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Post new topic Can Anyone Identify this Dobro Resonator?
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Author Topic:  Can Anyone Identify this Dobro Resonator?
Matthew Walton


From:
Fort Worth, Texas
Post  Posted 5 Nov 2020 9:50 am    
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Hi all, does anyone know anything about this guitar? In particular, any estimations of its year and value.

I've never seen a resonator with the holes in the upper bout being that diamond drill pattern, and the lower bout looks quite wider than I'd expect.





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Matthew Walton


From:
Fort Worth, Texas
Post  Posted 5 Nov 2020 10:58 am    
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I just found this sold listing on Reverb: https://reverb.com/item/930290-dobro-wood-body-90-resonator-soft-cutaway-maple-body-1978-natural-guitar

They claim it's late 70s, but judging from the serial number looks like it's actually 1992, according to this website.
_________________
If something I wrote can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, I meant the other one.

1981 MSA "The Universal" 9/5 | 2009 MSA S-12 SuperSlide | Peavey Nashville 112
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Mark Eaton


From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Post  Posted 5 Nov 2020 11:54 am    
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I'm guessing you found it in some sort of thrift shop? Nice find if you can score a good deal! And you can buy some old copies of Playboy while you're at it. Wink

I found some info on this Model 90/Soft Cutaway in Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars in Google Books online. If accurate, this model was available from 1993-96, when Gibson had just taken over Dobro but still operated the factory in Huntington Beach, California before shutting it down in 1997 and moving it to Nashville.

Several of our members know Mike Replogle who Gibson appointed to run the new acquisition at the time. He didn't make the move to Nashville. I know Mike a little bit, nowadays he is the production manager at prestigious Santa Cruz Guitars in Santa Cruz, California.

He commented to me awhile back that you have to take the OMI Dobro serial numbers with a grain of salt - a neck might be fashioned and stamped with a number, but it might not actually be used on a guitar in the same year. I'm speculating that the neck is from 1992 and might have been intended for a regular Model 90 roundneck, but it ended up on this cutaway model from '93.

I attempted to share a screenshot here from Gruhn's Guide with a brief description of the model but it's not working. But it's pretty much as I wrote above. I don't think there is anywhere online to find a consensus what the model is typically worth - it's pretty unusual - we're not talking about something like a typical wood body Model 60 that was produced in the thousands.
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Matthew Walton


From:
Fort Worth, Texas
Post  Posted 5 Nov 2020 12:05 pm    
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Oh, that's super helpful, thank you!

This is actually from an online estate/liquidation sale. Auction ends tonight in 8 hours, current bid is $304. I'm trying to decide if I want to bid on it, and if so how much. Judging from that Reverb listing in notably worse condition (more wear and it looks like the neck joint is failing), it seems like $1000 would not be an unreasonable amount to pay for it. Though I probably couldn't justify spending much more than $600 on it (I'm already buried in guitars as it is).
_________________
If something I wrote can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, I meant the other one.

1981 MSA "The Universal" 9/5 | 2009 MSA S-12 SuperSlide | Peavey Nashville 112
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Mark Eaton


From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Post  Posted 5 Nov 2020 12:16 pm    
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Cool - if it were me, I might be willing to go in for around $500 - $600 max, but obviously the lower the better.

Here is a link to a scanned OMI/Dobro/Gibson catalog from 1996. If it doesn't take you to the catalog there should be an index on the left side of the page.

https://www.notecannons.com/

And here is the page from that catalog showing the model:



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