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Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | The threads 'murder most foul' and '12-string parlor' got me to thinking about a possible project.
I just had an electric conversion done on one of my National resonator guitars which has left me with the original acoustic resonator and tail piece.
Now I'm thinking, would it be possible to build an Ovation dobro with these parts?
Modifying the top to accept the resonator seems possible, raising the nut shouldn't be a problem, but could the bowl hold the strain of the trapezoid tail piece? Could extra bracing be installed inside the bowl?
Why you ask?
I simply wonder what it would sound like to combine the deep bowl boom of an old balladeer with the umph of a national resonator. It could sound amazing, it could sound like crap. But the first question is, would it even be possible? |
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Location: Tennessee | I've seen this one ...
... but I'm not sure if it's a Dobro or a Resonator or what. I always get confused about which is which ... |
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Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Very nice.
Do you know who built it? |
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Location: Tennessee | It was at the factory, so I imagine they did. It may have been a skunkworks project prototype that never saw the light of production. There's a few other folk around here who know the whole story. Hopefully they'll chime in.
I think a person or two around here also tried to do a resonator project on their own. I don't recall who they were or how they turned out. But that factory palm tree with the MOTS headstock was really cool. |
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Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Originally posted by stonebobbo:
I've seen this one but I'm not sure if it's a Dobro or a Resonator or what. I always get confused about which is which ...
Thanks for the info; obviously it IS possible to do!
FYI: Gibson now "owns" the name dobro so to stay out of trouble with their attorneys, this type of guitar should be referred to as a single-cone resonator unless it was made by Gibson.
Personally, I usually refer to the instrument as a dobro and the mechanism as a resonator so I don't end up trying to describe something about the resonator's resonator. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Yes, it's possible cos it's already been done. Not sure I'd want to stand right in front of it as both Reso's and Ovations were Built to be loud |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by fletcher:
FYI: Gibson now "owns" the name dobro so to stay out of trouble with their attorneys, this type of guitar should be referred to as a single-cone resonator unless it was made by Gibson.
Maybe, but this is just typical of Gibson's litigious nature, so they can go piss up a rope. Over the years the word "Dobro" became a generic term for certain kinds of resonator instruments. Gibson will not change that by buying a company and trying to enforce the unenforceable.
Also there are 2 completely different types of single cone resonators, the dobro type and National type, so the correct way to differeniate between them would be "Spider Cone" and "Biscuit Cone" which refers to their bridge arrangement. The Blue Ovation Reso has a biscuit cone
I have an old Legend converted to a Spider cone, set up lap-style. I bought it already converted from Ebay, but it was a mess and took a fair bit of sorting out. If I was to do that from scratch I'd find a trashed Ovation Classical, the 12 fret neck joint works a lot better.
There's a very small number of the factory-built Ovation reso's around, and they sound great. They were all biscuit cones as far as I'm aware except for a very rare factory built spider cone owned by Al. You can hear a biscuit cone example here OFC jam |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Thanks Paul, The world gets it wrong and usually just calls all these dobros.
Dobro guitars have a spider cone construction. There was one of these made, Al has it
The resophonics made by Ovation all had a single cone, buscuit construction. Best refered to as singly cone buscuits
Then there are the tricones, which abviously have three cones and are called, Duh!, tricones.
Gibson does own Dobro
The others are owned or liscensed to National Resophonic Guitar company, run by Don Young and a staff of wonderful people. The exact opposite from the Wank in Nashville. |
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Location: Rego Park, NY, | Here's one on the right side of this photo from Sept. 2006. It looks like one but I'm no eexpert. Will the owner please step forward and explain the specs.  |
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| Phil, I think that's the same one being played here by DesignZilla. It belongs to Beal:
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Location: Rego Park, NY, | I thought so. |
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Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
If I was to do that from scratch I'd find a trashed Ovation Classical, the 12 fret neck joint works a lot better.
It's still the attachment of the tail piece that worries me. What was done to yours to keep it from cracking the bowl? |
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Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
Also there are 2 completely different types of single cone resonators, the dobro type and National type, so the correct way to differeniate between them would be "Spider Cone" and "Biscuit Cone" which refers to their bridge arrangement. The Blue Ovation Reso has a biscuit cone
As a side note, there are actually three types of single cone resonators- the original National single cone, the Dobro Inverted single cone (spider) and the National biscuit.
Sorry if I offended anyone by not differentiating between them.
The one I would be using is a National "Biscuit Cone." |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by fletcher:
As a side note, there are actually three types of single cone resonators- the original National single cone, the Dobro Inverted single cone (spider) and the National biscuit.
Don't know where you got that information from, but it's incorrect. The original Nationals were Tri-cones. The single cone was introduced to be easier to manfacture and sold at a lower price. There were at least 1 other single cone design, but the only one to make it into production was the biscuit cone still used. The Dobro cone was developed after the brothers fell out, and the inverted design was intended to avoid infringing National's patents. There are other single cone guitars, such as the Del Vecchio and McGill but as far as National/Dobro are concerned there were only the 2 single cone designs.
You should check out the Brozman book, that's pretty much the definitive work on National guitars. |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Made 2. One from a Matrix, the other from a Celebrity 3/4-size, cutaway. They were adequate for my playing abilities, but a far cry from what The MotherShip has crafted. |
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Ovation Dobro?
