We wanted to make a resonator guitar that had a low action, so that it could be played finger-style, but also played with a slide. Base it on our standard body, with 17-inch lower bout and a cutout, but with flat plywood plates covered in veneer. A standard (for us) neck but with a low angle, low above-body fingerboard, and a dovetail joint to the body. A Beard resonator cone and a #14 spider, supported on a rimmed ledge glued to the top plate, with supporting columns to the back plate.

The design constraints that we imposed were:

1. Playability:

1.1. Setting the action (string height at fret 12) to be what we wanted (low), consistent with our desire for a low fingerboard height and low neck angle, while

1.2. Maintaining high-enough break angles (angles 1 and 2 in Figure 1) for the instrument to sound right, and for strings not to come off the bridge (or saddle - we use the terms synonymously) when played hard.

2. Aesthetics:

2.1. A flush wood cover plate with minimal metal showing

2.2. A low neck-angle and height of fingerboard above the body at the join (fret 14)

3. Construction:

3.1. Plywood top and back plates, veneered. A flush wood cover plate

3.2. Maple sides following our archtop patterns

3.3. A wood tailpiece, that kept the string ends low. This is tricky!

3.4. A typical archtop neck construction, with dovetail joint

Building a sufficiently strong wood tailpiece was the challenge (that is, after giving up on a laminated soundwell). It all came together, and sounds really good.