More resonator advice needed

I finished my first tenor resonator a couple of weeks ago. It came out well… or so I thought.

The strings anchor to the coverplate as shown in the photo below. Based on reports that the sharp metal might cut the strings under tension, I deburred the slots with a needle file and tried to cushion the edges with a bit of silicone caulking. This seemed to work well until the morning of the day I was scheduled to hand-deliver the uke to its new owner. That morning, the A string broke at the coverplate.

As I see it, I have two alternatives to fix the situation:

1. Make a wooden tie block that attaches via screws to the existing anchor slots. My concern here is that the break angle at the saddle will decrease, reducing pressure on the cone which could hurt both tone and volume.
2. Install a mandolin tailpiece. But I’m worried that the sharp edges of the tangs may also cut the strings. I suppose I could cushion the tangs with bits of foam or felt, but I don’t know how well this would work.

Any advice on these or other possible solutions will be greatly appreciated!

No idea what I am talking about really, but could you not get some of those thin rubber/plastic sheath thingies that people who fish use to do a similar job? You could then sheathe the bit of the string that goes through the sharp section. Pretty cheap too. This kind of thing http://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/solar-contour-super-supple-rig-tube
Max

Thanks, orangena, for the suggestion. I tried that using heat-shrink tubing. Didn't work and looked crappy, unfortunately.

I tried the wooden block on my cover plate but found the angle the string approached the saddle was too high. I had success deburring all edges on the cover plate string attachment points.

Here's my take on it.

http://argapa.blogspot.se/2015/05/stringholder.html

http://argapa.blogspot.se/2015/02/stringholders-and-coverplates.html

It's possible for me to get a decent break angle but it would depend on the height of your saddle relative to the coverplate.

Good luck man, I'm sure you will pull it off.

Like Gary, my first thought was to deburr the cover plate points.

Steve Evans of Beltona now uses a tie block, iirc there are no holes in the tie block for the strings to go into, they go i to a channel on the underneath of the tieblock, maximising the break angle.
At least that's my recollection, uke in car, I'm in pub, if I remeber I'll try and get pics tomorrow to show how he's solved the problem.
H

On my Beltonas, Steve has used a "strings through the middle" wooden block on the tenor and holes through the coverplate on the concert. I've had no issues with the concert (or the tenor for that matter), but the concert coverplate hole edges are nicely rounded and with a decent layer of automotive paint.

Hey Folks- At Mya-Moe we make our own tieblock for this. Yes, depending on it's design it can lower your break angle, but there are other factors to keep in mind when designing the reso. You want to have enough downward pressure that the cone sounds good and doesn't rattle around but not so much that you crush a cone. There are several factors that go into this besides the tailblock and break angle. 1) Thickness of fretboard. 2) negative neck angle (like a banjo) 3) Scale length 4) Specific tension of your string set. 5) Final string height and therefore biscuit height. It can be a moving target if you try changing too many things at once. Don't try and re-invent the wheel but keep dialing it in until its perfect.
A