Dobro cone life

[lexluthier]

Hiya.
Recently took receipt of a Beard legend cone which I duly fitted into my GoldTone PBR-CA. The PB-1 cone I took out of that, I fitted in my Regal RD-52 in place of the Quarterman QD-1 it came with.
Despite the initial feeling of deflation I felt when first unpacking and holding this £80+ worth of flimsy, almost weightless piece of metalwork, I can't think of a better tone improvement I've ever made for the price. Two guitars transformed!

Anyway, while looking into this purchase I read/watched/listened to all the Beard info on the subject and kept coming across the advice that all cones, especially the spider bridge type, should be changed at least every two year as they succumb to oxidization and mechanical stress, eventually losing their tone.

Vintage owner members of this forum seem to hold a high regard for the tone of vintage cones, mainly of the National variety but for also for Dobro types too. So is the Beard advice just something more relevant to the US bluegrass/country square neck community with their love of banjo beating treble or just pure marketing BS?

Would love to hear the thoughts of forum members as I personally have no experience with vintage resonators.

Chris

[gaucho]

I have 2 vintage Dobros with old cones and I wouldn't even consider swapping them out for new ones. There's just something special about the tone of a good vintage cone!

[Michael Messer]

Hi Lex,

This business about replacing Dobro cones is a new fashion and is (IMO) something that has come from the current scene of bluegrass players that want power and brightness over tone and sweetness. It is also a very good business plan for the Beard company.

IMO, on Dobros and Nationals, the older the cone (unless it is broken) the better the sound. I have a treasured little hoard of vintage cones and any Dobro players out there that want to change their cones after one or two years, please send your old ones to me!

As well as changing their cones every year or so, modern Dobro players tend to change their strings every time they play. The modern sound of bluegrass Dobro is more akin to banjo playing than it is to Hawaiian or 'island' style slide guitar, as Brother Oswald would have called it. I guess if you want that sound, you need a new cone and new strings, but that is not a sound that particularly appeals to me.

Perhaps Brad Bechtel could add to this thread, as I know that Brad is much more connected to the 'Dobro' scene that I am.

Shine On
Michael

[alexandre]

Here is the lug cone of the 1937 Dobro M.32 that I play.





It's a bit dusty and have faced some light mechanical stress, and here's some sound ot of it:




I don't know for you, but the tone is lovely to me and even if I've found a short leg spider bridge to match with it, I've finally decided to let it the way it is.
It's sounding good to me and I'm convinced that a new cone won't sound "better".

By the way, as the cone is the heart of a resonator guitar (in matter of tone), I consider that each player/owner should take a great care of it. It seems more logical to me than thinking about changing it regularly, especially for the old ones that are a direct legacy from the original designers/makers of resonator instruments.

[tawpick]

I fitted a used Quarterman in my D60s a couple of years ago. It sounds fine to me. No plans to change that !!

When I first bought the Dobro it had the original stamped cone still glued into it. The guitar had a lovely old time sound but to much midrange 'honk' for my liking. That cone now sits in a Busker Tennessean which I gave to a mate . That cone is nearly 40 years old and sounds better in the Busker than it did in the Dobro.

Maybe the new cones are built so 'light' they have a shorter lifespan and need changing every two years ?. I shan't be getting one of those in a hurry .

[lexluthier]

Hi and thanks for the replies so far.

I started down the track of getting a new cone because despite making huge improvements to the Regal I couldn't get sufficient bottom end out of the thing. The top end I could manipulate from loud, searing, take your head off at 50 paces, to something quite sweet, which is where I left it for some time.

The sales description for the Regal proclaims it's fitted with the Quarterman QD-1 but I have my doubts about that to be honest. It's much, much thicker, heavier and less flexible than the Beard cones or any cone I've come across for that matter.
I figured from the sound of the Goldtone that I would get more bass from the flexible Beard cone and as the Goldtone needed a little top end help, I bought the Legend and did the swap. It was one of those rare moments when a plan came together pretty much exactly as I imagined and hoped!

I wish for the sake of this conversation I had taken some measurements of the thickness of these cones but I find it hard to imagine ever getting a decent tone out of as stiff and heavy a thing as the 'QD-1', which is one of the reasons I doubt it's authenticity.
Where as the Beards sound wonderful, like the sound in your head from a thousand film/tv soundtracks, but they are so thin and fragile, hence my initial question.

Personally I will be looking after them carefully and with the same respect I have for the rest of the machine. I just hope that this is not yet another case of built-in obsolescence to blight our lives!

Chris 

[Brad Bechtel]

May 14, 2016 23:40:14 GMT lexluthier said:

Anyway, while looking into this purchase I read/watched/listened to all the Beard info on the subject and kept coming across the advice that all cones, especially the spider bridge type, should be changed at least every two year as they succumb to oxidization and mechanical stress, eventually losing their tone.

I'd love to see where you saw this bit of misinformation. I've never heard of this before.

[lexluthier]

Hi Brad

Here's the page from the Beard website:-

www.beardguitars.com/resonatorconecare/

This blurb is of course repeated on many sites selling Beard cones. I have seen a video clip featuring Paul mentioning the same thing but haven't pinned it down as yet.

While I was having a quick look for that clip I did find a piece where Paul mentions his cones are spun from 0.01'' (10 thou') stock sheet. I measured the cone removed from the Regal RD-52, the cone advertised as a Quarterman QD-1. A little tricky getting a measurement from just the very edge with a micrometer but I'll round it down to 0.04''(40 thou')!
That's 4 times the thickness of the Beard obviously and hence a part of my intrigue.

I would love to hear from any one out there who knows the thickness of a genuine QD-1.

Chris