banjoboy92 - Posted - 08/30/2008:  18:09:01

Hey everybody, I'm new. I've been playing dobro, or resonator guitar, consistently for about......... a few hours. I play banjo mostly, so I know a very little (stress the very) about setup involving musical instruments with adjustable stuff. I took what was a resonator mandolin type thing apart once, so I know what the inside of a dobro would look like, basically. But anyways, the dobro my family has has really nice tone, balanced, not too hard, but not real soft either, but it has practically no volume. I was wondering if there is a way to increase the volume without affecting the tone too much? If so, lots of detailed advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jesse Groover

musekatcher - Posted - 08/31/2008:  08:21:16

I've found too much sustain can give the illusion of less volume, because you can't hear note separation as well, even though the volume actually is quite loud. Sometimes playing styles and soft pick attack contribute to this. On the otherhand, if you're convinced it really is too soft, perhaps something is touching the cone? Do you have enough break angle over the saddle? If not, this can mute strings a bit. Others will probably have better ideas to add.

Jim Holland
Athens, AL

bris48 - Posted - 09/01/2008:  10:02:54

any other tricks about making this animals LOUDER besides pick-ups

RedLine Resohead

sitnslide - Posted - 09/01/2008:  10:31:24

You can always pick harder. ;~)

Fresh strings help. And a proper setup (cone, nut, bridge) if you don't have one already. Some folks think screenless rings make a difference. And I've heard that playing standing up helps. Because the back of the reso isn't damped by sitting on your lap so you get some sound vibration from it.

On the other hand, Mike Auldridge doesn't play loud at all! And freely admits it. He says, "I can play as fast as anyone. But to play loud - that's what microphones are for." Said that at ResoSummit last year. He says to just get rid of the banjo and the problem is gone. Really said that.

Chris in Pair-O-Dice

gladgrover - Posted - 09/01/2008:  13:14:03

My first dobro came with a resonator that actually first too tight which dampened the sound. It had a definite volume problem. The cone was bound up on the sides. Once I got that problem fixed, I was told by a prominant dobro player to try raising the action. So I replaced the top nut with a taller piece of bone and raised the saddle as much as possible without it interferring with the cover plate. That made all the difference. It has a lot more punch than it did.

_____________________________________

Sometimes I sit and think, sometimes I just sit!

Greg