Any reason NOT to use an acoustic guitar as a Dobro?

Kenn Geiger · From: Salem, Oregon, USA

I am curious about playing a Dobro - Not enough to put out the $$ for one. I have an acoustic Guitar and I was thinking about tuning it DGDGBD and trying it as a dobro without the resonator. I know they sell a nut to raise the strings, but is that really necessary since it is only a noodling idea?

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

Raising the strings is absolutely essential to some aspects of playing. That is why the strings are raised. These days Dobros are usually tuned GBDGBD. But the older style of tuning that you indicated is still used in some quarters. If you're just experimenting with this way of playing on your own, an acoustic guitar will be ok. You might also do ok if you're thinking about playing folk/blues style vocal accompinment. The tuning you talked about is often used for that. But I have found that nothing less than a resonator will do for ensemble play.
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Papa Joe Pollick · From: Swanton, Ohio

Even though I have a Dobro,I always keep a regular accoustic set up for Dobro style playing.It's a different sound.Sometimes I'll use glass or bone for a tone bar.Git er dun..

Billy Gilbert · From: Texas, USA

You don't even need the nut extender. Just jam a lead pencil under the strings next to the nut. Smile

Billy

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

Lots of guys do it. Here's two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO73Fczq9IM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBikhkv6XP0

Not good for the neck tho. If you don't like resonaters,you can just get a flat top round hole square neck like the old Bronsons and Oahus. I got one in a junk store for $100 and it sounds awesome tuned to DADGAD.

Thomas Ludwig · From: Augsburg, Germany

I did the same. Cheap accoustic guitar 39 Euro, nut raiser, Dobro tuning, Jerry Douglas DVD.
Nice starter set, sounds pretty good to me.

Thomas

Dom Franco · From: Beaverton, OR, 97007

I love the sound of an acoustic guitar strung up this way. It's much mellower than a resonator, but not loud enough to play un-amplified with other instruments. If you use a pickup and set the eq for all midrange and little or no bass it will sound very similar to a resonator. I also use a feedback eliminator (rubber sound hole plug) when amplified.

have fun!
Dom Wink

Mark Mansueto · From: Michigan, USA

The guitar in my avitar is an old 12 string that I converted to a 6 string lap guitar. I raised both the nut and the bridge so that the strings are raised off the fretboard equally. I removed the original nut and crafted a L shaped one from aluminum as you can see in the photo. This guitar is tuned to open D and sounds great.

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Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

I don't understand the claim that it has to be a resonator guitar for ensemble playing. That might be the case if you're playing with a banjo player, since those are so dang loud, but then again, how do all those flatpickers get heard in the bluegrass ensembles?

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

On his live shows, Alan Jackson's steel player uses one which I think might be tuned to open D. I don't know the guy's name but he uses it on "Mercury Blues" and others. I've done this a little over the years and if you've got a fair sounding acoustic electric played this way and run it with a phase shifter on slow speed you can get a pretty good electric Dobro sound......

Going back some years, Tex "Jenks" Carmen used an old Martin tuned in an open chord and played like a Dobro. I remember seeing him a lot on Town Hall Party in Compton, Ca. when I was a kid.......JH in Va.
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Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

My experience was that it had something to do with the sound hole pointing upward rather than outward. But flat pickers do have soem trouble being heard above the rhythm instruments as well. The interesting part is that the flatpickers were heard better in the jam circle itself. But I was occassionally told that the sound of my lap guitar was heard very well at a distance. The sound appearantly carrieds farther. Still, I ended up amplifying my guitar. Eventually I decided that since I had to amplify it anyway, I might as well have an electric, since that eliminated the feedback and some other problems. I'm carefully considering an acoustic (resonator) guitar at this time. Whoever said it was right, though. The tone of a wooden instrument is beautifu.
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Eddie Cunningham · From: Massachusetts, USA

Tex "Jenks" Carmen was one of my favorite entertainers !! Rough and raw on that acoustic Martin and it sounded up fine !! Also I have an old L.P. by Glen Campbell, "Big Bluegrass Special" done back in the 50s and I read somewhere that the "dobro" style playing was done on an acoustic flat top to get a different sound and it really comes across fine !! So you don't have to have a Dobro to play "Dobro" style !! I think a cheaper flat top might sound louder but not as nice a tone . Eddie "C" ( old non-pedal geezer )

Jim Mitchell · From: Phily,Pennsylvania, USA

Charley Wilder · From: Dover, New Hampshire, USA

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

I used a regular guitar for years before I could afford a resonator guitar.

I also have a classical nylon-strung guitar with the tuners reversed, which I use from time to time. Playing with a tone bar on nylon strings has a very soft, pleasant sound.

....but you need to raise the nut to avoid fret rattle.

Ron Randall · From: Dallas, Texas, USA

Lots of stress on the neck. That's is why we have square necks.
Be gentle with height, string gauges, and pitches.

fwiw

R2

Mark Eaton · Posted 20 Feb 2008 11:19 pm

Rob Ickes occasionally uses a squareneck flattop built for him a few years ago by Tim Scheerhorn.

Makes for a very expensive, modernized version of an Oahu lap-style acoustic! Whoa!

But the is no way that they put out the volume of a modern resonator guitar.
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Mark

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Sometime next year I'm planning on building a resonator guitar with a Weissenborn-shaped body. I'm hoping it will have the best characteristics of both. I realise it's been done before.

Rockne Riddlebarger · From: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Here is a 3/4 size Yamaha that I converted to lap steel for use in A6 tuning. This tuning is nearly impossible to achieve in long scale acoustic guitars but on this short scale instrument it works perfectly. I made a new nut and bridge saddle to raise the strings up, added a pickup I had lying around and did some painting in the style of old National etching. It is amazing how much interest this little thing generates when I take it out.

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