Resophonic Guitar

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 2 Dec 2013 3:47 pm

In theory.

1. The Gretsch action is low compared to what most U.S. premium builders use these days because most/many use Beard cover plates. The higher action afforded by those cover plates makes the guitar more responsive and easier to "pull tone".

2. Gretsch is using their own spider and not the #14 that is preferred by millions & millions

h

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 2 Dec 2013 5:09 pm

Mark Eaton wrote:
Damir Besic wrote:I don't, I don't like Gold Tone, just my personal opinion..sorry to burst your bubble.. and Paul Beard has nothing to do with those guitars, he designed them, and that's all.... he doesn't build them,checks them out or even see them, you are making it sound like every Gold Tone "Paul Beard" goes through his hands...and that is simply not true... Db

I have an MA6 Beard now and it is an amazing instrument, and it will never part from me until I part from it. But I had a Gold Tone Beard that is responsible for getting me back into Dobro. It wasn't originally a Beard tuned guitar,although I did take ti to Beard to have the work done on it, but it sounded so good when I tried it out that I had to take it home with me. I wish now that I wouldn't have sold it, although I am extremely happy with the 8 string lap steel that replaced it. But, that Gold Tone blows my 32 Dobro out of the water, as well as a lot of others I've run into at jams. I've done tons of studio projects with it and no one yet has ever believed it was an import guitar. There was no such thing as a Gold Tone reso 20 years ago. At least not a Beard signature.

Bryan Bradfield · Post by **Bryan Bradfield** » 2 Dec 2013 5:11 pm

John Sluszny:

Here is the link to the Paul Beard video -
https://www.beardguitars.com/Merchant2/ ... ry_Code=A1

It gave me a lot of help. I do all of my own set-up and repairs.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 2 Dec 2013 5:42 pm

howard...i figured it was too good to be true!
however, that brings up another question. with the beautiful custom dobros being built by different people at substantially 'out of my league' prices, wouldn't it be nice if they could at least design and manufacture their own cover plates, cones and tailpieces?? i mean, c'mon...most still are using the original tailpiece design from the 30's!!
are these companies designers or just 'assemblers'?

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 2 Dec 2013 5:52 pm

Cones are available from several sources, National and Beard being two good options. Beard makes some great cover plates. Randy Allen makes good and unique tailpieces.
It's all out there - you just have to look around.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 2 Dec 2013 5:52 pm

i just looked at an older scheerhorn on some site....$9000...same cover plate and tailpiece as my '75 junker dobro......c'mon!!

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 2 Dec 2013 6:50 pm

chris ivey wrote:i just looked at an older scheerhorn on some site....$9000...same cover plate and tailpiece as my '75 junker dobro......c'mon!!

LOL ... in todays society where you have all kinds of "experts" telling you how you really need a $9000 guitar to sound good on the one side, and society that values materialistic possessions more than anything else on the other, man has to be mature, and confident, and smart to actually buys what he wants and needs, and what makes him happy, do you enjoy pickin' your '75 Dobro with your buddys every weekend at your local bluegrass joint ?? does that make you happy? if so, than spending $9000 on guitar that won't make you any happier would be a complete waste of money...

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 2 Dec 2013 9:50 pm

Cover plate design & manufacturing is quite the art & science. Not only does there have to be the correct ratio of solid surface to space but the spaces have to be in the correct places. So, the expense is raw brass + design + manufacturing + plating.

Lot's of builders have done the math and have walked away from dobro hardware. Paul got in early, bought some designs & created others.

Several of his designs are proprietary to specific guitars (Auldridge & Douglas) and the rest are offered for sale at $120-180. Prices have escalated as Chinese manufacturing has captured a huge chunk of the raw brass market.

A general comment on the dobro market, which is VERY strong these days. Like the pedal steel where you can buy Mavericks-G2's-Promats the reso market offers a wide variety of guitars.

Unlike the steel market where contemporary players still lust after classic Emmons & Buds the general wisdom amongst contemporary reso players is the 2013 is the time of the dobro's "Golden Age". Those players that accept this have driven the price of hand crafted reso's up to average about $4,000. To be clear, open one up and the build quality of many are darn spectacular & the internals bare only a faint resemblance to you dad's or grandad's dobro. There is a lot of cool design work going on these days.

You may or may not care

It's (mostly) all good.

h

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 3 Dec 2013 9:42 am

how did the dopera bros. figure that stuff out way back when? trial and error? physics?

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 3 Dec 2013 10:17 am

Damir Besic wrote:
chris ivey wrote:i just looked at an older scheerhorn on some site....$9000...same cover plate and tailpiece as my '75 junker dobro......c'mon!!
LOL ... in todays society where you have all kinds of "experts" telling you how you really need a $9000 guitar to sound good on the one side, and society that values materialistic possessions more than anything else on the other, man has to be mature, and confident, and smart to actually buys what he wants and needs, and what makes him happy, do you enjoy pickin' your '75 Dobro with your buddys every weekend at your local bluegrass joint ?? does that make you happy? if so, than spending $9000 on guitar that won't make you any happier would be a complete waste of money...

There is a You Tube video, probably on Beard's site, where Mike A is trying out a Gold Tone, and he remarks about how he spent most of his career playing guitars that didn't sound as good as the GT. We're spoiled.

Gregg McKenna · Post by **Gregg McKenna** » 3 Dec 2013 10:25 am

chris ivey wrote:how did the dopera bros. figure that stuff out way back when? trial and error? physics?

Lots of trial and error. I think some of the 1st coverplates were actually cut out by hand.

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 3 Dec 2013 10:30 am

how did the dopera bros. figure that stuff out way back when? trial and error? physics?

A great question!!

I have no answer.

As a guy that started on bluegrass dobro in the mid 70's I'd share Mike's opinion. The Gold Tones are designed/built better, larger bodies w/ a bigger voice and set up better "out of the box". Those plastic nuts, birch bridges and low action OMI used, yikes.

But heck, those were different times with different heroes and different tastes.

Stands to reason that the new generation of builders and the new players are going forth with a new vision.

h

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 3 Dec 2013 10:49 am

Here's what they didn't figure out. The old Dobros can have a very sweet tone, there's nothing quite like it. After all, they are the original Dobro. But in a pure acoustic situation like a jam, they often get buried by a loud banjo or a fiddle. I'm often amazed at how such a small instrument like a violin can be so freakin' loud!

Of the modern resonator builders, I know that both Paul Beard and Tim Scheerhorn were dissatisfied with what was available to them as players many years ago, and followed in the footsteps of the likes of Rudy Q. Jones and they came up with some modern innovations of their own with the guitars beginning in the '80s.

Tim's story was that he couldn't be heard at jams on an old Dobro. With an engineering and mechanical background (as is Paul's), Tim wanted to build a guitar that wouldn't be "negated" by a banjo in a bluegrass setting.

Most of us have seen the clips of Josh Graves with Flatt & Scruggs stepping up to the mike for a solo and tilting the body of his Dobro up very close to the microphone so that the thing could be heard.

Good modern large-bodied resonator guitars are loud. Once in awhile my brother and I get together and play, he'll be on a flattop while I'm on my Clinesmith. We decided awhile back that instead of sitting across from each other, we place the chairs side-by-side because even if I'm not picking that hard, when I've sat across from him he's said that he has a difficult time hearing what he's playing on his guitar.

I love the sound of my circa 1931 Dobro which still has the original stamped cone, but I have to really work that thing to get the volume out of it. It doesn't take much with most of the larger body modern resos to get some serious volume.

As far as the hardware like coverplates, tailpieces, etc. there has been as mentioned in this thread different innovations and designs, but the basic original designs from the Dopyeras have stayed mostly intact. Sure, subtle changes like higher palm rests have been built in, that sort of thing, along with interesting patterns as have been designed by Paul Beard. Take for example, one component that has been around for a number of years: I like the looks and the "beefiness" of the Randy Allen tailpieces that he builds here in Northern California, but it seems to me that I've run across some players who have them on a guitar for awhile and they end up selling them, and go back to the old Dobro design. Surely others have kept them on their guitars permanently, but for whatever reason, some pickers go back to the thinner, cheaper looking old-style tailpiece even after owning one of Randy's "Cadillac" jobs for awhile.

Greg Booth · Post by **Greg Booth** » 3 Dec 2013 10:49 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3ynXYavql4

Damir Besic wrote:I don't, I don't like Gold Tone, just my personal opinion..sorry to burst your bubble.. and Paul Beard has nothing to do with those guitars, he designed them, and that's all.... he doesn't build them,checks them out or even see them, you are making it sound like every Gold Tone "Paul Beard" goes through his hands...and that is simply not true...
Db

Damir, have you ever played a Gold Tone Beard reso? Are you a dobro player? Just curious....

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 3 Dec 2013 11:03 am

Ah, Greg back home to Alaska in one piece and the real weather though check this out, we have a bunch of freezing nights ahead of us here in Windsor, supposed to get down to 21 tomorrow night, have to cover all the citrus in my backyard. What a pain in the a$$!

I don't know how many times I've watched that Gold Tone/Beard video of Mike and Jimmy, even as much as the playing itself I like how they would always give each other a bunch of crap. What a couple of characters.

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 4 Dec 2013 11:25 am

no, I never played a Gold Tone reso, and I wouldn't call myself a dobro "player" , or banjo or steel guitar player, for that matter, guys like Douglas, Franklin,Mason etc..I consider a "players" , I'm more of a "doodler" ...LOL ...

Db

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 4 Dec 2013 11:27 am

Mark Eaton wrote: I'm often amazed at how such a small instrument like a violin can be so freakin' loud

LOL...true..it is amazing, isn't it?, never thought about that before, but you are right...

Db

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 4 Dec 2013 12:23 pm

...and the more 'off pitch' they are, the louder they seem!

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 4 Dec 2013 12:38 pm

LOL...and for some reason, if you play with a fiddle who is out of tune, your steel can be dead on, but still, you are the one that will sound out of tune...at least that's my experience...

Greg Booth · Post by **Greg Booth** » 4 Dec 2013 1:36 pm

Damir Besic wrote:no, I never played a Gold Tone reso, and I wouldn't call myself a dobro "player" , or banjo or steel guitar player, for that matter, guys like Douglas, Franklin,Mason etc..I consider a "players" , I'm more of a "doodler" ...LOL ...

Db

In that case I will consider your future comments with the same credibility that I do your statements about Gold Tone and Paul Beard.

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 4 Dec 2013 1:42 pm

Greg Booth wrote:
Damir Besic wrote:no, I never played a Gold Tone reso, and I wouldn't call myself a dobro "player" , or banjo or steel guitar player, for that matter, guys like Douglas, Franklin,Mason etc..I consider a "players" , I'm more of a "doodler" ...LOL ...

Db
In that case I will consider your future comments with the same credibility that I do your statements about Gold Tone and Paul Beard.

LOL...I don't really care, my friend, it's your money...do as you wish...but this is not your tread anyway, neither was I talking to you...so,I'm not sure why are you talking to me? can I help you somehow? my statements about Paul? I never said anything about Paul, I said I don't like Gold Tone, am I suppose to ask you for a permit before I voice my opinion? but don't worry, I don't consider your comments with much credibility neither...so we are good

Db

James Turner · Post by **James Turner** » 7 Dec 2013 3:17 pm

I saw a Regal Black Lightning for sale on the forum.I had one once. Wish I never sold it. Best sounding square-neck I ever owned.

John Sluszny · Post by **John Sluszny** » 7 Dec 2013 4:11 pm

Bryan Bradfield wrote:John Sluszny:

Here is the link to the Paul Beard video -
https://www.beardguitars.com/Merchant2/ ... ry_Code=A1

It gave me a lot of help. I do all of my own set-up and repairs.

Thanks !

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 8 Dec 2013 7:21 am

The best reso I ever played that was under $1500, was a Redline. It was at Buffalo Brothers, (a few miles from Jim Palenscars shop). It was a pleasant surprize.

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Resophonic Guitar

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