My latest Dobro effect improvement

Fred Glave · From: McHenry, Illinois, USA

Lot of players use a 7 band EQ with the football/lemon shape settings to get a dobro sound, I just got the Dan Electro 7 band Fish N' Chips, but I think the bar that you use puts the icing on the cake, "so to speak". Last night I cut a 5" piece of 1/2 inch copper water pipe to try out and...wow! I've zoned it in pretty darn good. It's a definite success.
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chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

fred..i thought the eq settings being used for dobro tone were totally up/totally down alternating one to the next across the board. but i guess you are getting a decent dobro sound?

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I have actually lowered the 2nd slider (200hz) to the halfway point. It has reduced some of the low frequency "overload", or honk as I call it. I have a good amount of bass on my amp, and this change has smoothed the bass out.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Fred Glave · From: McHenry, Illinois, USA

Richard, you've got it. The football shape is made by having the 1st slider all the way down, 2nd halfway point, 3rd all the way down 4th ATWU, 5th ATWD, 6th ATHU, 7 ATWD and the output at halfway point. For me it's the copper pipe that puts the finishing touch on the sound. Look at Greg Cutshaw's website, he has a picture of the Fish n Chips settings.
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Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I got the original alternating sliders setting when I took apart a Bo_Bro I had and noticed that pattern as set up by Bobbe Seymore. One of the reasons I went to the Danelectro was for the ability to dial in the tones I wanted.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Mike Cass · Posted 23 Mar 2013 8:44 am

We all know that Goodrich provided a non-metal bar with the MatchBro(which Buddy Emmons had decided after much experimentation was best capable of producing a dobro-like tone in combination with the 'Bro components). So much for the history lesson.

The rest of the story..........when Buddy was designing the MatchBro he pretty much fell of the face of the earth for about a year....then one day he calls me and says "get yer tail over here, I got something you need to see..."
So I get there in record time and he's got this big grin on his face and we go down to the basement where he proceeds to show and demonstrate his invention. Now he was using the bar that ultimately came with the 'Bro, but there were a number of other ones which differed slighty, all lined up in front of his guitar. We tried them all and indeed, the first one was best.
Then.... he picks up his Sony cordless phone, and placing the edge on the strings he proceeds to render the most beautiful, ringing Dobro tone you'd ever want to hear coming from a pedal steel guitar.
Of course I looked at him with a "well damm!" look. He laughed and followed that with a sigh, the unspoken communication being that it would be most unfeasible to provide that particular model phone with the MatchBro Laughing

We got a good laugh out of that, but I tell you, if you'd heard the phone application you would've broken the land speed record getting to Electroninc Express, after purchasing your MatcBro of course.

Experimentation, experimentaion, experimentation.

Bob Kagy · From: Lafayette, CO USA

Hmmm, I've ben using an old Stevens bar with the GE7, but I wonder if my Panasonic cordless phone would be as good as the Sony. May it be so.

Also I didn't discover the 2nd slider halfway down tweak; thanks for putting that in your posts.

Bob Kagy · From: Lafayette, CO USA

2nd slider halfway down is a keeper.

My Panasonic cordless phone is contoured in a stretched S shape - so no long straight edge to fully try it as a substitute for the Sony cordless. But using the narrow straight edges at the top or bottom it sounded like a dobro much, much better than any of my bars. But, fretting with your hand wrapped around a skinny cordless phone only frets 3 strings and is like trying to fret holding an ice cream cone upright- just doesn't work.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

As far as what bar to use, I tried the plastic bars and just hated it. It cut the sustain down to zero, and every dobro I have ever owned had some sustain to it. I have also thought of using a Stevens type bar, but I really don't play any bluegrass or anything that I would hammer-ons or pull offs. One bar I might want to try is the Paloma ceramic bars. They have less sustain than a steel bar, but is not dead like the plastic bars.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Bob Kagy · From: Lafayette, CO USA

I have a Paloma bar; it has a nice feel and a slightly different sound, it comes close for the dobro sound with the GE-7. Also have a black phoenix plastic bar, handles nicely, light, it's not dead and has slightly less sustain than say a BJS, but doesn't get the dobro sound. So far the Stevens bar is the top one I have but still not as satisfying as I'd like so I'm still looking. I have 2 ways of trying for the fx dobro sound - the GE-7 and an RP255; the GE7 is best but only by a nose.

(edited to revise the Paloma Stone bar sound)

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

How would one of those Tribo-Tone bars work?

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I use a glass bar.

I think that the biggest part of sounding like a dobro is to play dobro parts and play them like a dobro player. Set your volume pedal at halfway and take your foot off of it. Pick hard with your left hand in the upper octave of the fretboard to get a lot of energy into the strings.

For each lick, use only the major chord string group. Decide whether the lick will be with no pedals or A+B and stick with it. Use bar slants if necessary to get the harmonies you want. Use open strings whenever you can.

The 1st and 3rd strings of the E9th are thinner than anything on a dobro. Ignore them. They just sound wrong.
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chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

when i toured with jj white in the 90's i had to cover sonny garrish steel and dobro parts. i sweated having to haul along a dobro to switzerland with my steel and seat...right when bruce zumsteg came out with his stick on dobro pickup...
this was a wonderful thing. a little switchbox plugged into the end of the steel gave you instant pedabro tone. it was perfect for the gigs to follow. eventually it quit working years later and bruce wouldn't fix it, i guess because he was too busy. i think i left it with him....should have kept it and had someone else do it. my loss.

Larry Bressington · From: Nebraska

I use my regular bar with my Emmon's Bo-Bro simulator. I'm with Richard on that. Not to mention, the plastic bar was like rubbing sandpaper against sandpaper.
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Bob Kagy · From: Lafayette, CO USA

I found the same thing with the SGN plastic bar.

Erv, I've ordered a Tribotone K bar, but at the wrong time - they're shut down until some future date.

b0b, I agree with the style; it makes a big difference.

The Justified TV show has a themesong - listen to the pickup notes by the dobro player - that's the kind of sound that blows my socks off. Here's the YouTube address for it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df347-bEKUQ

(edited to remove bar offer based on new info; sorry about any confusion this may have caused)

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Assuming the original Goodrich dobro sim used a 10 or 11 band eq, it seems that would be the next thing to try.

Greg

Jerry Jones · From: Franklin, Tenn.

Anybody remember exactly what year the Match~Bro was introduced?

Russ Wever · From: Kansas City

1993 as best I recall. Buddy had sent a track
of the first master session he had used it on in
perhaps late '92 or early '93.
Shortly after that, Goodrich had began shipping
and we 'sold 'em like hotcakes', as they say.
~Russ
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Jerry Jones · From: Franklin, Tenn.

I asked about the release date because at some time around 1979/80 Danny Ferrington and I stopped into O’Donell’s Music in Nashville. We ran into Buddy Emmons there and he was using a 6-string guitar trying out some of the store’s effects boxes. We watched as Buddy twisted a few knobs and when he was satisfied with the sound, he looked up and said “Dobro”. I don’t know if that was an aha! moment or some confirmation for Buddy that a convincing Dobro sound could be achieved with an effects box.....anyway, there you go. Idea

Mike Cass · Posted 30 Mar 2013 11:42 pm

true b0b about the thin E9 strings.
Maybe the best MatchBro sound I ever heard live came from Robby Turner, but I believe he used the C neck and the naturally heavier strings. I also strung up an electric spanish guitar once with med-heavies and using the 'Bro I got a real nice fretted Dobro sound. Kind of hard to bend 'em though.
btw, Waylon absolutely loved the MatchBro! I asked him one day should I maybe carry a real Dobro with us and he replied that he liked Buddy's deal much better, and then did about 5 minutes on Buddy and his extremely creative mind. I remember E getting a big grin when I told him about that Smile

Ron Funk · From: Ballwin, Missouri

Russ Wever is correct re/ 1993.

Bought mine at Scotty's '93 Convention.

Still works fine.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I actually have my C6th neck set up with pedal changes that give me a G dobro tuning. Hit P9 and RKR together and the G tuning lies on strings 3 thru 8. P8 works with them to give a G7 if you want it.

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