Not getting enough sound out of your acoustic cigar box guitar but don’t want to go electric and lug an amp around?
Install a resonator for a really big sound.
According to Wikipedia
A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden soundboard (guitar top/face). Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than conventional acoustic guitars which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion instruments in dance orchestras. They became prized for their distinctive sound, however, and found life with several musical styles (most notably bluegrass and also blues) well after electric amplification solved the issue of inadequate guitar sound levels.
Resonator guitars are of two styles:
Square necked guitars designed to be played in steel guitar style.
Round necked guitars, which may be played in either the conventional classical guitar style or in the lap steel guitar style.
There are three main resonator designs:
The "tricone" ("tri" in reference to the three metal cones/resonators) design of the first National resonator guitars.
The single cone "biscuit" design of other National instruments.
The single inverted-cone design of the Dobro.
Resonator’s are finding new life in CBG’s. I have taken the liberty of posting some beautiful pictures of some Cigar Box resonator Guitars.
Folks are building there own resonators out of all types of materials.
I recently purchased a lightweight all brass resonator from a fellow in the Cigar Box Guitar community that goes by the name of Old Lowe. They are nicely made and inexpensive. Below is an example of Old Lowes resonator built into a CBG.
