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Post by martinrowe on Sept 19, 2024 20:55:42 GMT
I was thinking of having a go at trying to play a bit of Dobro. I have an old Ozark Steel Resonator that has a good sound. I'm careful of lifting it as I like to take care of my back - I speak from experience of picking said instrument up too quickly. I bought the gubbins once that allows you to turn an acoustic into a dobro but The closer I got to doing it the more I didn't like the idea of possibly wrecking an acoustic guitar.
I was thinking of putting Dobro strings on the Resonator but I'm not sure about things like strings tension - -as I've said the Resonator does have a metal body and is heavy. Apparently the standard strings that Dobro players use are D'addario EJ42's - gauges are 16 18 28w 36 46 56. Regular Dobro tuning is a G tuning: DBGDBG - D being the highest treble string, G the bass. I think I'm going to go ahead but thought I'd ask just in case someone on here knows about these things.
thanks Martin
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Sept 19, 2024 21:05:07 GMT
slidingwolf is yer man but sadly he's not been around for a couple of months...
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Post by lavaman on Sept 19, 2024 22:07:50 GMT
I guess it depends what you want to play. 16-56 would be great for slide playing but hard work for fingerpicking. I don't play slide and I fit 12-53s on both my resonators. A compromise for slide playing would be to fit 12-53s but replace strings 1 and 2 with a thicker gauge like 14 and 18 or 16 and 18. Experiment to see what works for you.
Iain
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Post by martinrowe on Sept 19, 2024 22:31:48 GMT
Thanks Iain. I've fiddled with string gauges when using the resonator for blues. I'm going to have a try at using the Resonator for country i.e. as a Dobro. Apparently most Dobro players use those string gauges. It's the Two bass strings, the B and the G, that are new to me.
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minorkey
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Post by minorkey on Sept 20, 2024 21:02:52 GMT
Are they really that heavy? Like an electric guitar?
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Post by martinrowe on Sept 20, 2024 22:13:25 GMT
I checked myself a Standard set of medium acoustic strings is: 13, 17, 26w, 35w, 45w, 56w resonator strings are: 16 18 28w 36 46 56
Not that different really. Perhaps I was wrong to be so concerned in the first place - thousandths of an inch..
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minorkey
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Post by minorkey on Sept 21, 2024 7:48:55 GMT
No I meant the guitars themselves. Are they much heavier than a regular acoustic?
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Post by martinrowe on Sept 21, 2024 9:09:01 GMT
The all metal ones are - mine is anyway
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minorkey
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Post by minorkey on Sept 21, 2024 10:18:34 GMT
Would love to try one
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Post by juliant on Sept 21, 2024 11:06:30 GMT
No I meant the guitars themselves. Are they much heavier than a regular acoustic? Dobros can be. Because the sound is supposed to come from the cone, with minimal help from the rest of the body, they are often heavily built so there is no wood sound. Alan Arnold used to make his responators out of marine ply, and they were not light and delicate instruments. One thing to note is that Dobros and Nationals usually sound very different, so you'd probably want to decide if you're a blues or country person!
I used to use mediums on my National and that (with a slightly higher than I usually use) me play slide and fingerstyle. But since the arthritis has got worse I've had to go down to low tension, which rather spoils it for slide.
I do, however, have an old Hofner f-hole that I put an extension nut on, so it would be a bit like a Weissenborn. I haven't played that for ages - ought to dig it out and have a go again!
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Post by martinrowe on Sept 21, 2024 11:57:02 GMT
juliant Can you remember the gauges you put on the Hofner? I have a very scratched Taylor big Baby that I used to use solely for C tuning. I also have the extension nut and the bar from my previous 'attempt'. I was wondering about leaving the Resonator in a usual Open tuning and trying the Dobro stuff with the Taylor. I've got the strings - decisions, decisions. Just thinking, would holding a bar be better for the arthritis fingers?
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minorkey
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Post by minorkey on Sept 21, 2024 12:34:45 GMT
No I meant the guitars themselves. Are they much heavier than a regular acoustic? Dobros and Nationals usually sound very different, so you'd probably want to decide if you're a blues or country person!
Oh I'm definitely more of a blues person.
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juliant
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Post by juliant on Sept 21, 2024 22:10:24 GMT
juliant Can you remember the gauges you put on the Hofner? I have a very scratched Taylor big Baby that I used to use solely for C tuning. I also have the extension nut and the bar from my previous 'attempt'. I was wondering about leaving the Resonator in a usual Open tuning and trying the Dobro stuff with the Taylor. I've got the strings - decisions, decisions. Just thinking, would holding a bar be better for the arthritis fingers? It's been a while, but I don't recall putting anything special on the Hofner. Probably medium D'Addarios, because that's what I usually had around. And yes, a bar works pretty well when the hands are playing up. I've tried several bars, and currently use a Shubb SP-2; I also sometimes use a pedal steel bullet bar on lap steel, although that isn't as easy to hold as the Shubb.
(Pedal steel... ah, that's a whole other thing. I had a ZB for a couple of years; great fun, definitely gave my theory knowledge a workout, but it didn't fit with anything I was playing so in the end it went. Wouldn't mind trying it again, if I come across one reasonably priced at some point)
Oh, and another string thing. On the Rickenbacher lap steel I've got flat wound stainless steel strings, which have two advantages. First, they last for ever, and second, being flat wound you don't get any scraping noises. On slide a certain amount of string noise goes with the whole blues vibe, but not on lap steel.
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Post by slidingwolf on Oct 14, 2024 12:32:29 GMT
Hi, 16-56 is what I use on Dobros and Nationals, with a higher action. Anything less on the top strings and I can't get a decent hammer on/pull off.
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Post by slidingwolf on Oct 14, 2024 12:42:37 GMT
Keep the strings in lower tunings, G,D, C etc and you should be ok. You don't want too much tension on the cone.
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