Steel Guitar Builder

...And the result:





No spring back, good fit

I was surprised how easyly the wood bent

Hello guys,

Other side bent:

Excellent.

I joined this site specifically to say that this looks great and I can't wait to see the end result.

I built a wooden tri-plate about twenty years ago but mine was a round neck. I didn't have the benefit of knowing what I was doing but it still turned out o.k.


Steve.

Hi Steve, would you be the Steve Smith from Ontario who plays a black Carter pedal steel?

would you be the Steve Smith from Ontario

No. I'm from the Isle of Wight, England.


Steve.

Thanks Steve. and wellcome on the SGB forum
I hope you won't be disappointed , doing my best

Can you tell us more about your wooden triplate?

Xavier

I don't have it at the moment as it's on long term loan to a friend but it was of quite a simple construction. I made the neck first from a piece of mahogany and this went straight through to the tailpiece end , thinning down to fit under the cone platform and providing some of the support for it.

The front and back were just 1/4" plywood which I then veneered.

As I didn't want to try bending wood for the sides (something which I have now done for other guitars) I made them from three thicknesses of veneer glued together and applied to the edges of the top and bottom (I didn't know anything about kerfed lining strips then). This makes a very strong and stable side, although in this case, it didn't really need any extra strength.

The headstock was treated in the normal way i.e. cut off at an angle and glued back on the other way up to provide an angle to the fingerboard. The front of the headstock was then covered with the same veneer as the body.

Cones were generic National replacement cones as I couldn't afford the real thing. I made my own T piece from aluminium bar.

It actually turned out quite nicely considering I didn't know much about making resonator guitars - even ordinary guitars. But my thinking was that it didn't need the resonance of a normal guitar but was more akin to designing loudspeaker cabinets (something I do know about) which let the cones do all of the work.

This was all done on a budget (of money and knowledge) at the end of the 1980s when myself and a friend got into National guitars but couldn't afford them thanks to the price rocketting after Mark Knopfler put one on the cover of his Brothers In Arms album.

I started off by converting a Takamine guitar to tri-plate for my friend and then decided to make something for myself.

I will see if I can find the pictures.


Steve.

Hi guys,

Some more work:

Some more pics:









Maple frets in an ebony fretboard:



Xavier

Dang it, Man! You make molds that are prettier than some folks entire guitars!

Yeah, I know - They'll still be usable for the 5th, 10th and 20th instruments. Good show.

Richard