Why did people in the past do stupid things to my Dobro ?

[washboardchris]

I had to take my model 62 Serenader apart as the screw that holds the spider to the cone was not doing anything, sorted that out but in doing so found something thing strange.On the well where the cone rests there were random lines of thick brown glue or something (random thickness) up to 1/8 of an inch .This stuff was so hard that I had to use Emery cloth and the end of a screw driver to get it of (It wasn't gluing the cone in place,it was just there.Having got rid of it the sound improved hugely ,more Bass ,louder overall and more sustain .I am very happy with it now but ask myself why.

[davey]

The cone on my Regal was glued in place, lugged cone and short spider., maybe yours has had the same set up at some time.

[Deleted]

I recently took the cone out of my regal dobro 14M,also lugged cone and short spider,and while it did come out easily there was evidence of glue on the seat which I carefully removed with finest grade wire wool. My theory is it's a lazy and short sighted way of curing buzzes and rattles and may possibly be the result of a past fad,hopefully before superglue was invented.

[mendax]

Dave Flood once told me that John as a rule would glue the cones in place.

[washboardchris]

No sign of glue on the underside of the cone & the glue or whatever was only present in places & was so thick in places that the the cone was uneven in the sound well.

[Deleted]

Jun 30, 2019 13:29:43 GMT mendax said:

Dave Flood once told me that John as a rule would glue the cones in place.

Thought there was a slight possibility that was the case due to the number of reports of glued cones on various guitar sites (and three in one thread on this site) but I'm still surprised--could he have been trying to hide a trade secret I wonder?

[bonzo]

Historic glue!

Best wishes to you all, John