it back the other way next time I put new strings on and actually measure the difference. It may just be an optical illusion that the break angle is different.

Mark Eaton · Posted 29 Feb 2016 12:46 pm

Interesting anecdote Brian, but it strikes me as sort of an apples-to-oranges thing or exception to the rule as compared to the typical modern squareneck resonator with a height at the nut of between 3/8" to 1/2".

Avoid confusion whenever possible! Wink

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Mark

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

i've dabbled in the understrung method occassionally.
sometimes i thought it might help a 'tiny' bit, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the increased hassle of restringing that way.

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