Recording King Dobro

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 15 Jul 2009 1:33 am

Has anyone here tried the new Recording King Dobro? It looks good, just curious if anyone has had hands on yet.

Thanks

http://recordingking.com/resonators_rr60.html

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 15 Jul 2009 4:07 pm

Anyone?

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 15 Jul 2009 6:04 pm

No, I haven't any experience with it, but it seems Recording King as an overall company has a pretty good reputation as one of the plethora of companies that has guitars built to its spec in Asia and they give pretty good bang for the buck.

On this reso, the body shape looks for all the world like a copy of Crafters of Tennessee.

A Continental cone, which was the original cone when the Wechter/Scheerhorn, AKA "Frugalhorn" came out. Now they W/S comes with either a Replogle cone, or the new, getting rave reviews, Scheerhorn cone, reputedly actually spun by Tim Scheerhorn himself.

Here is where I think a number of these import reso companies are missing the boat: they aren't really paying attention to the desires of the true "dobro geek," and I admit that I fall into that category, and hang out with a number of those folks.

Don't take this wrong way, soundwell construction dobro fans...after all I have an early 1930's Dobro that I treasure.

Regarding the Recording King "Parallelogram Soundwell Design" -

Your average dobro geek these days is looking for an open-bodied with baffles design. Yes, there are great sounding modern resonator guitars with soundwell construction, but that is not the "fashion" these days.

"The (Recording King) Professional Resonator is truly vintage-styled"...A lot of folks don't
want "vintage-styled" resonator guitars - they want the newer designs, as played in much more expensive instruments in the hands of stars like Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes.

They're missing the boat, it almost seems like a number of these music industry people who spec out these guitars don't actually talk to pickers before they draw up the plans on these instruments, they just sort of "copy and paste" it from somewhere else.

The suggested retail on this guitar is ballpark $500.

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 15 Jul 2009 6:31 pm

The Crafters of Tennessee connection makes sense, as Greg Rich (formerly of Rich and Taylor, the Taylor being Mark Taylor of C.O.T.) is the one behind this new name plate.
I'm actually after more of a vintage sound, so this sounds right up my alley. I own a couple of their guitars, and am VERY pleased with them. KILLER guitar, at any price. I tweaked my rosewood dreadnaught with better tuners, bone pins, and I slotted the bridge. I have a 67 brazilian D-28 that has been nick named "the banjo slayer." The R.K. at least holds its' own. I took it in the local music store and A/B'd it with a handful of new Martins and Taylors, and the music store owner asked me to case it. Nice.
Now I'm dying to get my hands on one of these dobros!

Twayn Williams · Post by **Twayn Williams** » 16 Jul 2009 12:35 pm

I played one of the Tricones in a store a while back and I liked it except there was something funky with the bridge. When you laid your hand on the bridge, the sound "choked up" like you were touching the cones or something. It was the same sort of sound you get with a flattop if you strum a chord then lay your hand flat behind the bridge.

It was the only one in the store, so I don't know if it could have been fixed easily or if it was a dud, and of course the sales folks knew nothing about it at all.

If the guitar were just needing adjustment, then I'd be happy to own one

AJ Azure · Post by **AJ Azure** » 16 Jul 2009 2:29 pm

if you want vintage dobro sound go to republicguitars.com they just started putting out a repro on an old dobro with soundwell. You'll get better customer service than Recording King, i.e johnson. They're better on the tricones too.

Gregg McKenna · Post by **Gregg McKenna** » 21 Jul 2009 8:41 am

I sometimes wonder where Dobro would be today if Josh and Os spent so much time worrying about wheather their guitar had an open body or soundwell supporting the top.

Most of the old origional Dobros had a very narrow body and tended to be a bit quieter than some of the bassier boxes being built today. Unless a soundwell is blocking most of the front area of the guitar, the sound quality isn't going to be much different with a guitar of similar depth/body size.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 21 Jul 2009 12:50 pm

Gregg, if you are implying that somehow I am "worrying" about the inside construction of a dobro - believe me, it's the last thing on my mind.

Whatever the bottom line on the resulting sound of a guitar, the construction specifics seem to have something to do with "fashion," like a lot of other things in the world.

For whatever reason, many dobro players these days seem to prefer a guitar with open body construction, and they also prefer guitars with larger bodies. In some cases they may not even really quite know why they prefer it, but they just do.

There is a virtually flawless looking Beard R that has been for sale on Reso-Nation (might be listed here as well), for a very good price. If money weren't so tight around my house these days, i would have grabbed it weeks ago. These are great guitars, but as you are well aware, they are of a smaller body type than Beard E's, MA's, JD's etc.

My whole point was that if I ran one of these companies that has guitars built overseas, I think I would get a handle on what the prevailing sentiment is in regards to "fashion," and I could probably sell quite a few of them that way. And I would lose the word "vintage" even though some folks do seek that out, if it is a truly accurate term.

And my line about there being great sounding modern guitars made with soundwell construction was directed specifically at your guitars.

Gregg McKenna · Post by **Gregg McKenna** » 21 Jul 2009 2:24 pm

Mark, I highly agree with you.

The reso market is very fad oriented. When I started posting on the JDBB about 8 years ago, Birch guitars weren't too much in vogue. Now many makers are selling them as part of their inventory in all price ranges.