The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone ever tried holes, screens, or louvers in the side of a resonator guitar body in an effort to get more projection out towards the audience or others in a jam session instead of up at your face?

I've never heard of a steel guitar with audience projection enhancement. I think it could be a good idea, but would certainly take some development. I recently read an article about luthier John Monteleone where he was discussing his use of sound holes on the side of his guitars to project sound upward toward the player as well as forward to the audience. He's projecting the sound upward about 2 feet to the player's ears, while projecting a steel forward to an audience would involve longer distances and might not be as effective.

Here's a link to Monteleone's Quattroport guitar. http://www.monteleone.net/quattroport.html

Here's classical guitarist Paul Galbraith with his 8 string guitar and external soundbox.




There's a hollow tube going from inside the guitar at the heelblock and into his external soundbox which also doubles as his lunchbox as he keeps a ham sandwich in there for a fuller tone. That's why his second set usually sounds aa little thin. He downs that sandwich during his break.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by HowardR on 14 March 2006 at 07:09 AM.]</p></FONT>

Here's one built by Michael Dunn. The body shape is the same as a Selmer Hawaiian.

I have a thread going on reso-nation.org about side ports that I recently did to my Regal... Hey... it does work. Lee

Howard, i think it's safe to say ham sandwhiches always taste better after they've had some sound waves running through them

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my music: www.myspace.com/mattlangemusic

Sorry Ron. did not mean to steal your thread. It's been an interesting project and situation, cutting side ports.Lee

That Michael Dunn guitar looks beautiful. I'd love to see a front view. Has anyone played one? What's it like?

Lee - When you say "it does work", can you elaborate? How does the side hole effect the sound? I would think it would give a more 3D effect from the players position. Does it actually enhance the sound for an audience?

Front and back:


I haven't played a resonator by him, but I really like the Weissenborn and Knutsen copies I've played. I also own the tenor harp-ukulele on his second gallery page. www.michaeldunnguitars.com

Mitch... As you know describing sound or tone is tough to do, so I'll do the best I can. The sound from the players position, I dont notice much difference. But playing with a guitar player seated about 5 feet from me said " the sound doesnt hit her right in the face, but she felt like the sound was around her". When the reso is on my work bench the wall is approx 2 feet away and the sound resonates around me bouncing back from the wall. I should be attending a jam the 4th Sat. of this month with about 10 people in a circle. This will give me a much better report.Lee

Thanks to John for the awesome Michael Dunn pictures and to Lee for the interesting audio description. That surround sound is just what I was imagining. I think it's a great design idea and I'll bet we hear more about it in the future.