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Post new topic Probably a dumb question, but...
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Author Topic:  Probably a dumb question, but...
Bryan Daste


From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
Post  Posted 9 May 2009 12:45 pm    
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I've been playing pedal steel for a while, but never dobro. The singer of my band, who also plays rhythm guitar, wants to buy a metal-bodied resonator guitar (I believe this is called the National style?) for dual use - he wants to play rhythm guitar on it for a few songs, then have me play some dobro stuff on it too. Can this be accomplished with one guitar? Or would the tuning and action need to be way different for each application?

Sorry to be such a noob, I don't even know the standard dobro tunings!

Thanks for your help on this one, folks.
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Edward Meisse

 

From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Post  Posted 9 May 2009 1:46 pm    
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Both Dobro and rthym guitar could concievably be done with a low bass open G tuning. But it would be much easier and more effective to have the guitar play in regular guitar tuning and Dobro play in regular Dobro tuning (GBDGBD from low to high). In any case, the much, much higher action that really is necessary to Dobro technique makes the scenario impossible. The short story is, you need two guitars for this.
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John Billings


From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 9 May 2009 2:28 pm    
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You could play bottleneck style on it. You could try and play some dobro licks that way, but standard tuning isn't really that great for dobro stuff. I sometimes play slide in standard, but mostly Blues material, and I prefer D or G tuning by far.
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L. A. Wunder

 

From:
Lombard, Illinois, USA
Post  Posted 11 May 2009 8:55 pm    
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Yes, you can probably do both on one guitar. Try tuning it D,B,G,D,A,E (top to bottom). That'll give you most of the "basic" guitar tuning, plus the "G" dobro tuning with an added 6th.(E,G,B) and "add 9" (B,G,A) chord available to you. I've been using this tuning on Dobro in church for the past year, and it seems to work pretty well. As far as the strings not being raised, just use a light touch on the bar, and you can probably manage it. I've used a regular 6-string to practice on past occasions, and it can be done. Have fun!
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