Dobro Tuning on a roundneck

[menamestom]

Hi Michael,

I took your advice and got some MM strings for my new Regal and also a Quarterman cone from Resound (very helpful they were too!).

I was just wandering whether tuning to Dobro G would be okay on a roundneck (string guages are the .015 set)? Would I need to adjust the trussrod?

I'm fairly competent with most aspects of guitar set-up but truss rods scare me, a bit like voodoo . One turn too far and your head spins round, apparently....

Cheers
Tom

[Michael Messer]

Hi Tom,

I don't do trussrods either!

Tuning your guitar up to GBDGBD will be fine, but don't leave it in that tuning. Tune it up to play and then take it back down. Or....if you want to leave it in that tuning permanently....change the bottom two strings for something a bit lighter. But then they don't sound as good, so I would tune it up to use it and then back down again. This will shorten the life of your strings, but with a roundneck guitar you should take care with high tunings. I did it for years on round neck guitars and still do occasionally. Another option is use the same intervals but a step lower...FACFAC....and use a capo.

I hope this helps!
Take care
Shine On
Michael.

[Deleted]

Does the Quarterman cone fit in the Regal? I only ask because I think they are very slightly bigger than standard dobro cones. I put a Quarterman in my Lebeda and it's great. But Lebedas were made for the Quartermans - Jiri Lebeda just stopped using them and sourced cones locally.

[LouisianaGrey]

The difference was always pretty small - small enough that you could trim a millimetre off the rim with a pair of kitchen scissors and the cone would fit. When I think about it, I've fitted a Quarterman into one of the recent Regals (i.e. since production was switched to China) and I didn't have to do that so I think they're probably all OK now. The Black Lightning squareneck comes with a Quarterman already fitted, of course.

[menamestom]

The cone did fit in but was a bit tight at first so I just sanded the outside of the cone and also the wooden rim just so it would turn if required.
There's really not much in it.

The new cone sounded better than the original though less so than I expected, it seems to be improving now though. Do they require 'playing in' ? May be playing the strings in a bit has reduced the clankyness new strings produce, enabling me to hear the cone more?

Also, I was wandering about the string angle from the tailpiece to the bridge, it's fairly shallow (and the action a bit low), would increasing the angle and hence the action make the cone sing a little louder?

For every question answered I seem to come up with 2 more!