livedog00 - Posted - 03/16/2021:  10:59:24

There are two resos I'm looking at that are similarly priced and I was looking for some practical advice from any one who has played either (One isn't near me to try, and the other is about an hour away).

One is the Wechter Square Neck Dobro designed by Rob Ickes (6535-R) and the other is the Phil Leadbetter Recording King. Both come with hard cases for $700 (which is retail for the RK (it's new)).

Any advice?

Brad Bechtel - Posted - 03/16/2021:  11:32:34

quote:

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Originally posted by Brad Bechtel

Buy them both!



Seriously, the Wechter Scheerhorn Rob Ickes model would be a great choice, and the Phil Leadbetter Recording King is probably the best new resonator guitar in that price range.

 

$700 for the Rob Ickes is a very good price. I'd try to take the effort to play them before hand to see which one speaks to you.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 03/16/2021:  13:21:05

Brad, it doesn't sound like one of the guitars is doable for Eric to play beforehand, it would be leap of faith material. 

The Wechter/Scheerhorn Ickes model which we used to refer to "back in the day" as the Icke'horn was a good sounding guitar for an import and  it was selling new 10 years ago for $1200-$1300.

Aside from using different laminate woods and having to pay Rob a certain amount for his signature endorsement, I never could quite figure out why they often sounded significantly better to my ears than the lower priced mahogany frugal'horns. Maybe the quality of the laminate/veneer rosewood and spruce was simply that mch better than the mahogany versions in the same way that the Finland birch used on some Beard guitars is not your grandmother's laminate guitar wood.

I've told the story here in the past about playing an Icke'horn at ResoSummit 2010 that Rob had for sale at the event. The guitar had been set up the day prior by Tim Scheerhorn himself. That guitar sounded better to me than probably 50% or more of the resos I heard that week - regardless of price.

As far as the Asian imports, I have been pretty impressed with the Recording King line in the past couple years, and prior to the pandemic I was able to play a Leadbetter in the Bay Area at Gryphon in Palo Alto. It was a heck of a guitar for the money. 

One of the main dudes at Recording King which is headquartered in the Bay Area is Greg Rich. He was involved with Mark Taylor, son of Tut, making high end instruments at Rich & Taylor. And he was the head banjo guy at Gibson prior to that when they still made quality banjos and in charge of their Nashville Custom Shop. And nowadays a one of his roles at RK is in their custom banjo line.  He is also behind "The Loar" brand mandolin. I'm a hack on mandolin, but my Loar "A" model is a really nice instrument for the money. So I'm surmising that Greg's influence on the product line has something to do with why these newer RKs are good values. 

I bring all this up because they are doing quality work at Recording King, and IMO their newer dobros are some of the best bang for the buck out there. 

As much as I like the RK Leadbetter, provided the Icke'horn is in good shape for $700, I'd probably go with the Wechter/Scheerhorn. The reason is I suppose is though I have played a few  others over the years, I had the good fortune that time in Nashville to play a new one that was set up by the man who designed the guitar, and it was really impressive. 

The only thing that has come up a few times re the Leadbetter is the 1 3/4" nut which is a bit less wide than they typical dobro nut. It seems to have put off a few potential customers. When I played one a little over a year ago it honestly never occurred to me that it was a deal breaker, but as always, YMMV.

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 03/16/2021 13:21:48

resoranger - Posted - 03/16/2021:  16:04:52

The Recording King guitar does not come with a hard shell case for $699.00. So be sure the dealer has included one in the deal. The Recording King case is normally around $120.00 extra.   I have played five or six of both models and would take the WS if I was making the choice.  You will always be able to get close to your investment if you decide to sell the WS in the future.  I also think the WS is a better sounding guitar.  

Edited by - resoranger on 03/16/2021 16:12:16

docslyd - Posted - 03/16/2021:  17:43:02

The W/S, if it is in excellent condition is a good buy....actually for any W/S model, that's a good buy...but especially the Ickes model. If the set-up isn't top-notch it can always be set up again.

FrederickPatterson - Posted - 03/17/2021:  18:02:38

They aren’t making any more of the Rob Ickes models. Don’t miss out!

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 03/17/2021:  18:27:31

Yeah - they stopped making all frugal'horns ballpark 8 years ago. 

But one can always upgrade to an Ickes Signature  Nati-horn for a little over $4K.  

livedog00 - Posted - 03/18/2021:  05:52:38

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm going to go look at the Ickes model on Saturday morning.

Jim McNab - Posted - 03/19/2021:  21:27:29

Eric, let us know what you decide!

livedog00 - Posted - 03/23/2021:  04:23:43

Well, I am now the proud owner of the Wechter Scheerhorn Rob Ickes model. It looks great and sounds fantastic. It needs a new set of strings, but that's easy enough. It was basically brand new. The gentleman owned it and a cheaper model (not sure what) and said he bought this one, but played the other one mainly and rarely played this. He now is battling some hand issues and has trouble holding the bar and decided he didn't need two.

Thanks, again, for everyone's input! I look forward to diving in deeper!

(By the way, the Leadbetter on Reverb I was looking at is posted in another section and the knocked the price from $700 to $595)

ronmack - Posted - 03/24/2021:  09:45:56

I got into this thread late, but I have both models, and would have recommended the W/S Rob Ickes model. That being said I have been very impressed with the RK Phil Leadbetter model. The fit and finish was excellent. In my opinion, the Ickes model seemed more balanced. I felt like the Leadbetter would be very comfortable in a bluegrass setting. It has good tone and loud. I also would have chosen the Ickes model because they don't make them anymore. If you don't like it, you can always find a Leadbetter. I hope you like the Ickes as much as I like mine.