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Post by creolian on Mar 23, 2017 14:55:53 GMT
Still playing away on my new reso and the Peter Turner thread has got me wondering about cover plates and frequency response. Mine has what I would call a colander cover with many small round holes. Typical of what I see on a style O.
My knowledge of acoustics lead me to believe larger holes in the cover will pass lower frequencies and Im wondering if anyone has tried various covers on a single cone guitar and what were the results.
TIA Jeff
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 23, 2017 17:26:33 GMT
Hi Jeff
Absolutely, the material and the amount of holes in it, affects the tone and projection of sound of a resonator guitar. An extreme version of what I am saying would be playing your guitar without a coverplate. The sound has less projection and less focus. It makes a lot of difference.
Having tried early National coverplate designs on my MM guitars, I realised why John Dopyera and the gang went with the classic sieve-hole coverplate, which is what you have on your guitar.
Shine On
Michael
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Post by bryanbradfield on Mar 23, 2017 17:50:59 GMT
An interesting experiment is to progressively cover the cover plate holes with gaffer or duct tape and note the tone and volume differences.
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Post by creolian on Mar 23, 2017 22:11:08 GMT
Hi Jeff Absolutely, the material and the amount of holes in it, affects the tone and projection of sound of a resonator guitar. An extreme version of what I am saying would be playing your guitar without a coverplate. The sound has less projection and less focus. It makes a lot of difference. Having tried early National coverplate designs on my MM guitars, I realised why John Dopyera and the gang went with the classic sieve-hole coverplate, which is what you have on your guitar. Shine On Michael "Posted by bryanbradfield3 hours ago An interesting experiment is to progressively cover the cover plate holes with gaffer or duct tape and note the tone and volume differences." thank you both, this makes a lot of sense in that more cover would load the cone and reduce self resonance resulting in tighter more articulate bass, somewhat like a tuned baffle speaker cab. I like the tape idea and will try it out, I'm looking to get a little more lower end and maybe that will do the trick. It certainly is more economical than purchasing another cover and opening it up with the drill press  all best, Jeff Read more: michaelmesser.proboards.com/post/73919/quote/9567?page=1#ixzz4cBiwOl3f |
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Post by bryanbradfield on Mar 23, 2017 23:35:59 GMT
By progressively covering holes with gaffer tape, one gets an appreciation for what happens in closing off the cover plate openings. The opposite end of the test is to play with the cover plate off of the instrument, giving the opposite extreme end of a test of creating more openings in the cover plate.
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Post by andys on Mar 31, 2017 22:05:08 GMT
I find the chicken-foot design cover-plates sound louder than the sieve ones, but the tone is less defined. Not by much though. I have made biscuit cone guitars and put spider bridge cover-plates on them, and that has made a bigger difference than that between the sieve and the chicken-foot plates, IMO.
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Post by pete1951 on Apr 1, 2017 9:18:52 GMT
I have used several different hole arrangements on resos I have made, the none have been a huge improvement on the old designs but they have all had a 'good' sound.  PT |
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Post by ricks on Apr 1, 2017 9:55:48 GMT
Jeff, I'd suggest that if you're looking for more bass-response, you might consider baffling the f-holes ( or part of them at least ) rather than cover-plate - I have a NRP Woodrocket single-cone that has grills rather than f-holes, & substantially increased the bass by baffling off approx. 2/3 of the grill openings.
Rick
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2017 14:51:00 GMT
I just finished a reso project (see post Frankenolian) and finally put on the coverplate. The coverplate is chromed copper or brass ( i soldered the broken-off fingerrest using plumbers soldering tools) and wow did it warm up and improve the tone compared to no coverplate....
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Post by bryanbradfield on Jun 1, 2017 16:48:51 GMT
Some dobro players (spider-web cone)report finding that removing the screen inserts creates more bass response and that the bass tones come from underneath the cone, through the body, and out the 2 sound holes. I haven’t tried it. I’m not looking for micro-tweaks.
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Post by creolian on Jun 1, 2017 17:19:36 GMT
Some dobro players (spider-web cone)report finding that removing the screen inserts creates more bass response and that the bass tones come from underneath the cone, through the body, and out the 2 sound holes. I haven’t tried it. I’m not looking for micro-tweaks. Hello Brian, all, One of mine fell out and I took out the other figuring I didn't need any more rattles on my Johnson woody. I didn't notice an appreciable difference. I also took your advice to try some tape on the Republic metal body. Completely Covering the grills sucked the life out damping a lot of the harmonics. On the other hand, partially covering them did change the tonal balance to a tighter more articulate bass end. Covering the holes in the cover plate just sounded strange. Id like to try something like a sliding door on those grills or maybe spinning baffles like what is found on a vibraharp (vibes) but im not quite that motivated... Yet  I'm still using flat wounds and playing just finger style. It's been a couple months and the strings are dead so the next adventure will be trying some different strings. Cheers ! j |
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Post by bryanbradfield on Jun 1, 2017 17:32:19 GMT
A luthier friend of mine made some round inserts for a dobro. Picture a drinking straw with an oblique or 45 degree angle cut into it for the inside of the dobro. His intent was to swivel the insert so that the internal oblique cuts would pick up sound from different directions in the interior. I did not play with the inserts while test driving it. Neither he nor the subsequent owner reported any advantages to the inserts.
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