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Never thought I'd own a Vintage Resonator...

... but now I do! Came across this guitar at a garage sale. Research tells me its an old Dobro. All aluminum body with a painted finish. The back has fake flamed woodgrain painted on. Missing a tuner button and in need of some TLC.

Carved a new ugly duckling of a button out of epoxy resin and have cleaned it up some. Glued some maple to fill a big string slot, rebuilt tuners... etc. Washed the cone, levelled the spider legs and put it all back together..

Sounds pretty good. Only guitar I've been playing. Look at the checking in the paint! Fender charges extra for that ;)

Few issues:
- is there supposed to be a felt ring between cone and body?
- I've little break angle at bridge... and action is high. Any ideas on how to balance this?
- looking for a quality hard case.
- how cool would a relic'd flatpup look on this?

Im sure ill have more questions etc as time goes on and I familiarize myself with this gem.

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on July 12, 2014 at 4:24am

really hard to tell with the pictures .. you're gonna have to send it to me for a better look ;-}

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on July 12, 2014 at 5:28am

It could possibly need a neck reset, i. e. the neck angle is not steep enough, causing the high action. This can happen to old guitars over time. This is a major repair.

If you can post a pic taken from the side, so we can see the neck and string angles better, that could help with diagnosis.

ps. forgot to mention - very cool find!

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on July 12, 2014 at 6:37am

It's a "fiddle edge" Dobro, pretty rare. If it needs the neck and action sorting out, get an expert to sort it - if you don't know what you are doing don't mess with it and DO NOT, under any circumstances take it to a regular music shop or guitar repairer - it needs sorting by a reso expert. Felt ring in the soundwell is pretty common on this age of guitar. DO NOT fit a pickup that involves any alteration to the instrument unless you want to halve the (not inconsiderable) value of this guitar. I know guitars are meant to be played, but you've got something rare and valuable - don't mess it up.

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Permalink Reply by Manny Lopez on July 12, 2014 at 7:08am

Thanks everyone, and rest well John. I am not keen to maim this beaut. It has a bashed lip by the upper arm bout but it's strictly cosmetic. Few dents here and there, but it's all part of the allure of a vintage instrument, no? The headstock has a pearled veneer that has pulled up a bit as well on the one corner.

I have no clue of its value. It all appears to be original, but the pick guard is missing as is one tuner button. If anyone knows where to find a transparent brownish Kluson button, I'd be interested. Not 100% sure they are original buttons.

My skills and tools were limited to doing the cone and spider, and filling a huge oversized saddle slot on the low e. I have reached out to Dan Erlewine for repair tips, but haven't heard back. As for a pickup, I am hoping I can work with Elmar on one that would temporarily mount using the bullseye holes to secure it. I've no intention of damaging it by getting all crazy.

Stringing it up made me SUPER nervous. The seating of the ball ends scared me, but once she was strung, it was pure heaven. This guitar has mainly just been chorded from frets 1-3 and they show some wear. The rest look new. Have contemplated replacing the few frets.

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on July 12, 2014 at 7:19am

i'd keep it as a slider if you cant get the work professionally done .

enjoy it as it's mojo infused , battle worn , honorablly scared , and real personality expressed self that it is . ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Manny Lopez on July 12, 2014 at 8:17am

I hear ya. I like it a lot. And its great for chords. May try to take the nut down a hair. I have an old Japanese Hondo H124 I got for $5 thats basically brand new but has a bowed neck and mile high action - thats my slider.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on July 12, 2014 at 10:05am

Or sell it, and buy yourself a nice motorcycle..it's worth serious money.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on July 12, 2014 at 9:07pm

trying a flatpup on it would be interesting but i'm not sure how it would sound on a Dobro, best fix it on with blutack in various places first. (-:

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on July 12, 2014 at 9:30am

Read the above post (ChikenBoneJohn) again., follow the advice.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 12, 2014 at 9:53am

The three small holes between the crossed window pane soundholes indicate it is probably a Regal Dobro, mid-30's, possibly an M-35, due to the 14 frets clear of the body; painted metal with a crackle sunburst finish; looks like a round neck, either MOP or engraved metal headstock (photo is too fuzzy to tell); rolled metal edge on top and back indicates 1935-1940.

Googling pix revealed the following 1935 and 1936 Dobro models with many similarities:

http://www.nationalguitar.com/admin/media/vintage_nationals/DobroDu...

http://guitarhq.com/guitpics/dob35m14.jpg

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/dobro.html#m46

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Permalink Reply by Manny Lopez on July 12, 2014 at 12:43pm

It looks more like the M47 with the painted grain. Mystical number indicates a 1937 or so build date...

.. a motorcycle eh? So whats that mean its worth? I've seen some cheap and expensive motorcycles in my day haha.