Realistic dobro simulator pedals?

Peter Leavenworth · From: Madbury, New Hampshire, USA

I'm wondering who out there has any experience with decent sounding dobro pedals? I have a pair of wonderful real dobros that I love but the sound reinforcement situation in my current band has not had luck zeroing in on a good mix in front of house. It's really not an acoustic band to begin with so having a dobro simulator pedal for my pedal steel might be the answer.
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2008 Zum D-10, 1996 Mullens PRP D-10, 1974 Emmons D-10, 1976 Emmons D-10, early 70s Emmons GS-10, Milkman Sideman head w/Telonics 15" speaker, 1966 Fender Super Reverb, 1970 Fender Dual Showman head, Wechter/Scheerhorn and Beard Dobros, 1962 Supro lap steels, Gibson 1939 RB-11 banjo, Gibson 1978 RB-250
banjo......and way too much more

Will Brown · From: Oklahoma, USA

Ha David Martin has a superbro for sale in the Amp section they do already job I have used one for years. He's a great guy to do business with

Ron Pruter · From: Arizona, USA

Many, me included, use a 'Fish & Chips' pedal. Very affordable. Make sure to hook up in between guitar and vol. Pedal. RP
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Emmons SKH Le Grande, '73 Fender P/J bass, Tick tack bass, Regal high strung, USA Nashville 112.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

The best one is the one made by Goodrich; the Match-Bro.
Erv

Alex Cattaneo · From: Quebec, Canada

The Fishman Aura Jerry Douglas is what you need. It was created for exactly the situation you describe.

While it is designed for use with dobros, anything you throw at it will come out sounding like a dobro. You have 16 impulse responses created by Jerry Douglas to choose from, and with the blend control, you can dial the mix between your instrument and the pedal's preset. I use it with lap steel and pedal steel and it works quite well.

In this video, I use that pedal for the dobro solo on Tom Brumley's Applejack:

https://youtu.be/ZZJvD1c4HhU

But in Peter's case, for use with an actual dobro? It's a no-brainer. I've used it with resonator guitars that weren't fitted with the Fishman Nashville pickup, and it worked equally well.

Roger Crawford · From: Griffin, GA USA

Ron, I know that the slides on the Fish and Chips need to be alternately full on/full off, but which way do you start, left to right?

Ron Funk · From: Ballwin, Missouri

Piggy-backing on Erv's comment:

The Goodrich Super-Bro has a "Full Bypass-Battery Off' slider/switch

Dave Meis · From: Olympic Peninsula, Washington, USA

@ Roger.. left-most (bass) down, alternating up/down. Right-most to taste.

Paddy Long · From: Christchurch, New Zealand

I recently got the "Resonator II" by MXR from Tom Bradshaw, and that is very authentic ... it comes with a Polymer type bar .....and either a stomp button version, or the leg clip type with a toggle switch (which is what I have) ... probably the best Dobro simulator since the Goodrich Matchbro IMO ... it is also powered so you don't have to worry about batteries going flat, or leaking etc ...

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Karl Paulsen · From: Chicago

Bill McCloskey · Posted 14 Aug 2023 10:47 am

In my opinion as a dobro player for 20 years, there are none. The Match-bro didn't sound like a dobro but it did have a cool sound all its own as long as you had the plastic bar they give you, but the thing died on me pretty quickly.

Some suggest getting an EQ box and dialing in a "dobro" sound.

TRAP TRULY · From: Mobile , AL

There was a discussion about dobro simulators not long ago on the forum. In the post, I think Tom Bradshaw stated that the Resonator II has the same circuitry as the Matchbro.
To my ears, the simulators sound closer to a Franklin pedalbro than a real dobro, but will do fine when the stage volume is too loud for your dobro or you dont want to bring it.

Kevin Fix · From: Michigan, USA

Don't laugh!! Works damn good for 50 bucks!!! Try it. I just turn my reverb on my NV112 down to about 3.... Set it just like I have it... I use it on anything that has Do Bro fill. Boss made a Do Bro pedal years back. This is what they used. They set it like mine and welded a cover over the sldes. Fact........

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Bobby Seymour did the same thing and charged double. Whoa!

Erv

Kevin Fix · From: Michigan, USA

A friend of Bobbies told me about it. Price was like 350.00!!!! The Boss name was on the unit he sold...

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

It didn't cost that much but it was pretty much a rip off and I fell for it.
I still have one. Whoa!

Erv

John Groover McDuffie · From: LA California, USA

re sounding more like a pedalbro than a dobro, you have to play dobro intervals and dobro licks, and in a dobro range. no pedal bends, but slants are great. remember the highest string on a dobro is the same pitch as the D on an E9th 2nds string, and the lowest string on a E9 10 string is the same pitch as the 5th string on a dobro.

I use a Boss EQ (I have a matchbro but it isn't working right and apparently nobody knows how to repair them.) I don't set the sliders to their most extreme positions, I pull them or push them about 2/3 down or up, and roll off the bottom slider a little more. I also leave the top band up, even though by the odd/even method it should be down, because I like a bright dobro sound. It is very sensitive to pitch - when you get it dialed in so one range sounds good, if you move much higher or lower it doesn't sound as good.
The Boss GE7 is fairly noisy, unfortunately. There are upgrade kits available on line, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I tried the composite bar that goes with the matchbro, but a Stevens bar sounds better to me. I rounded off the nose so it doesn't get caught when I'm moving across the strings. The point of a special bar is that it's lighter, so you don't get as much sustain as you do typically on steel. Oh, no dynamic volume pedal work either!

Have fun!

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

The Telonics 500-C amp has a pretty nice built-in “ T-Bro “ dobro stim with a remote leg switch that is the most realistic of the lot.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

I have one of Bobbe's BoBro reso sim pedals. I like it just fine as a simulation of a pedaled reso. I also use it on G tuned lap steel sometimes which is a better respresentation of the dobro.

I don't get all the criticism toward Bobbe. He put in the time and tweaking to make this a reasonable reso sim tool when there wasn't much around except for Bruce Zumsteg's pup/assy.

Aren't all dobro sims just eq and circuitry? I can't get behind the bashing of Bobbe doing his thing on it.

Yes, NOW everybody knows how to set an eq pedal to get this sound, but somebody had to to it first and I credit Bobbe with that.

It wasn't all that much more expensive than the GE7 pedal anyway. IIRC, the BoBro went for about $199 just a little more than the Boss GE7 MSRP.

Let's give Bobbe a little credit and less hammering. Bobbe was just Bobbe....he saw opportunities and took them just the same as many others and I view him as a credit to steel guitar community.

I use mostly Multi-FX rack units now and have sim programs that I have built in those too, but the BoBro is in use when using a bare bones pedal/lap guitar & combo amp.

ajm · From: Los Angeles

John McDuffie: I bought a used beat up GE-7 several years ago.
Yep, it was noisy when the sliders were set to extreme settings (like the dobros).

I changed 3 op amps in it and it improved noticeably.

I'm pretty sure that I've posted what I did on these forums over the years.
If you have a soldering station and a little skill it's easy to do.

A lot of the "kits" available on line change extra parts that IMO are not required.
However, to get the chips you need (and discard the extra parts) it's probably cheaper than spending your time running around trying to find them locally.

Note that changing the ICs most likely will increase the current draw of the pedal.
If you are using a battery this may be a problem.

Also............
Boss has over the years changed the technology of the parts used in some of their pedals.
The old ones used "discrete" parts that were easy to mod/swap/change.
Some of the newer pedals use "surface mount" parts that are much smaller, supposedly easier to manufacture, but are basically non-moddable/swappable using a regular old soldering station.
Someone who knows what I'm talking about can tell what you have by merely taking the bottom cover off of the pedal.

John Groover McDuffie · From: LA California, USA

ajm: I've built and modded pedals before, so I know what you mean. This GE7 is pretty old so I bet it's discrete parts; as I recall I've looked inside it.

I have an upgrade kit sitting around so if you think it still works for the dobro effect after the upgrade I'll go ahead and do the mod.

John Groover McDuffie · From: LA California, USA

I'm pretty sure players were using the EQ slider thing for a dobro effect before Bobbe started selling his pedal, which I think was just a GE-7 with the sliders pre-set and the tips cut off and a plate stuck on it.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

John,
Yes, that's all it was.
Erv

Brett Lanier · From: Madison, TN

The Jerry Douglas Aura pedal has gotta be the most realistic. Just pick a setting that gets along with your amp and speaker rig EQ-wise and dial the mix up to 100%. I’ve used it a few times when I couldn’t bring a dobro rig, and it’s worked out really well.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ck1wxY7DToT/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Jeff Spencer · From: Queensland, Australia

Late to the party but I have used a BoBro for some years. Nothing beTs a real dobro but this thing, used with a wood bar has a lot of people fooled.
Also playing technique and string choice is very important, as is ‘no pedal or use:
I alos have a borrowed Rosonator sim pedal(Tom Bradshaw) . Its ok too and does give a slightly more adjustments via the dials. That said, I also run a Arion EQ pedal - post volume pedal and pre BoBro which gives me more tonal variation.
I did read sometime ago Bobbie himself said some parts were changed out not just slider adjustments for the BoBro. I dont know the veracity of his statement.

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