Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone ever built a square neck reso from one of Paul Beards kits. How about photos of the finished product. His kits are birch plywood top, back, & sides. I'm not too keen about the plywood, so I'd just like to see if anyone's finished one out that looks ok(just want to get my feet wet w/kit first before attempting from scratch). His "Mike Auldridge" is made from plywood but is black in color. Was told this isn't the same type plywood, but similar? What would birch look like(not painted)? How about someone that's done an acoustic guitar in birch??? Any pics?
Thanks,
David

Ivan Guernsey makes all his dobros from birch ply and they look great and sound even better than they look. The Auldridge model I looked inside seemed like regular good-quality birch ply to me, I'm not sure in what way it would be different kind of ply. Howard Parker, who appears on various webrings as "Beardbizguy" would be able to tell you - try the Jerry Douglas board, I know he posts there. I've seen good reports of the Beard kits, although I've never actually seen one myself.

Ply is a perfectly respectable material for dobros, they don't work the same way as regular acoustics. LouisianaGrey39019.641400463

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Pete
http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com

My reso guitars are all make with Birch Ply for top and back. I read somewhere about how people are trying to find the best wood to use, the one that sounded the most like the plywood used on the old ones. I figure why not just use the ply.

Reso guitars are more like speaker cabinets than guitars. You want a good stiff structure without a lot of vibration, oddly enough. Plywood such as Finnish Birch and Baltic Birch are great. You can veneer over that with some nice thin zoot to make it look good.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Great! I knew the sound was going to be fine for a reso. Does anyone have a photo or two of a birch reso or acoustic guitar. I'm trying to invision how one would look finished either "burst" or natural w/a little color. My statement about plywood was because I play a solid maple guitar and the sound is great. Now, I own and older ply Dobro and it doesn't even compare. But to be fair I should install a real bone nut and Quarterman, and maple/ebony bridge and it would wake it up.
I have talked to Howard from Beard and he is the one that told me that it was a good quality ply.
Was hoping that someone had a finished one they could let us see.

Try Reso-nation.org , they might have someone's pics of a kit on there.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Greg McKenna says that walnut sounds the most
like plywood.

I built one using Beard's back and sides, but put a spruce top on it.

I also built one from scratch out of walnut using his plans.

Both were acceptable for my taste.