Dobro sound on C6 neck

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 7 Mar 2004 7:03 am

Now that I have a decent dobro sound from my Boss BE 50 and I am not using my C6 neck on gigs, I am wanting to further the dobro sound by recommisioning my C6 neck. Has any of you done this?

I've read that Melobar made a 10 string dobro. Would their tuning be a good tuning to use?

Would it be best to just leave it with the C6 tuning? Can you get a good dobro sound from C6?

So many questions. I hope you guys can help me out.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 7 Mar 2004 7:19 am

What kind of music would you be playing mostly?

I think that's the first question to ask yourself.

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 7 Mar 2004 7:31 am

I would be playing songs like "Long Black Train". It seems the dobro is being used a great deal in modern country music. Shania Twain has a dobro player. This is the sound I would like to come close to.

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 7 Mar 2004 9:45 am

Long Black Train works well on the E neck, the song is in Bb, use strings 10,8 and 6 for the intro.

I use the dobro sound on both neck, works great, no need to spend extra money on another instrument for a couple of songs a night.

Questions? Keep asking, answers will come.

Larry Behm

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 7 Mar 2004 11:03 am

Larry.

I borrowed DJ's Match Bro, and have been trying to match the settings with my Pod xt with mixed results. It seems to need some kind of "envelope" or "auto wah" rather than just sweeping the phase with a high thin edge and missing mids. So far I"m not finding a sound as good as the MB.

Do you use a MB, or are you synthing the Dobro sound through one of your suitcase nuke processors?

EJL

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 7 Mar 2004 11:37 am

You can dedicate a pedal to get the G dobro tuning on C6th: <pre> ped
D *
E
C * -B
A
G *
E
C * ++D
A * ++B
F * ++G
C </pre>To play dobro parts, hold the pedal down and use the strings I've marked with an asterisk. All of the standard hammer-on licks are available.

The skip grip makes bar slants easier on the high strings, but they're still nearly impossible on the low strings.

You should take your foot off of the volume pedal and run your signal through some kind of narrow band filter to get the dobro tone.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 7 Mar 2004 4:42 pm

I have something similar to B0B's suggestion on my guitar. I moved my regular pedal 7 to RKR. I also have my 8th pedal with some of the changes B0B mentions. So I hit RKR with pedal 8 and I have a G tuning from strings 3 through 8.

<pre>

LKL LKV LKR 4 5 6 7 8 RKL RKR
D D#
E F
C C# B D
A Bb B B
G F# F
E Eb D
C C# B
A Bb B G
F E F#
C A D D
</pre>

I used to have a match-Bro but sold it when I was having financial problems.

Edited to add:
I would find it difficult to use B0B's approach. I think the gaps would interfere with the fast hammer-ons and pull-offs and finger crossing over that I would use on a real Dobro, although the slants would be easier (I guess).

While we're at it, why did Goodrich make that plastic bar like a regular steel bar instead of a Stevens type bar. I found it impossible to do good pull-offs even with the back end of the bar. The Stevens (actually I use a Shubb-Pearse bar for reso) didn't sound right with the Match-Bro.[This message was edited by Richard Sinkler on 07 March 2004 at 09:01 PM.]

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 7 Mar 2004 5:11 pm

Thanks so much for the info Bobby Lee. I'll definitely try it.

If I could find a Match Bro for sale I would definitely go that route. I'm sure this does not sound as good as a Match Bro. But, I just need to deceive a few folks that think your playing some kind of keyboard when your setting behind your steel.

My Boss SE 50 settings are as follows:
Rhodes algorithm (Not that Al Gore has rhythm)

Equilize
Low EQ -12dB
Mid Freq 400 HZ
Mid EQ +8dB
High EQ 0dB
LP Filter Thru
Phaser
Rate 85
Depth 10
Manual 40
Resonance 8
Super Chorus
Pre Delay 1ms
Rate 30
Depth 10
Level 100

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 7 Mar 2004 6:42 pm

Cool Richard. I'll try it. Sorry about your Match Bro. I wish Goodrich would make them again, but the cost was a bit steep.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 8 Mar 2004 10:53 am

I like Richard's solution a lot. His RKR is actually the standard P7, and adding the special pedal on P8 makes the dobro tuning right in the middle of the course. The pedal also adds a low 5th - very powerful for comping rhythm parts!

When you really need the bar slants, the standard 3rd string lower to B gives you the top 3 strings of the dobro tuning with skip grips (strings 1, 3, 5). Richard's special pedal can still provide the low notes. <pre> p7 p8 RK
D *
E
C ++D -B
A ++B
G *
E --D
C -B
A --G
F
C ++D </pre>For fast stuff you could use p7+p8, and for the more sensitive tunes you could use p8+k.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 8 Mar 2004 10:58 am

Has no one heard of the "Super Bro"?

www.genejones.com

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 8 Mar 2004 11:49 am

Do you have any Super Bros for sale Gene? If not do you know where I could get one?

Bobby and Richard: With these tunings on the C6 neck, why do you still have to slant your bar. Could you come up with a pedal to lower the B's or even get the 7th.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 8 Mar 2004 12:26 pm

The sound of the bar slant is different from the sound of a pedal. Maybe only steel players can hear the difference, though.

For example, I hear a huge tonal difference on Hank Williams' records between Jerry Byrd's C6th and Don Helms' E13. But for one Hank tribute show I split the difference and played both on a single neck D6th. All of the steel parts had the wrong timbre (and I was at the wrong fret positions), but the other musicians in the band couldn't tell the difference at all.

Likewise, I hear a huge difference between pedals and bar slants. Maybe the audience and even the other musicians don't.

If you use appropriate electronics and don't do obvious pedal licks, you can probably sound dobro-ish enough on any tuning to satisfy your audience. But if you want to play real dobro parts, you will need to shift your tuning to G and use bar slants now and then. Is it worth the trouble? That's up to you.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 8 Mar 2004 1:10 pm

I use a "Super-Bro" along with the plastic bar that came with it. It sounds authentic enought to me that I sure wouldn't tote around an additional instrument. It has a true bypass so it can stay clamped to the guitar leg all the time. The Super-Bro doesn't have the "match-bro" components so I use the match-bro also. To get a more authentic dobro sound, I like to turn off all effects.
Erv[This message was edited by Erv Niehaus on 08 March 2004 at 01:11 PM.]

Ben Slaughter · Post by **Ben Slaughter** » 8 Mar 2004 2:17 pm

I may have to try Richards pedal. I like that.

------------------
Ben
Zum D10, NV400, POD, G&L Guitars, etc, etc.

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 9 Mar 2004 4:54 am

Eric the answer is in the Boss SE70 I use. Bring over your pod and Dougs MB and lets have some fun.

Larry Behm

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 9 Mar 2004 6:30 pm

Bobby and Richard, IMHO you two have came up with a new standard copedent. I just installed Bobby's combined version and I love it. I am very excited. God Bless this forum. Thanks guys.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 10 Mar 2004 2:23 am

Kevin, If you look at my pedal 7, it takes the top G down to F to give me a 7th. It also gives me an augmented by using string 1. When I use this "Dobro" pedal (#8), I remove my foot from the volume pedal and use it on pedal 8. Pedal 7 is raised higher than pedal 8 (and 6) so it's easy to activate with these pedals. I had to raise P7 because when my right foot is on 8 while hitting RKR, my ankle wouldn't bend enough to activate 7 if they were the same height.

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 10 Mar 2004 3:06 am

My Excel is so light, if I get to many pulls on one knee lever my guitar wants to dance with me. I have to watch the number of combined pulls of both necks on each knee lever. There is a down side to a steel guitar that is light to carry. I'll look idea over with that in mind. Thanks Richard

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 10 Mar 2004 1:03 pm

B0B had a good idea about placing the "DOBRO"
pedal next to pedal 7. This would keep knee levers out of the equation. My Carter is pretty light and I had 5 (2 C6 and 3 E9)pulls on RKR that was stiff but the guitar didn't walk. I don't know that the Excel is lighter than a Carter. I did move 2 of the E9 changes to a pedal but only partly because of stiffness.

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 12 Mar 2004 4:33 am

I now have Bobby and Richard's combination setup on my C6 neck. Trying to hold down both pedals at the same time was causing my foot to cramp. So, I added another bell crank, bought a pull clamp from Graingers. Then connected them with a 1/8" round rod and a spring buffer. This modification allows me to hold the 8th pedal down with the pull clamp. The only permanent alterations to my steel is just 2 small holes in the aluminium bracing.

Rand Anderson · Post by **Rand Anderson** » 11 Feb 2005 8:29 pm

I added the lower string dobro lowers onto my 4 pedal so i use two feet to hold down 4 and 7 for dobro tuning. It works real nice and i never really use pedal 4. Most dobros don't come with volume pedals anyway.

rand

Sonny Jenkins · Post by **Sonny Jenkins** » 12 Feb 2005 8:55 am

Does anyone know if there is a good dobro sound in the Jeff Newman pre sets (ProFex)?