Looking for Information on this Fancy Dobro

[David Siegler]

A friend asked me if I could check to see if anyone might know something about this round neck Dobro model. He has been unable to find out anything about it. I have not seen it in person so these photos are all I know about it.

I have a photo of the serial number on the top but wasn't sure if I should post it. I seem to recall scammers use pics they find to try and sell items on ebay, etc. that they don't own. I can supply the number if relevant.

Thanks!

[Noah Miller]

Model 66. The design was sandblasted into the body through a stencil.

[David Siegler]

Thanks!

[Herb Steiner]

By the peghead, the guitar looks to be a mid-late 30's guitar made in Chicago by the Regal Co.

[David Siegler]

Thanks Herb!

[Michael Miller]

Looks like a late 70's OMI from where I am sitting.

[Herb Steiner]

Well, I copied the photo and from closer inspection, it looks like the top of the peghead slots are square cut, which would imply a mid-30's Los Angeles-built Dobro.

Did the 70's guitars have the square cut peghead slots? The decal is unreadable, so that's a question mark. Also, there's stenciling on the heel of the neck. Did 70's Dobros have neck stenciling? I don't know, though I wouldn't think so. But if it is a 70's guitar, it's still decades old, and way cool.

[Michael Miller]

[Mark Eaton]

I was about to add my post including some of Herb's comments, but he beat me to it.

The headstock photo isn't that clear from a distance, but they appear to be squared off slots which make it an early 1930s Los Angeles made Dobro. I don't believe Regal of Chicago (which used rounded headstock slots) ever made the sand blasted models in the mid 1930s and later, up to the end near the beginning of World War II.

Depending on the serial number, it could be either a Model 65 which began in 1930, or when they changed the model numbers for a time beginning in 1931 it would have been called a Model 66. David, if you want to message me the serial number I could tell you more.

OMI Dobro made some reissues of this model beginning in the 1970s, but this is almost certainly a prewar guitar.

[Mark Eaton]

I was typing my post when you posted the page from the old Emmons catalog, and as I wrote earlier, OMI Dobro reintroduced this prewar model at some point in the 1970s.

[Michael Miller]

Ya'll are right. The OMI is cupped rather than squared like the OP.

[Mark Eaton]

The other thing that makes it an early California built Dobro is the screw at 12 o’clock on the coverplate facing the fretboard (though the photo is fuzzy on my phone).

An astute Regal modification was eliminating screws at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions. By removing the one at 6 o’clock one is able to remove the coverplate to “work under the hood” and not have to remove the tailpiece first since the change made for more convenient coverplate removal because there were screws at 5 and 7, not one hidden under the tailpiece at 6 o’clock.

[Noah Miller]

The lack of a truss rod on a round-necked guitar is a surefire giveaway that it's pre-OMI. This is definitely a 1930s guitar.

[David Siegler]

Thanks!

[Mark Eaton]

The lack of a truss rod on a round-necked guitar is a surefire giveaway that it's pre-OMI. This is definitely a 1930s guitar.

Indeed - another identifying factor.

Adjustable truss rods were under a Gibson owned patent from the early 1920s to the early 1940s. But a non adjustable “t-bar” truss rod was used by Martin in this era, and some of those vintage necks are still in good playing condition.

National and Dobro (which were part of the same company when they merged in the early 1930s) didn’t bother with any kind of truss rod, and many of those roundneck guitars are unplayable if one wants to fret with fingers. Many still can be played with a bottleneck slide, and a lot of them have a nut riser over the actual nut to be played lap style only these days.

[David Siegler]

It would probably would have been helpful if I had shared the first two digits of the four digit serial number: 18.

We really appreciate all the input from you guys!

[Mark Eaton]

It would probably would have been helpful if I had shared the first two digits of the four digit serial number: 18.

We really appreciate all the input from you guys!

We have to take prewar Dobro serial numbers with a grain of salt, because exceptions aren’t that rare or unusual. But the first two numerals likely make it a 1930, and as I posted earlier, this would have been a Model 65 at that time, and only a year later in 1931 it would have been renamed a Model 66.

As far as the online scammer business regarding posting complete serial numbers, it might be a problem if it were something worth many thousands of dolllars, like a Martin guitar from that era, but with the exception of some very rare high end Dobro models from those days made in very small quantities, it’s pretty unlikely any scammers would try to capitalize on an old Model 65/66.

[Scott Englund]

Does anyone know exactly when Dobros began using adjustable truss rods? I have a mystery Dobro here, early OMI for sure. It has an adjustable truss rod but the truss rod cover is a little shorter and doesn't have "Dobro" molded into it.

[Noah Miller]

Does anyone know exactly when Dobros began using adjustable truss rods? I have a mystery Dobro here, early OMI for sure. It has an adjustable truss rod but the truss rod cover is a little shorter and doesn't have "Dobro" molded into it.

I think it was at the start of the Mosrite period. Possibly the late '50s ones had them, but I don't recall. OMIs had them from the beginning.

[Scott Englund]

Thanks for that! I will post pics in a new thread. It's not really much of an oddball but not strictly stock.