Leeophonic's new OMI Dobro "TP"

[Michael Messer]

Lee asked me to post these photos for him. I am not going to write anything about this instrument, I will leave that to Lee and maybe Mark will contribute.

















Shine On
Michael

[Deleted]

Been following on FB.
Lee posted it in the OMI thread a couple of days ago. Didn't register at the time, but there is a big clue in the serial number.
TT

[leeophonic]

Thanks Michael for assistance with the photos, I found this on ebay last month in Canada and couldn't resist it, it sat in customs for a few weeks which was frustrating to say the least.

Anyway in 1990 OMi Dobro were tryng to outpace NRP, Continental, Beltona etc and recreate the tricone, unfortunately there were no funds for more dies and bodies so John Quarterman and other employees devised a tricone under the single cone coverplate. I have known about these for a few years with not many having been made (twenty ish???) Mark Makin has images of a fancier 75 and I nearly bought one from Palm guitars in Holland 15 years or so ago, this time there was to be no nearly.
I am in the process of replacing the OMi plastic nut (what were they thinking) with a bone nut (sorry Vegans) and when that is done have some alternative cones (thanks Washboard Chris) to fire her back up with some heavier MM Newtones. We will see, it is quirky and has a voice of it,s own but needs it shoes shining and putting on it,s best frock which I am currently doing.
There is not much on the net about these rarebirds so am happy to break the ice so to speak,
Cheerio Lee

[leeophonic]

Another has been found in Australia, so that,s two in the UK, one in Australia and maybe one in Holland I need to get hold of Palm Guitars to see if the trail has any clues, so nearly a quarter found....

Lee

[jvmalan]

Mule guitars in Saginaw make a tri cone under a single cone cover plate!

[oldnat]

Hi Lee, there was some discussion on the SGF a long time ago steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/005323.html

[leeophonic]

Thanks for the link to the steel guitar forum, I think I had read that previously when I was trawling for info, there are a lot of dead ends out there, now we actually have images of "Bigfoot" !!!

Lee

[leeophonic]

I finally got round to fitting the Bone nut and new cones (thanks Washboardchris) , so with a fresh set up and new strings it is like night and day, the one thing I had not considered is that it has a shorter scale than my Beltona giving a looser easy feel, similar to playing a J45 after a martin D28.
I normally prefer a set of mediums 13/56 DAddario's and it plays very nicely with overtones that were not there previously. I will give it a proper test tomorrow and give everything a chance to bed in.

Regards Lee

Here it is in good company, a trio of tricones, each one running in different directions (isle of Mann??) and with it's elder cousins, one spider bridged one biscuit bridge and one tricone (royal flush)