Realistic dobro simulator pedals?

Peter Leavenworth · Post by **Peter Leavenworth** » 4 Aug 2023 9:48 am

I'm wondering who out there has any experience with decent sounding dobro pedals? I have a pair of wonderful real dobros that I love but the sound reinforcement situation in my current band has not had luck zeroing in on a good mix in front of house. It's really not an acoustic band to begin with so having a dobro simulator pedal for my pedal steel might be the answer.

Will Brown · Post by **Will Brown** » 4 Aug 2023 10:57 am

Ha David Martin has a superbro for sale in the Amp section they do already job I have used one for years. He's a great guy to do business with

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 4 Aug 2023 1:26 pm

Many, me included, use a 'Fish & Chips' pedal. Very affordable. Make sure to hook up in between guitar and vol. Pedal. RP

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 5 Aug 2023 7:44 am

The best one is the one made by Goodrich; the Match-Bro.
Erv

Alex Cattaneo · Post by **Alex Cattaneo** » 5 Aug 2023 11:30 am

The Fishman Aura Jerry Douglas is what you need. It was created for exactly the situation you describe.

While it is designed for use with dobros, anything you throw at it will come out sounding like a dobro. You have 16 impulse responses created by Jerry Douglas to choose from, and with the blend control, you can dial the mix between your instrument and the pedal's preset. I use it with lap steel and pedal steel and it works quite well.

In this video, I use that pedal for the dobro solo on Tom Brumley's Applejack:

https://youtu.be/ZZJvD1c4HhU

But in Peter's case, for use with an actual dobro? It's a no-brainer. I've used it with resonator guitars that weren't fitted with the Fishman Nashville pickup, and it worked equally well.

Roger Crawford · Post by **Roger Crawford** » 5 Aug 2023 1:04 pm

Ron, I know that the slides on the Fish and Chips need to be alternately full on/full off, but which way do you start, left to right?

Ron Funk · Post by **Ron Funk** » 7 Aug 2023 8:49 pm

Piggy-backing on Erv's comment:

The Goodrich Super-Bro has a "Full Bypass-Battery Off' slider/switch

Dave Meis · Post by **Dave Meis** » 7 Aug 2023 11:47 pm

@ Roger.. left-most (bass) down, alternating up/down. Right-most to taste.

Paddy Long · Post by **Paddy Long** » 13 Aug 2023 2:49 pm

I recently got the "Resonator II" by MXR from Tom Bradshaw, and that is very authentic ... it comes with a Polymer type bar .....and either a stomp button version, or the leg clip type with a toggle switch (which is what I have) ... probably the best Dobro simulator since the Goodrich Matchbro IMO ... it is also powered so you don't have to worry about batteries going flat, or leaking etc ...

Karl Paulsen · Post by **Karl Paulsen** » 14 Aug 2023 8:31 am

Dave Meis wrote:@ Roger.. left-most (bass) down, alternating up/down. Right-most to taste.

This is my method for the F&C also, though I adjust the 200 and 400 sliders to taste.

I use a glass bottle from Hobby Lobby as my slide and that seems to twang it up a bit also. I don't know that it's as accurate of a sound as some of the purpose-built options, but it's definitely got a resonator vibe and is a drastically different tone from a standard PSG sound.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 14 Aug 2023 10:47 am

In my opinion as a dobro player for 20 years, there are none. The Match-bro didn't sound like a dobro but it did have a cool sound all its own as long as you had the plastic bar they give you, but the thing died on me pretty quickly.

Some suggest getting an EQ box and dialing in a "dobro" sound.

TRAP TRULY · Post by **TRAP TRULY** » 14 Aug 2023 2:26 pm

There was a discussion about dobro simulators not long ago on the forum. In the post, I think Tom Bradshaw stated that the Resonator II has the same circuitry as the Matchbro.
To my ears, the simulators sound closer to a Franklin pedalbro than a real dobro, but will do fine when the stage volume is too loud for your dobro or you dont want to bring it.

Kevin Fix · Post by **Kevin Fix** » 16 Aug 2023 5:28 pm

Don't laugh!! Works damn good for 50 bucks!!! Try it. I just turn my reverb on my NV112 down to about 3.... Set it just like I have it... I use it on anything that has Do Bro fill. Boss made a Do Bro pedal years back. This is what they used. They set it like mine and welded a cover over the sldes. Fact........

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 17 Aug 2023 6:46 am

Bobby Seymour did the same thing and charged double.

Erv

Kevin Fix · Post by **Kevin Fix** » 17 Aug 2023 8:33 am

A friend of Bobbies told me about it. Price was like 350.00!!!! The Boss name was on the unit he sold...

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 17 Aug 2023 8:36 am

It didn't cost that much but it was pretty much a rip off and I fell for it.
I still have one.

Erv

John Groover McDuffie · Post by **John Groover McDuffie** » 18 Aug 2023 8:29 pm

re sounding more like a pedalbro than a dobro, you have to play dobro intervals and dobro licks, and in a dobro range. no pedal bends, but slants are great. remember the highest string on a dobro is the same pitch as the D on an E9th 2nds string, and the lowest string on a E9 10 string is the same pitch as the 5th string on a dobro.

I use a Boss EQ (I have a matchbro but it isn't working right and apparently nobody knows how to repair them.) I don't set the sliders to their most extreme positions, I pull them or push them about 2/3 down or up, and roll off the bottom slider a little more. I also leave the top band up, even though by the odd/even method it should be down, because I like a bright dobro sound. It is very sensitive to pitch - when you get it dialed in so one range sounds good, if you move much higher or lower it doesn't sound as good.
The Boss GE7 is fairly noisy, unfortunately. There are upgrade kits available on line, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I tried the composite bar that goes with the matchbro, but a Stevens bar sounds better to me. I rounded off the nose so it doesn't get caught when I'm moving across the strings. The point of a special bar is that it's lighter, so you don't get as much sustain as you do typically on steel. Oh, no dynamic volume pedal work either!

Have fun!

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 19 Aug 2023 3:33 am

The Telonics 500-C amp has a pretty nice built-in “ T-Bro “ dobro stim with a remote leg switch that is the most realistic of the lot.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 19 Aug 2023 7:17 am

I have one of Bobbe's BoBro reso sim pedals. I like it just fine as a simulation of a pedaled reso. I also use it on G tuned lap steel sometimes which is a better respresentation of the dobro.

I don't get all the criticism toward Bobbe. He put in the time and tweaking to make this a reasonable reso sim tool when there wasn't much around except for Bruce Zumsteg's pup/assy.

Aren't all dobro sims just eq and circuitry? I can't get behind the bashing of Bobbe doing his thing on it.

Yes, NOW everybody knows how to set an eq pedal to get this sound, but somebody had to to it first and I credit Bobbe with that.

It wasn't all that much more expensive than the GE7 pedal anyway. IIRC, the BoBro went for about $199 just a little more than the Boss GE7 MSRP.

Let's give Bobbe a little credit and less hammering. Bobbe was just Bobbe....he saw opportunities and took them just the same as many others and I view him as a credit to steel guitar community.

I use mostly Multi-FX rack units now and have sim programs that I have built in those too, but the BoBro is in use when using a bare bones pedal/lap guitar & combo amp.

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 19 Aug 2023 10:20 am

John McDuffie: I bought a used beat up GE-7 several years ago.
Yep, it was noisy when the sliders were set to extreme settings (like the dobros).

I changed 3 op amps in it and it improved noticeably.

I'm pretty sure that I've posted what I did on these forums over the years.
If you have a soldering station and a little skill it's easy to do.

A lot of the "kits" available on line change extra parts that IMO are not required.
However, to get the chips you need (and discard the extra parts) it's probably cheaper than spending your time running around trying to find them locally.

Note that changing the ICs most likely will increase the current draw of the pedal.
If you are using a battery this may be a problem.

Also............
Boss has over the years changed the technology of the parts used in some of their pedals.
The old ones used "discrete" parts that were easy to mod/swap/change.
Some of the newer pedals use "surface mount" parts that are much smaller, supposedly easier to manufacture, but are basically non-moddable/swappable using a regular old soldering station.
Someone who knows what I'm talking about can tell what you have by merely taking the bottom cover off of the pedal.

John Groover McDuffie · Post by **John Groover McDuffie** » 19 Aug 2023 8:48 pm

ajm: I've built and modded pedals before, so I know what you mean. This GE7 is pretty old so I bet it's discrete parts; as I recall I've looked inside it.

I have an upgrade kit sitting around so if you think it still works for the dobro effect after the upgrade I'll go ahead and do the mod.

John Groover McDuffie · Post by **John Groover McDuffie** » 19 Aug 2023 8:52 pm

I'm pretty sure players were using the EQ slider thing for a dobro effect before Bobbe started selling his pedal, which I think was just a GE-7 with the sliders pre-set and the tips cut off and a plate stuck on it.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 21 Aug 2023 6:28 am

John,
Yes, that's all it was.
Erv

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 22 Aug 2023 12:21 pm

The Jerry Douglas Aura pedal has gotta be the most realistic. Just pick a setting that gets along with your amp and speaker rig EQ-wise and dial the mix up to 100%. I’ve used it a few times when I couldn’t bring a dobro rig, and it’s worked out really well.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ck1wxY7D ... BiNWFlZA==

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Realistic dobro simulator pedals?

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