Posted by resotom on Sunday, March 15, 2015
The year was 1982 and I was in the middle of playing pedal steel ( which I played since 1958) and thought what a great idea to have a 10 string Dobro as my 'retirement' guitar. Since I was playing pedal steel which has 10 strings on each neck, this would be a good substitute. Easy to carry as well. So I stopped at a music store in West Allis Wisconsin (Ralph Hanzel Music Center) and ordered a custom built 10 string Dobro from the factory in California. It was to be black with chrome accessories and a pick up installed under the bridge by the mechanics who assembled the guitar. It arrived a month later and was tuned to a C-6 th tuning which I was not using at that time very much so I re-strung it with a E-9th chromatic tuning. That tuning which I modified to the same tuning I had on my pedal steels seemed to work well. I used this reso on many recording and stage gigs up until 2003. Then in 2011, I decided to change the guitar to a 6 string G tuning that I was using on my old Regal/Dobro. I had to cut new grooves in the nut and bridge to accomplish this. This works very well and the bridge does not have a cover plate on it so this modification went very well. In fact, if I want to convert this guitar to an 8 string, this can be done very easily. That's how versatile this guitar is ! It has its own unique sound and I have since installed a Lace Ultra Slim pick up in it instead of using the one installed at the factory which tended to feed back when playing on stage.Sometimes I will use a Fishman JD Aura pedal with it to get the mike sound I am looking for which depends on the room I am playing in. Or I can mike it through the board using a Shure SM-81 mike that I use in the studio. I believe it is a Dobro Model D and I should have kept the brochures and paperwork that came with it. It has a hard shell case and is much easier to carry around that my pedal steels. Next month, I will discuss my third reso which I had built in 2012 by Crafters of Tennessee.
2 comments on “My Second Dobro”
resotom Says:
Sunday, March 15, 2015 @9:00:26 AM
I may add...I use Levys straps on all my resos...
resotom Says:
Sunday, March 15, 2015 @9:04:30 AM
ProPik double wrapped nickel/chrome, Zookies L-20 thumb picks, Tipton R-10 and Dunlop Lap Dawg bars , custom gauge strings 014P-018P-022P-030W-038W-048W ( Top 3 are nickel and the bottom 3 are phosphor bronze GHS strings )
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