Posterboy - Posted - 02/08/2024:  04:13:09

Hello all,

I'm sure you're sick of these posts, 

I'm a guitarist that dabbles in a few other instruments, and I've been trying to learn pedal steel for a couple years, with limited success due to my own failings and discipline.

So of course I want to distract myself with another instrument.

Reading through a bunch of posts and looking online my choices seem to be the Gretsch Bobtail, Recording King Phil Leadbetter and going a step up in price the Gold Tone PBS.

I don't have anywhere to test these, being in the west of Ireland so I don't know if the narrow neck of the RK is going to bother me, and whether I want to spend 1300 on the GT if I don't have to for a 1st Square Neck, although if it makes for a better learning experience then I can be persuaded!

I can get the Gretsch or the Goldtone straightaway but the Recording King isn't in stock for 11 weeks. 

andyr - Posted - 02/08/2024:  07:27:07

I've been happy with my Recording King Maxwell square neck. Similar position where I couldn't try before purchasing but I've used it extensively at home and on stage with no issues and I really like the sound.

The neck is "standard" size compared to the Leadbetter one.

Edited by - andyr on 02/08/2024 07:27:45

gadobro - Posted - 02/08/2024:  09:30:23

I think the Gold Tones I've played have been alright, but I wouldn't pay $1,300 for one. Tonally I haven't noticed a big improvement in a stock Gold Tone over a stock Regal or Recording King. Any resonator guitar I bought, I would budget for a Beard Legend cone.

Buying new, I would try to get a RR-60 or failing that, a RR-36, and upgrade the cone to a Legend.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/08/2024:  10:31:22

I would avoid the Gretsch - though it's a decent beginner's guitar, if you become serious about dobro playing you'll be looking to upgrade before long.

The Gold Tone/Beard guitars have shot up in price  in the past few years. Inflation has  affected almost everything, but the  Gold Tone prices have seemed to outpace it.

It has been awhile since I played one, but I think the RK Leadbetter is the best value out there. Some people have been bothered by the 1 3/4" nut, but here is a  story of my own on the nut width.  I recently acquired a 1936 Regal built Dobro Model 37 in good condition, very similar to the guitar Mike Auldridge played for many years, and it has a nut that measures about 1 3/4" so it is slightly narrower than modern resonator guitars. The keyword is "slightly." I do notice the difference, but it's no big deal. 

My main Dobro for many years (purchased in the 1970s) was an earlier in the '30s Dobro Model 37, which I still have. Since I had nothing to compare it to for a long time, I don't recall the slightly narrower nut compared to a modern guitar ever bothering me. 

I have also played the other RK models that sell for less than the Leadbetter and I think those are pretty good guitars. But if I wanted to zero in on the Recording King brand for a campfire or taking on vacation guitar, I would hold out for the Leadbetter. To me it just has a little something extra going on. 

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 02/08/2024 10:33:54

Posterboy - Posted - 02/08/2024:  10:47:55

Thanks for the advice, I can see a shop in The Netherlands has the RR-60-VS in stock, so I'll likely go for that although they do have the phil leadbetter one at the same price hmm

Edited by - Posterboy on 02/08/2024 10:54:43

Posterboy - Posted - 02/12/2024:  07:16:08

Thomann have just shown stock of the Phil Leadbetter Square Neck, and after measuring the neck width on my pedal steel, I think I'll be ok with a slightly narrower neck, especially as it's my 1st resonator.

I also purchased a Shubb SP3

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/12/2024:  10:14:06

I should have commented when you mentioned in your first post that you play some pedal steel that  the slightly narrower nut than normal on the Leadbetter won't be a bother. 

A good pedal steel player I'm not  - but being fairly tall (6'2") a Reso with a  1 3/4" nut by comparison is like sitting in the exit row on an airliner rather than in coach. Those pedal steel strings are pretty close to each other.