Charlie Bernstein - Posted - 02/21/2023:  09:48:11

Hey -

I'm thinking of buying an old (maybe '70s or '80s) Dobro-brand squareneck my guit whisperer is fixing up and selling.

I've been thinking of replacing my current squareneck because it's a little shrill and the frets and dots are hard to read.

The Dobro would match my old Dobro roundneck, which would be fun. But that alone isn't a good enough reason to buy the thing.

Thoughts? Advice? What can you tell me about Dobro squarenecks?

Thanks!

cb

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/21/2023:  11:29:08

Dobros from the OMI era ('70s to mid '90s era) are all over the map in terms of quality. 

I have played some that sounded very good to me and others that were flat out dogs.  

Of course we know that when it comes to the acoustic guitar family of instruments, the spider bridge reso, being sort of half guitar/half mechanical  device is highly dependent on proper setup. And a guitar whisperer on flattops may or may not know how to whisper to a dobro. 

Charlie, I had to do a search in the archives to refresh my memory and it came back to me that you owned a Smith & Young resonator, the short-lived product line from National prior to them taking on the production of Scheerhorn guitars.  Is this the guitar that you are characterizing as founding shrill, or have you already moved the Smith & Young down the road and you're referring to a different guitar?

What I recall in playing a few of those S & Y guitars in stores was that they were LOUD when you hit them hard with the picks. The typical OMI Dobro with its inherent design  won't project that kind of volume.

Plenty of people play OMI Dobros because there are several thousand of them out there. 

I was at a Kathy Kallick Band concert Sunday evening (wait until you guys hear the new original instrumental by Greg Booth in C minor which will be on the next KKB album - fantastic!). 

I bring up Kathy because several years ago her band Good Ol' Persons which was a west coast bluegrass legend decades ago played a reunion concert nearby. Sally Van Meter didn't bring her Scheerhorn from Colorado, she borrowed a fancier than usual OMI Dobro from  one of the band members. At any rate - she still sounded like Sally, but she was of course playing into a microphone. Might have been a different story on the volume in an acoustic jam with a loud banjo and fiddle in the circle. The old Dobros are often lacking in volume projection. 

 

Charlie Bernstein - Posted - 02/21/2023:  17:49:43

Thanks, Mark. I was hoping you were one of the folks who would reply.

I sold the Smith & Young a few years ago and got a Gann kit guitar from Arkansas assembled and finished by someone in Indiana named Smally, about whom I've learned nothing.

Both the Smith and Young and the Gann/Smally were and are, to my ears, ear-piercing, like a Tele bridge pickup with the treble up — the Smith and Young was moreso, but the Gann/Smally has plenty of alarming moments.

Volume isn't a big concern for me — whether I like cannons and pea shooters is more about what they do than how loud they do it.

My Dobro squareneck has a Quarterman cone in it and sound great. Not as loud as my friend's metal National, but what is?

I like your comment about how the sound of OMI squarenecks ranges widely and wildly. It's hard to judge this one because the strings are old and the tuners are totally shot. Right now, it sounds dreadful.

I wonder whether a new cone and tuners would bring it to life.

I'll let you know if I end up with it. Thanks!

Charlie Bernstein - Posted - 02/21/2023:  17:51:50

xxx

Edited by - Charlie Bernstein on 02/21/2023 17:52:24