Bringing an old Regal built Dobro back to life.
Jul 18, 2014 19:09:23 GMT
Michael Messer, Lionel, and 1 more like this
Post by rbe on Jul 18, 2014 19:09:23 GMT
Got this on ebay a few weeks back. I really like finding these guitars when they come up for sale.
As you can see, the headstock was destroyed. It was cobbled back together with metal straps and many screws. A creative solution, that wasn't quite happening. There were some other things about the guitar that I was curious about. The placement of the dot markers, where the screws attach the fretboard to the body, was not typical. When I got the guitar, I found that it had a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard. That was suspect, but in a good way. I was doubting the originality of the fretboard on a neck with a badly busted headstock. So I decided to not graft a new headstock to the old neck. Instead, I made a new neck, with a new fretboard. One thing that cinched my decision for a new neck was that when I removed the screws in the fretboard (only two, not four like most Dobros I have seen) and unscrewed the neckstick from the body (the brace had come unglued anyway), I could not get the neck off. It wiggled like hell, but would not slide out. Turns out, that when the Brazilian board was put on, someone cleverly decided to attach the neck first and put a big-ass, flathead screw through the body into the neckstick, to hold the neck in place. Then, they glued the fretboard on, covering the screw. So the neck could not be removed without taking the fretboard off. I also questioned the accuracy of the fretwork. From about the ninth fret on, it didn't match up well with any of my fretting scales.
Also, this was one of the Dobros with no sound-well. The shelf for the cone is unsupported and the body starts to collapse on itself over time. I like to put bracing in the back that runs neck to tail, and four posts that sit on the braces and support the cone platform. It really adds a bit of stiffness and hopefully stops the slow collapse.
So here is the guitar with a new neck. Still has the original stamped-lugged cone and short leg spider. I am not really fond of these cheap tailpieces too. I left it on because there was no good reason not to, but unlike the nice National/Dobro style tailpieces, you can't remove the strings from it without taking them off the tuners. That makes setup work somewhat more of a pain.
As you can see, the headstock was destroyed. It was cobbled back together with metal straps and many screws. A creative solution, that wasn't quite happening. There were some other things about the guitar that I was curious about. The placement of the dot markers, where the screws attach the fretboard to the body, was not typical. When I got the guitar, I found that it had a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard. That was suspect, but in a good way. I was doubting the originality of the fretboard on a neck with a badly busted headstock. So I decided to not graft a new headstock to the old neck. Instead, I made a new neck, with a new fretboard. One thing that cinched my decision for a new neck was that when I removed the screws in the fretboard (only two, not four like most Dobros I have seen) and unscrewed the neckstick from the body (the brace had come unglued anyway), I could not get the neck off. It wiggled like hell, but would not slide out. Turns out, that when the Brazilian board was put on, someone cleverly decided to attach the neck first and put a big-ass, flathead screw through the body into the neckstick, to hold the neck in place. Then, they glued the fretboard on, covering the screw. So the neck could not be removed without taking the fretboard off. I also questioned the accuracy of the fretwork. From about the ninth fret on, it didn't match up well with any of my fretting scales.
Also, this was one of the Dobros with no sound-well. The shelf for the cone is unsupported and the body starts to collapse on itself over time. I like to put bracing in the back that runs neck to tail, and four posts that sit on the braces and support the cone platform. It really adds a bit of stiffness and hopefully stops the slow collapse.
So here is the guitar with a new neck. Still has the original stamped-lugged cone and short leg spider. I am not really fond of these cheap tailpieces too. I left it on because there was no good reason not to, but unlike the nice National/Dobro style tailpieces, you can't remove the strings from it without taking them off the tuners. That makes setup work somewhat more of a pain.
