Resonator guitar set-up

[Allen L Wall]

I am setting up a round neck resonator guitar. My preliminary measurements involve stretching a monofilament line from the 4th string slot in the nut to the top surface of the spider bridge slot. The measurement at the first fret is .015. The measurement at the 12th fret is .140, which seems too high to me. My question is, is it acceptable/advisable to remove some material from the top of spider bridge slot itself so the action can be lowered once I have the resonator saddle in the bridge slot? If not, how do I lower the action?

[Mike Kolb]

Are you setting this up tall for slide or lowered for "regular" picking-playing?.   Either way, is there any reason to not just lower the wooden saddle itself?  

It sounds like you may already have a saddle that's almost as short as the walls of the slot will allow?  If that's the case then you can lower the wall height, as long as there's enough slot depth to keep the saddle (or, "saddles" as there's probably a pair of them) solid and not prone to tipping.

If that ends-up being your answer, then that particular spider assembly will probably be "forever-more" dedicated to the low setup as you couldn't easily add wall height.

[Allen L Wall]

Hello Mike

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it. This would be the lower action type. I have built several guitars but this is my first shot at a resonator. I just wanted to be sure I was going down the right path. Everything is new here so I have plenty of saddle material. Thanks again.

Happy Trails

Allen

[Len Biglin]

Allen , I think its advisable to string it up and tune it , then measure the action , as the cone will probably depress around the edge . Also you may be able to adjust the neck angle if you have the internal neck extension with shims to the back.

[Allen L Wall]

Thank you Len for your reply. I'll be sure to do that.