Another Can Of Worms Why Wood Instead Of Metal

Will Brown · From: Oklahoma, USA

OK everybody how come everyone playes or use a wood body resonator instead of a metal one now i am not talking useing a tricone but how come most if not all do not use a metalbody spider bridge dobro instead of a woodbody dobro other then the weight i know iam going to make someone disagree but 90%of your tone sound comes from the cone not so much the matterialof the dobro if this isnt so why is so much concern is weather the cone is a spun aluminum one or not if that isnt the fact why dont they make them out of steel or fiber like a banjo has or brass but i was wondering how come most if not all music wether its bluegrass country and so on use awood body now lets keep this in reguards to a single cone resonator wood verses metal your older metal dobros have a pretty good tone sound so whats the answer i am not going to chime in i just want your thoughts thanks

Frank James Pracher · From: Michigan, USA

I am certainly no expert on resonators, but I do have an old brass bodied National single cone. To my ears it sounds considerably different than the wood bodied ones I have played. The metal seems to "ring" more. The National has a natural reverb sound to it.
I don't know what difference age of the cone plays. Mine is a 1940 model and I believe it's the original cone.
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Ben Elder · From: La Crescenta, California, USA

It's a bit of an oversimplification but the wooden Dobro sound was set in the public's mind by Bashful Brother Oswald with Roy Acuff's enormous popularity and later in the traditional bluegrass genre by Josh Graves with Flatt & Scruggs. (Oswald actually started on a metal tricone, but made his mark with the plywood Dobro.) After Josh, Mike Auldridge innovated a more modern style which begat Jerry Douglas and the seemingly endless platoons of modern Dobro wizards. In modern days, makers like Tim Scheerhorn and Paul Beard have advanced the state of the art of the wooden resonator guitar, employing new internal structures and solid body woods, pushing prices up into the high four-figure range with some wait times of several years.

A $27 Model 27? That's so 1933...

I would argue that without Os and Josh, Hawaiian-style resonator instruments might have died off completely or at least had to wait for other genius players to rediscover resonator instruments in attics and pawn shops and inflame the passions of players and music fans. I think it might be a different story in the blues genre, where delta players continued to play and expose old Nationals.

People in other musical genres-most notably Bob Brozman--will argue that the metal-body resonators with their inverted cones (and punchier, less sustain-y) tone are superior in their subtlety and complexity.

A blues aficionado may prefer the raw growl and attack of a steel-body National Duolian (its lowest-priced metal-body model), even to a pricier brass Style O or N or a German silver tricone.

Dobros began as plywood-construction out of financial necessity. John and Rudy Dopyera (John particularly) grew quickly disenchanted with National's management and quit to form their own company. They didn't have the financial backing of a trust-fund millionaire as National had, so an inexpensive design was paramount. John came up with the plywood body and concave (bowl-shaped) cone to try to steer clear of National's patents. Lawsuits ensured, but ultimately, Dobro ended up swallowing National following years of backbiting and rivalry.

The sounds of the instruments have more to do with the virtuosity and popularity of the players who used these instruments to capture the public's imagination than any organic attribute of any instrument's design. (For my money, the predecessor Weissenborn Hawaiian kicks the ass of any other lap-style instrument--just not in brute volume, which was a major factor in its being shoved aside by Nationals, Dobros and electric instruments.)

Interestingly, Dobro's lower prices probably hastened National's competitive response with cheaper single-cone models: Triolian, Duolian and Styles O and N.

Tricones came about because of the luxury of time to perfect a design. "My God, this guitar flows like a river!" John Doyera declared. The Dobro was an expeditious creation born of pressing necessity rather than years of R & D. "Good, fast and cheap--pick any two" is a standard slogan of business, but to the Dopyeras' credit, they still managed a trifecta with Dobro.

John Dahms · From: Perkasie, Pennsylvania, USA

There were steel, brass, German silver, several different types of wood even aluminum body Dobros and Nationals in tri-cone, single cone and single cone spider arangement produced and each had its own voice. Even between similar types (14 fret single cone Nationals for example) the mahogany, maple and basswood necks affect the tone.
There is no one sound or one better sound. Any one can and should be used for whatever you wish it to be used for.
I remember about 42 years ago before Nationals were rediscovered, there was a duet with Duane Allman and Eric Clapton both on wood Dobros playing blues. It sounded great and nobody thought to tell them they should have been playing metal Duolians for blues.
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Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

I have several wooden and several metal resonator guitars, some with round necks and some with square. They all have their own sound, but, generally, metal-bodied guitars are heavier and have a harder tone, whereas wooden-bodied guitars have a softer tone and more overtones.

There was mention about the material used in the cones themselves. Forget anything other than metal, or the instrument will sound like a banjo. Steel is not flexible enough, which leaves aluminium or brass. There must be a reason why aluminium is used most of the time, but you would have to build two identical guitars with cones of different materials to check that out.

A few years ago I built a lap steel entirely out of stainless steel. Admittedly, it wasn't a resonator guitar, but it was a complete flop. It was enormously heavy and had none of the overtones which add so much to the tone of wooden instruments.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=157392&highlight=building+real
For anyone who hasn't read that topic, check the above.

Jerome Hawkes · From: Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA

The tooling in 1927 for the org metal nationals was $100,000 - that's 1920s money. You can build a wood dobro in your garage workshop.
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'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II

Don McClellan · From: California/Thailand

Will, That's the longest sentence I've ever seen. No need to buy a vowel but maybe you should think about buying a few periods. Winking

Will Brown · From: Oklahoma, USA

Don i am not suppose to chime in. iam suppose to get everybodys opion remeber. thanks

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Jerome hit the nail on the head. Anyone can build a wooden resonator guitar; the cone and spider are available by mail from the Stewart-McDonalds catalog; but building a metal resonator is something else. There is, of course, the Republic Tri-Cone, a Chinese copy of the National Tri-Cone, and very good value for the price.

Someone brought a home-made metal resonator to one of our meetings of the Northern California Association of Luthiers. He'd cut out the metal by hand and soldered/welded it in his workshop, then engraved patterns on the metal and had it silver plated. It looked really good, and played pretty well, too. But he was an enthusiastic metal mechanic.

The all-metal lap steel that I built was cut out on a multi-million dollar laser machine at the place that I worked at the time. The machine itself was as big as some people's houses, so it was not very practical. Had the project been successful we were thinking of cutting out resonator bodies, and even making mountain dulcimers and hammer dulcimers that way, but it came to nothing. What surprised us all was that stainless steel bent under the tension of the strings, and was not as strong as one would expect. To take the tension of a multi-stringed instrument, such as a hammer dulcimer, would have required metal so thick that it would be unweildy. It's no coincidence that pianos have cast iron frames.

Billy Gilbert · From: Texas, USA

Several years ago gave me the metal he had cut out and couldn't put together for a brass bodied dobro. I soldered on the back, put in a plywood tone ring and put the top on with screws. With a Quarterman cone it sounded much like a wood bodied reso and was loud but weighed about twice as much as a wood bodied reso. It plays good lap style but is much too heavy for playing standing with a strap.

Steve Ahola · From: Concord, California

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I bought this one not too long back:

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

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