del
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Post by del on Dec 13, 2013 0:36:25 GMT
A friend of mine died last year and he had an amazing guitar collection - around 20 instruments. Among these is a 'Dobro' branded metal bodied resonator. It has the etched Hawaiian scenes on front and back and the neck joins the body at the 12th fret. His wife wants to sell this instrument as she's trying to thin out the collection and is only keeping the instruments which she's particularly sentimental over or are vintage instruments.
I don't have any photos of the guitar to post but am wondering what sort of value this guitar might have. She tells me that the guitar was bought in Perth, Australia about 10 years ago but has seldom been played as he always had problems with amplifying it for stage use - it doesn't have a pickup installed.
It's in excellent condition (I couldn't see any scratches or blemishes on it). She's asking NZ$2500 for it and tells me that he paid about NZ$4000 when it was purchased. She doesn't know whether it was new at that time or not.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
I would really like to buy this guitar but don't want to pay too much if it's not worth $2500 but similarly I don't want to rip her off if it's worth more than she's asking.
She's put it on 'Trade Me' (NZ equivalent of ebay) asking NZ$3000 but had no offers so far. The guitar market here has been really down for several years now and people just don't have the spare cash to throw around on luxury items like this - especially musicians!
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Post by Matt on Dec 13, 2013 1:15:33 GMT
You will get a better answer than this, but I can tell you that if it was new 10 years ago then it's made by Gibson, will look lovely but my impression is that they are not highly rated as playing instruments. A guy who works at my local guitar shop back home bought one that was traded in, fell out of love with it, and lost some money. I think he bought it for £1500 or so and sold it for a bit under £1000.
If it's from the late 1980s/early 90s or before (someone will say when exactly) then it'll be an OMI Dobro, which was the last company that had any involvement from the Dopyeras at any point, before being bought out by Gibson. I believe Don Young worked there before starting NRP. These are more highly rated and attract a fair price (maybe NZ$2500 is about right?).
If it were vintage then I don't expect there'd be any suggestion that it could've been bought new, so I'll assume that it's not.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2013 8:01:13 GMT
Does it join at the 12th fret? Someone correct me but don't all metal OMIs join at the 14th? I can't think of any metal dobros that join at the 12th. I know there is a leader type that joins at the 13th. Any chance its a style O with a dobro sticker??? TT
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Post by Michael Messer on Dec 13, 2013 11:16:43 GMT
Hi Del,
Welcome to our forum.
While I think I know what your friend's Dobro is, I have been around these instruments for many years and know that anomalies in models do occur and that descriptions can be misleading, so I am not able to comment without seeing a photo. I would not give you an actual valuation, but with a photo I would be able to tell you exactly what this Dobro is and whether the asking price is in the right ballpark.
Shine On Michael
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2013 12:23:06 GMT
See if you can find a serial number too!
Mine had the s/n stamped on the headstock - I posted the number here and I was told I had a 1976 Dobro (metal).
I was told that generally the prices for these guitars collapsed once National Resophonics started hitting there straps building the new National guitars.
BluesKing777.
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Post by Brad Bechtel on Dec 13, 2013 17:43:08 GMT
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del
MM Forum Member
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Post by del on Dec 13, 2013 22:28:20 GMT
I only took a couple of photos of the guitar - which didn't come out very well - but will try to put them up here if someone could tell me how to do that. I've had a look around and don't see any instructions on how to do this - but then again, I'm a bit of a technophobe so might be missing something very simple!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2013 23:01:24 GMT
hit the 'reply' button (not quick reply). you should see an 'add attachment' button, then an 'add files' button', then browse your PC and upload it. can you say how many frets free it has in the meantime? TT
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del
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Posts: 7
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Post by del on Dec 15, 2013 8:47:23 GMT
I'm going to be seeing my friend's wife again a couple of days when I'm up in that area again so will try to get some decent photos again then and maybe the serial number and will post again when I have them to hand.
Thanks for all the comments so far.
Cheers
Del
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del
MM Forum Member
Posts: 7
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Post by del on Oct 27, 2014 8:57:41 GMT
Hi again,
After several months (actually almost a year!), I finally bought this guitar from my friend's wife. I got it for what I think is a good price - bit less than she mentioned previously.
It's in excellent condition and has a lovely warm tone - even on the top strings - which sounded tinny and trebly on my cheap Johnson resonator.
The serial number is stamped on the top edge of the headstock D1100220. Unfortunately I can't add more photos of the guitar as they're all larger than 2MB.
I have to say that I really do love this guitar. It's everything I could want in a resonator and, having been owned by a good friend, I'll be looking after this one and hopefully bringing my own mojo to it. But I'd be interested if someone could tell me anything about this instrument based on the serial number - assuming that's enough information.
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