Blocking on the Dobro

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

I bought a Dobro a couple of days ago and was wondering about blocking techniques. It seems that the proper way to block is to lift the bar, and mute with the left hand fingers.
Having played pedal steel for eight years, my tendency is to block with my picking hand. Why not palm block with my right hand, and use a eight string lap steel bar instead of a Stevens bar? Why are the techniques so different on these very similar instruments?....Jerry

Tab Tabscott · From: Somewhere between Vashon Island and The mainland.

I think one of the big reasons is because the amount of sustain and volume you get on your dobro is directly proportional (or nearly) to how hard you pick the strings. It is really hard to get much volume on the dobro when you block with your right hand. Not that this isn't a useful and viable technique...listen to the Big E and Doug J on dobro, they do it all the time. But you'll only rarely hear guys like Rob Ickes or Jerry Douglas do it. But then, you rarely hear them play the steel, either.
:-)

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Tab Tabscott
"Bud Carter is a demi-god"

Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

I use a combination of right hand and left hand blocking techniques on dobro, but I tend to use the palm blocking technique most often. Probably because I started on lap steel. I'm not very comfortable with pick blocking, although there are times I catch myself doing it without really thinking about it.

From the moment I started on steel guitar I have been told by forumites to do whatever works for me. I would think that this should be the same advice you should consider during your transition to dobro. You already have tools at your disposal. From what I understand, most steel techniques translate to dobro, although I'm not so sure it would work as well the other way around (i.e., you wouldn't want to do any bar lifting for blocking on steel, I don't think).

I think the bar you use is a matter of preference also. But dobro technique uses lots of hammer-ons that are more easily accomplished with a Stevens-type steel, with the ridges for your fingers to grip better. Actually, I use a shubb-pierce steel on lap steel (SP-1, longer than a typical dobro bar & works well with my 8-string lap steel). I can control it better than a typical bullet nose steel made for electric steel playing, but I do sacrifice a little in the tone department.

[This message was edited by Chris Walke on 26 April 2000 at 06:59 AM.]

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey Jerry,
I alway block with my ring finger on my pickin' hand doubled under and some pick blocking too! It's the way I got started on pedal steel and it works great for Dobro too! This way I don't have to touch the heel of my hand at all and can get some good volume. I played Dobro years ago and abandoned it for many years before going back to it again. When I first played it I used a Stevens Bar but now I can't stand the dang things! I use a Jim Dunlop small bar which I bought for my lap steel a couple of years ago and it works great for everything especially the slants and also my vibrato is so much better with a round bar than with the Stevens.

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Have a good one! JH U-12

Ian McLatchie · From: Sechelt, British Columbia

Hi Jerry. As others have said here, what works, works. Having learned all that blocking technique on pedal, there's no reason not to apply it to the Dobro. Any problems of sustain are more than offset by sheer hard picking (the one indispensable technique that definitely separates Dobro from lap or pedal). As for the choice of bar, unless you're going to play bluegrass style where you're depenent on lots of super-quick pull-offs, I think the bullet bar makes much more sense - you can simply do more with it.

Pete Grant · From: Auburn, CA, USA

About 25 years ago (Geez!), Paul Franklin encouraged me to pick block on the dobro like I was doing on the steel. That's the technique I use the most when I'm not doing banjo rolls, or doing some (but not much) bar blocking.

My favorite bars are the bullet bars called John Pearse Thermo-Cryonic Tone Bars.

I find that D tuning (or E tuning) is a much more all-purpose tuning than the G tuning, which IMNSHO has too many thirds and not enough roots and makes it difficult to play scales in 6ths on the high strings because you have single-slant and double-slant (2 frets) positions. And you don't have the root on the top so you're always jumping up 5 frets to end a solo or phrase and there's no chord below. (That's the short version of my rant on G tuning)

I'm using D tuning these days rather than E because it's great for fiddle tunes.

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Pete
www.petegrant.com

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