Bernie Lenhoff - Posted - 02/24/2025:  20:46:12

I heard someone play a Gibson-era roundneck Dobro at an open mic the other day and it sounded excellent. Also saw some videos for a squareneck of the Gibson era and was impressed. I'm in the market for a wooden roundneck reso and this one had a sound I liked.



I'm not sure how many Dobro-branded models Gibson made, and some, I gather, were made overseas. He indicated he bought it some 20 years ago or so.



Here's the crappy snapshot I took in the dark. The poinsettia faceplate design looks like a Model 27 but the fingerboard has just the simple dots and it has f-holes instead of screenholes. So an F-60 with a Model 27 faceplate?

Thanks for any insights!

 

Edited by - Bernie Lenhoff on 02/24/2025 20:48:56

 

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/25/2025:  13:03:54

It's an F-60, most likely  made from maple laminate/veneer. They would have either a poinsettia coverplate or a fan coverplate.

I have posted about Dobro history a lot in the archives, you can do a Search on the left side of your screen. This model has come up in topics a number of times. 

 Gibson purchased OMI Dobro in Huntington Beach in 1993 - the company was struggling. They appointed Mike Replogle to run the company. Production remained in California until sometime in 1997, when Gibson shut it down. 

Dobro reopened at the Opry Mills facility in Nashville in 1998, only one California employee made the move, Replogle declined to go. 

They also made banjos and mandolins at Opry Mills from 1998 to 2010 when the massive Cumberland River flood caused major damage to the Gibson facility and neighboring Grand Ole Opry property. 

Gibson never reopened the facility, and it was the final year U.S. made Dobros were produced along with banjos. They have made small numbers of mandolins in the U.S. since that time. 

The F-60 was on the cover of the 1996 Dobro catalog while the company was still in Huntington Beach. There is a cool website called Notecannons where the owner had scanned the catalog but unfortunately the site has been down for months and I have no idea if the owner will ever bring it back online. 

If this guitar was made around 20 years ago in Nashville it would have an eight digit serial number on the headstock.

if it were made prior to 1998  in California there would be a serial number on the headstock where there are spaces between some of the numerals and one or two letters on either side of them. 

Either way, if a "D" is part of the serial number that indicates a wood body. 

At some point in the 2000s Gibson started making Dobros at an Epiphone facility in China, and after the flood of 2010 they were all made there. I don't know much more than that because I have no interest in the Chinese Dobros.

And as far as overall quality after the Gibson takeover and subsequent move to Nashville it can be hit or miss.  Some nice guitars while others were dogs. They eventually pretty much drove the Dobro brand into the ground. 

 

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 02/25/2025 13:11:55

Bernie Lenhoff - Posted - 02/25/2025:  13:35:50

Fantastic information Mark, thank you. I'm going to see if I can track down the player I met and get a better look at the guitar and maybe give it a test drive. Sounds like this is one I'd need to play before buying to rule out the dogs. The sound I heard has some of that nice low end Beard punch. Would be curious to see if this is a wood or laminate model.

I see you're in my neck of the woods! Maybe we'll cross paths sometime. I'm also a member of Dobroholics on FB and I'm taking Josh Swift's Resoflix course. I play with an acoustic trio called If A Tree Falls out of Berkeley. My fellow trio member Mark Walstrom owns Timbre Folk & Baroque in Berkeley. 

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/25/2025:  14:55:59

Perhaps we will indeed cross paths someday. 

Though I'm confused - if  you're on the Josh Swift Resoflix program you're playing lap style. Were you intrigued by the idea of this F-60 because you liked the sound and you're on the hunt for a roundneck - but you must already have a squareneck reso guitar? 

As I wrote above, the F-60 is laminate/veneer. The Dopyeras made a very small number - like a handful - off solid wood guitars in the pre WW2 era as a trial run. But they never put any into production

In the modern era there were only  three solid wood models ever produced after Gibson bought the company. All signature models - the  Jerry Douglas, and in the early 2000s there were two different Phil Leadbetter models. 

 

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 02/25/2025 14:56:26

Bernie Lenhoff - Posted - 02/26/2025:  00:56:57

Yes, I took up lap style a few years ago and have a couple of great squarenecks, both set up by Bobby Wright. But I'm a lifelong guitarist and have never owned a roundneck resonator. I was simply impressed by the tone I heard— fairly full-bodied, balanced, good volume. Something that could cut through an acoustic mix, add a different flavor, but without being overly tinny.

DutchDobro - Posted - 02/26/2025:  13:35:23

Hello.

I don't know if these are of any help, I picked them up around 1996 in a shop in San Diego, if I'm not mistaken.

Dobro leaflets

 

Bernie Lenhoff - Posted - 02/26/2025:  14:03:19

Thanks DutchDobro. I'm always curious to learn more. I wonder if someone has the same for their roundneck line from this period.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/26/2025:  14:09:18

quote:

---

Originally posted by DutchDobro

Hello.



I don't know if these are of any help, I picked them up around 1996 in a shop in San Diego, if I'm not mistaken.

---

Those are a HUGE help Edwin, thanks for posting! If you look at the Dobro logo on there you can see the words "Original Acoustic Instruments." 

After Gibson bought Dobro in 1993 and still had them made in Huntington Beach until some point in 1997,  they stuck with the corporate name "Original Musical Instruments" that the Dopyera family had used for decades.

After everything got transferred to Nashville and production resumed in 1998 at the Opry Mills facility they changed that moniker to "Original Acoustic Instruments" because that division of Gibson was also making banjos and mandolins. 

When it was OMI  in Caifornia the Dopyeras were also making some instruments like small numbers of lap steels, so the "Acoustic" part that Gibson later adopted wouldn't have been completely accurate.  

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 02/26/2025 14:10:42