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Author Topic:  1936 Dobro Cast Aluminum Steel
Mark Gough

 

From:
Sault Ste. Marie Ontario
Post  Posted 16 Jun 2022 8:42 am    
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I’m restoring this 1936 Dobro cast aluminum. The magnet and pickup are fine. I need to replace the pots and capacitor and I don’t see any identification numbers on them. Does anyone have information for period correct values for the pots and capacitor?
Many thanks in advance.

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Noah Miller


From:
Rocky Hill, CT
Post  Posted 16 Jun 2022 10:47 am    
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My '36 National has a 250K tone pot and a .05 mfd cap. The volume pot is a modern replacement but was probably the same as the tone pot.

That said, National-Dobro's shop motto might have been "eh... whatever works". They'd use anything they had on hand, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if other people come up with different values.

If I were replacing the pots in these, I'd go with 500K to maximize output and treble. I'd probably also go with a much smaller cap, maybe .010. These things are pretty warm sounding as originally wired.
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Mark Gough

 

From:
Sault Ste. Marie Ontario
Post  Posted 16 Jun 2022 11:13 am    
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Noah, thanks for the info. Helps me out considerably!
Are your pots linear or audio?
All the best.
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Noah Miller


From:
Rocky Hill, CT
Post  Posted 16 Jun 2022 11:50 am    
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The pot isn't marked, but I'm guessing it's audio taper. Even if it's not, I would not go with linear even for the sake of historical correctness. If you're going to have non-original components, you might as well get the best sound and functionality out of them!
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Allan Revich


From:
Victoria, BC
Post  Posted 30 Jun 2022 10:16 am    
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Don’t forget to post pix!
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