skateborg23 - Posted - 11/09/2022:  08:36:07

Has anyone here owned a 1991 OMI-Lizak Dobro Zephyr Quilted Maple top and back with Flame Maple sides?

A guy on FB is selling his and it looks very unique. I've never seen a Dobro like this before.

Edited by - skateborg23 on 11/10/2022 08:05:34

1991 OMI-Lizak Dobro Zephyr Quilted Maple front view

1991 OMI-Lizak Dobro Zephyr Quilted Maple serial number

1991 OMI-Lizak Dobro Zephyr Quilted Maple back view

 

docslyd - Posted - 11/09/2022:  09:54:38

I have seen them, however, the regulars on here will probably know how many of those were made. Since it was built by Gibson, I would give it the opposite of provenance, whatever that is. If its a screaming deal and you’re prepared to work on it or have it serviced....consider. It would certainly be preferable to play it or have right of refusal.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 11/09/2022:  11:25:25

That is some beautiful quilted maple (not flame), and when you read the article I linked below, apparently it is solid maple as opposed to laminate, like the vast majority of Dobro guitars throughout history.

According to the headstock it was made in 1991. Whether it is 1990 or 1991, it doesn't make any difference in regards to the Gibson aspect - they bought the company in 1993. 

The only Zephyr I have ever seen or heard is owned by fellow Northern Californian Pete Grant (Auburn), and his is a 10-string, squareneck of course whereas this one is a roundneck. Pete is a great player and he had the Zephyr with him at an event many years ago. I remember it being in the quiet side, but that doesn't surprise me because spreading 10 strings across the top of the guitar to "load" the cone would diminish the volume, and for lack of a better term, "presence."

There were about 30 Zephyrs, mostly six strings like this one, no idea how many were roundneck vs. squareneck. The original design in the mid '80s was by the late Don Young, Mac Gaines, and Pete. It's all in the article. 

I think it was 1989 that Don and Mac left OMI Dobro in Huntington Beach to form the modern version of National Guitars, so Don, being the shop foreman at Dobro wouldn't have been involved with this particular guitar unless the body had already been built and was sitting in the warehouse. Sometimes OMI Dobros were not constructed the same year as the neck which was attached to them according to Mike Replogle, who ran Dobro for Gibson 1993-97, when they shut down Huntington Beach and moved the company to Nashville where production resumed in 1998. 

petegrant.com/flash_zephyr.html

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 11/09/2022 11:29:56

skateborg23 - Posted - 11/09/2022:  11:38:02

correction: Quilted Maple

docslyd - Posted - 11/10/2022:  06:16:31

quote:

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Originally posted by docslyd

I have seen them, however, the regulars on here will probably know how many of those were made. Since it was built by Gibson, I would give it the opposite of provenance, whatever that is. If its a screaming deal and you’re prepared to work on it or have it serviced....consider. It would certainly be preferable to play it or have right of refusal.

---

Initially, you said it was a Gibson-built guitar, hence my reply.

skateborg23 - Posted - 11/10/2022:  08:04:56

quote:

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Originally posted by docslyd

quote:

---

Originally posted by docslyd

I have seen them, however, the regulars on here will probably know how many of those were made. Since it was built by Gibson, I would give it the opposite of provenance, whatever that is. If its a screaming deal and you’re prepared to work on it or have it serviced....consider. It would certainly be preferable to play it or have right of refusal.

---

Initially, you said it was a Gibson-built guitar, hence my reply.

---

The owner who posted this Dobro Zephyr was inaccurate in his original description of the guitar. He thought it was a 1990 Gibson-made Dobro, which it is not. Since my original post here on RH, I've done some research into the Dobro Zephyr. The one I posted here for discussion was built by OMI in 1991 when the company was owned by Chester and Mary Lizak. Gibson purchased OMI in 1993 and moved it to Nashville in 1997.



See "The Making of the Dobro Zephyr" by Pete Grant petegrant.com/flash_zephyrstory.html

(Thank You! to MarkinSonoma Mark Eaton for that link and additional info.)

Edited by - skateborg23 on 11/10/2022 08:16:24