The Steel Guitar Forum

howdy, i have, Bo-Bro,i use a ally bar, i turned the internal out, to give it a thin wall,gives it a holower sound, more like the dobro, lew,

I've come to the (expensive) conclusion that the only way to get a Dobro sound is to play a Dobro...

I agree totally!

Terry

Obviously, the best thing is the real thing. The best/most realistic electronic simulator device is the MatchBro.

The Franklin "Pedabro" is a bonafide resophonic device - it has a spider assembly in it. Just that it does have pedals. It can be used accoustically or electronically with the built in pickup.

I have a Bo-Bro and it works fine if you don't run through the pre-eq loop like Bobbe sugests. For the couple of songs I use it live on, I would rather spend $250 for Bobbe's than the incredibly outrageous price of $850 for a new Match-Bro. I would use my real resonator for any recording.

I just got a BoBro and put it between the guitar and volume pedal and it works great. Seymour has done it again. The is the best Dobro unit I have ever heard.

Billy Knowles wrote:I just got a BoBro and put it between the guitar and volume pedal and it works great. Seymour has done it again. The is the best Dobro unit I have ever heard.

...So I have to ask, "What guitar are you using and what amp ?" I watched Bobbe's demo and bought one on the basis of it, but no matter how I played and through what it didn't sound right. I contacted Bobbe to find out what he used, and it was a Sho-Bud through a Peavey Nashville 112. That wasn't the answer I wanted, because that was precisely what I had been using.

In my case, a Carter D10 and a NV400. Something to consider is that if you just plug any of the "Dobro" simulators into an amp without playing with a band or other form of music, you are not going to be satisfied with any of them in my opinion. I have also owned a Match-Bro (with the plastic bar), and just sitting in my living room and listening, it doesn't satisfy me either. The trick is to use it in a band situation (or recording, Band in a Box, etc...) to get full enjoyment. And, don't expect it to sound like Jerry Douglas playing his Sheerhorn. I think our expectations that any type of simulator is magically going to make us sound like the top of the line instrument it is supposed to emulate is the basis of our disappointments in these products. We read of many who buy rotary speaker emulators expecting to sound like a real B3 with a leslie and complain that it doesn't. All you get is a steel guitar that sounds close to an organ when it is on high speed, with slow speeds just sounding like steel guitar through any decent chorus unit. Sorry to ramble, but if you want to sound exactly like a good Dobro, buy a good Dobro.

I think its only necesary to use a simulator in a loud band environment. In that case a miced dobro sounds like crap. Thats when the dobro sim sounds more like a dobro than a washed out miced one will.

In a quiet setting I just use a miced dobro,, or a pickup through the monitors for me, and the micced sound for the crowd.

Not necessarily so Steve. I prefer to use a real Dobro, but the stage space (at least in this area - they keep getting smaller) usually doesn't give you the room to stand and play a Dobro with a mic stand and boom. That's when I use the sim. Also, most bands I play in don't play a lot of songs that NEED a Dobro sound (sad but true). But, I do agree that the sim sounds better in loud bands over a mic'd dobro. But it also depends on the sound system being used, quality of mic etc...

But it also depends on the sound system being used, quality of mic etc...

thats the problem in my opinion. I usually dont have enough control over the venues' sound equipment to rely on it. With my experiance its a shock to have good miced sound at a venue, that is hearable over the electric guitars, base, drums. Its also rare that I have time to get set up properly with my steel much less trying to find a sweetspot on stage where I can here myself over the band with out feeding back the monitors.

As for tours, I dont want to bring ped steal, amp pacaseat, dobro, mics, soundboard etc. And I dont have time to sound check the ped steel, have to argue with a sound guy who has no idea what a dobro or resonator is, hope the sound equip is worth a ^&$% in the venue, drive 100miles repeat the next night etc ad naseum.

Its nice to just hit a pedal and have a dobro sound that is the same in every venue night after night without threatening the sound guys family to get enough miced dobro in the monitors to get near the intonation.

Until I can afford my own sound guy the Dobro is for intimat venues and recording.

The ONLY thing I dont like about Dobro sims, is the fact that I cannot physically play the same techniques on my steel that I can on the dobro. I use a lot of hammerones and pullofs in keys that would require some type of Capoing on the Pedsteel.

Totally agree Steve. Although arguing with a sound man can sometimes be fun

I have my C6th set up with the regular pedal 7 (raising strings 3 & 4 a whole step)on a knee lever and a pedal that lowers string 6 E to D,string 7 C to B and string 8 from A to G. This along with the lever that raises string 3 to D and string 4 to B gives me an open G on strings 3 to 8. I also use a Dobro bar when playing on this setup for hammerons etc. Unfortunately, it seems that every song that I want a Dobro sound on is in real bad keys for a G tuning. Why can't singers quit thinking of themselves and play songs in the keys we want.

I want to figure out a capo for my c6th so I can get the hammerons and drone strings for the c6 neck. Thinking a triangular peice of metal rounded and polished on top that I can slip under the strings and act as a movable nut. Felt on the bottom, or rubber for traction...

I have found my new Fluger/Marrs RGS (cat-can) a real nice compromise ...you can tune it the same as a dobro and hence use dobro techniques (and a capo) yet you can play it in a really loud environment and it still sounds like a reso !! The one I have has got the dobro simulator processor built into it (unlike the older ones).I mostly only use my acoustic dobro in the studio .

What's wrong with using a real Dobro ? Acoustic instruments have their charm, too.

Alan, the problem is using a real Dobro in a loud band situation which is real hard to do and keep from killing everyone with feedback and awful tone. I'm sure there a some on the forum that have made it work, but we don't seem to hear from them with how they did it.

The moral of my story is, get either the Bo-Bro or a Match-Bro. Both are good units if you remember exactly what they are: simulators.

Give the Bo-Bro a chance in a multi-instrument situation. It will sound fine and will fool most people into thinking it's a real Dobro. I do it every weekend. If you have it set firm in your mind now that you don't like the sound, sell it. The same will probably happen if you try a Match-Bro, Cat-can or even a Peda-Bro.

I don't know how many of you remember but several years ago Bruce Zumsteg made a "dobro" pickup for a pedal steel.
The pickup mounted with tape to the neck of the guitar between the end of the fretboard and the regular pickup. An auxilary preamp was even available for the pickup to help boost the signal and help dial in a dobro tone. To tell you the truth, I ordered the pickup and preamp from Bruce and never got around to trying it out.
Oh well, maybe some day!

I have a MatchBro that I use with a regular bar-better on some strings than others-what is the MatchBro bar made out of?
The wah wah pedal trick does work if you get the pedal almost to the down position,

The MatchBro bar is some kind of plastic. It's fairly heavy as it seems to have a metal core.
Very similiar to the old Nick Manoloff bar I learned on.

Mike P, " Jim Dunlop company made a stomp box called a "Q-wah"
I had my tech buddy build me one. The circuit board for the wah pedal is available on the net. I just had my tech put it in a box, wire in the jacks, the pot, and a bypass switch. I gave him a ten turn pot to use. You can dial up all kindsa sounds with it. It does the Jeff Beck "guitar throwing-up" sound! I'll have to try it for a dobro-like sound. BTW, the ten turn pot is way overkill!

Another BTW, Steve Norman, I remember seeing steel players years ago just using another tone bar as a capo. Must have been just a teeny bit larger in diameter than the distance between the board and the strings. Saw this several times. I also have a dobro capo around here somewhere that just clamps onto the strings. It might work just as well on steel.

Good Idea,, I'll try that with my 7/8

I play quite a bit of Dobro and I have a very good one (Harlow), so I am picky about what sounds like one. The Seymour unit can be pretty convincing with
some work on your technique and staying in a fairly
confined range. Another plus is you can get a nice muted trumpet effect by eliminating your string attack and bringing in the note quickly with your volume pedal. I find that turns more heads that the Dobro sound.

Interesting tip Clyde. I'll have to try the trumpet thing tonight.

And remember too, that with the simulators, you can get those Ped-A-Bro licks you here on recordings.

I would have thought that the main reason for using a Dobro simulator would be to produce pedal sounds on an acoustic instrument. Resonator guitars with pedals have been built, but using a simulator allows you to play pedal licks with acoustic sounds, with none of the expense of having a special instrument built.

I have a low priced Beard PBS Goldtone mahaogany. The best sound I get, is playing my Goldtone through an Award Session pre amp into my Fender acoustasonic, and run an SM 57 from the board to the amp. It sounds better than anything else I've tried. No feedback and I can adjust the tone with the preamp.
Only problem is I sold my Acoustasonic.

Terry