Howdy,

About three years ago, I ordered a Recording King RR-60-VS “Professional” square neck from a dealer on Reverb. I was super impressed with the build quality, finish and playability, and even more taken with the tone. It sounded much better than either of the OMI Dobros I have owned in the past. But…
After a couple of days, I noticed that the end of the fretboard was diving down a bit. The top was indented slightly (“caving in” is too extreme a description), and there were slight gaps between the top and the inside edges of the sound hole screen rings.
Needless to say, I wrote to the dealer to see about an exchange. No problem, they said, since they had four more of them in stock. Well, they wrote to me the next day to say they were all like that! So, I ended up returning it for a refund. I went without a dobro for a few years until I found a nice used RK Maxwell which had no fretboard extension  dive and a perfectly flat top.
The other day I found another RR-60-VS in a used instrument store for really cheap. It played great and sounded fantastic, but, no surprise, it had the ubiquitous fretboard dive and indented top. It sounded so good, I bought it anyway.
I reckon it's several years old, and if it’s been in high bass tuning all this time, I’m hoping it won’t get worse. I decided to keep this particular instrument in low bass tuning just in case…
Anyone else encounter this issue with this model or any other Recording King dobros? I did a ton of searching on the internet, but I can find no mention of this issue. Yet, I have encountered two of these screwed up “Professional” models personally and know of four others. I have only heard good things about RK dobros, so I’m very surprised no one has brought up this structural issue.

Thanks,
PT Grover, Jr

Edited by - taygrover on 07/29/2026 12:30:49