Tom_Wonder - Posted - 07/29/2023:  15:49:13

Hello, Y'all:

I have, and have had since 2002, a 1981 or 1986 Round Neck Steel Body Dobro. It is an awesome guitar and I have recently rediscovered the distinct sound these resonators are capable of. They are entirely singular in sound/tone.

Here is the problem/paradox.

The serial number is: 8-196-5d (no actual dashes stamped; added for clarity).

The letters and numbers are stamped on top of the head.

I am aware that, according to all the info I have seen, that the 'd' indicates that the guitar is made out of wood, a wooden resonator.

And yet, the guitar I have is not at all wood.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a common thing, this inconsistency?

The only answer I can come up with is that the neck for the dobro I own was marked/intended for a wood body guitar, then somehow ended up on my guitar.

I am trying to figure out how to upload pictures, should anyone have the time and/or inclination to take a look and drop some knowledge in my direction.

Thanks, y'all.


Tom Wonder

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 07/29/2023:  18:10:28

Welcome Neal, and what we appear to have is yet another example of what some of us like to refer as "the convoluted history of the Dobro guitar."  

8 = decade

196 = instrument rank for the year

5 = year of the decade

So the guitar was built in Huntington Beach in 1985.

It is indeed likely that the neck was originally intended for a wood body guitar because of the "D."

After Gibson bought Dobro in 1993 they put Mike Replogle in charge for approximately four years until Gibson shut down the California operation in 1997 and moved it to Nashville. Mike has told me in the past that it was his understanding that sometimes the serial number didn't necessarily go with the information stamped into the edge of the headstock. For example a guitar would be built with a neck that had been in the warehouse which had been made a year prior.  There were other anomalies which I can't think of off the top of my head.

So yes - It's not all that surprising that a metal body Dobro included a neck with a serial number already stamped that was originally intended for a wood body guitar. 

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 07/29/2023:  18:32:59

...I should have been more clear - Mike Replogle in referring to serial numbers on headstocks that didn't correspond with the actual guitar in in Dobro nomenclature  - these examples were from some years prior to Gibson taking over the company. Apparently at some point in the eighties to the early nineties there were some sketchy things going on at the Dobro factory in Huntington Beach.