My Old Dobro through Tonedexter

[BluesKing777]

I bought my 1976 Dobro used around about 1980. I traded a 1928 wood body Dobro towards the shiny metal body one. Playing it solo in a short set between my electric band sets went over a treat, but I could never hear it properly because the fold back would scream with one look at all that metal! So no foldback worth having and everybody out front heard it loud and clear but I felt like I was miming. I had a cheapo Ibanez mic to start.

 

Another 'reso expert' told me the best mic was a Shure SM57, so I looked over at the sax player in the band at the time staying mum about his SM57. Hmm. I started using that and apparently, the sound out front was nice. But still no foldback without screams.....

 

And still another 'reso expert' told me I needed a reso pickup. After a time, I got a passive Fishman Reso pickup installed on the cone and playing it through my electric guitar tube amp at home was...disappointing. Well, horrid. I turned all the tone knobs of the amp down and that helped.

 

I had an 'incident' that I can't forget. I took the Dobro to a blues jam night, got up for 3 songs and the host plugged my Dobro into a bass amp, left me to it and went outside to share cigarettes with other band people. Oh boy, it sounded awful and I kept going instead of stopping and unplugging and using a mic. And a guy told me he really liked it.....

 

Jump ahead to now...... a friend has installed and removed all kinds of pickup gadgetry in his reso and was saying he was just going to use a mic.....good luck, I said. I also mentioned that I have my Tonedexter and I made a wavefile of my Dobro using a Shure SM57........Oh, Tonedexter, where were you all those years ago.

 

Here is a sample, some open tuning and bottleneck if you want to hear it:

 

 

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/dobro-intd7

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[uncle fester]

Hey BK - good stuff, I'm not familiar with the term 'foldback' what does that mean?

[BluesKing777]

Hey BK - good stuff, I'm not familiar with the term 'foldback' what does that mean?

 

 

Thanks Billroy.

 

Foldback is another name for stage monitors ..... speakers facing back towards you so you can hear what you are playing/singing, well in theory that is.

 

 

BluesKing777.

[Murph]

Dig it.

 

I use an SM57 so far. Might go condenser eventually.

 

Really nice, man.

[BluesKing777]

Dig it.

 

I use an SM57 so far. Might go condenser eventually.

 

Really nice, man.

 

 

Thanks Murph!

 

 

BluesKing777.