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  #1  
Old 08-09-2020, 09:26 PM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Default New Squareneck Day

A couple of weeks ago, I sliced off a substantial bit of my left index finger while working with a utility knife (ouch!). Fortunately, it's gradually healing, but I've been going crazy not being able to pick up my guitars. I'm at least a few weeks away from being able to start playing again, so I figured this was as good a time as any to give a square neck resonator a try.

This is my new Gretsch Bobtail G9230.

Since it's in open G, and I play quite a few finger style pieces in that tuning, I figured I would have an easy time figuring it out, but it became immediately apparent that I sound more like I'm torturing a bag of cats than playing a dobro. I've signed up with an online lesson site, so we'll see how that goes!

Aside from the aforementioned cats, the instrument sounds and looks great. I'm pretty impressed with it. I had seen reviews that said the Fishman Nashville pickup built into it was awful, but I think it sounds pleasingly natural through my Loudbox Mini (not that any one in my house has a burning desire to hear it amplified, at the moment). Fit and finish is real nice. Never having seen a square neck up close before, I was pretty surprised at just how high off the neck the strings actually are, and had to cut a new slot into my multi-guitar stand to fit it (I couldn't get it sit comfortably in a String Swing hanger).

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Old 08-10-2020, 02:11 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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You might find this helpful, it's from a long out of print instructional tape by the legendary Josh Graves, who pretty much created bluegrass dobro,
playing with Flatt & Scruggs in various conformations 1955-1974. May give you some ideas.

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Old 08-10-2020, 03:05 PM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankmcr View Post
You might find this helpful, it's from a long out of print instructional tape by the legendary Josh Graves, who pretty much created bluegrass dobro,
playing with Flatt & Scruggs in various conformations 1955-1974. May give you some ideas.
Thanks, Frankmcr. I'll check it out.

After a couple of false starts with some material I ordered from Amazon, I stumbled across a fellow by the name of Troy Brenningmeyer who has an exceptionally comprehensive set of lessons available online. Great teaching style, and very good camera angles, often split screen. He covers everything from bluegrass to O'Carolan, and I'm finding his lessons to a good fit for me. I've subscribed to his site for a month to get started, and will probably continue my subscription even once I'm able to get back to conventional guitar again.

Here's one of his lesson excerpts:

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Last edited by JMFingerstyle; 08-11-2020 at 12:38 PM. Reason: Error in Youtube link
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Old 08-12-2020, 03:39 PM
cb1956 cb1956 is offline
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Squareneck resonator is an easy instrument to make sound BAD! Believe me I know. Grab Troy's lesson called Dobro for the complete beginner. It will teach you some basic stuff that you NEED to know like correct way to hold the bar.
By the time you finish this lesson you'll be able to get good sounds from the dobro and go from there.
I did this one first
https://www.lessonswithtroy.com/Dobr...-Beginner.html

Then went through the DOBRO Basics series. Been playing about 4 1/2 years now. It's a slow but enjoyable process. I've learned to measure my progress by seasons, not weeks or months.
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Old 08-12-2020, 05:11 PM
JMFingerstyle JMFingerstyle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cb1956 View Post
Squareneck resonator is an easy instrument to make sound BAD! Believe me I know. Grab Troy's lesson called Dobro for the complete beginner. It will teach you some basic stuff that you NEED to know like correct way to hold the bar.
By the time you finish this lesson you'll be able to get good sounds from the dobro and go from there.
I did this one first
https://www.lessonswithtroy.com/Dobr...-Beginner.html

Then went through the DOBRO Basics series. Been playing about 4 1/2 years now. It's a slow but enjoyable process. I've learned to measure my progress by seasons, not weeks or months.
Thanks, cb. Already there! Very impressed with his lessons, and finding Troy to be a great teacher. I'm working my way through the Dobro for the Complete Beginner courses while simultaneously trying to learn two pieces from his collection of lessons ("Afrigrass" and "House of the Rising Sun"). It helps that I used to play banjo back in the 70's, so I'm finding it relatively easy to pick up on the Dobro rolls.

It's a fun and intriguing instrument. Great satisfaction when you do it right, painful to listen to when you don't!
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Old 08-21-2020, 08:33 PM
Mycroft Mycroft is offline
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I'm sure that you have sorted out that the Open G that you play on your roundneck is not the same as the Open G that is common in Country and Bluegrass dobro circles. Although you can use low-bass Open G on a squareneck, particularly for Blues. Or Open D. Listen to a bit of early Kelly Joe Phelps or Martin Harley. Kelly Jo uses a standard Dread with a nut riser, while Martin uses a Weissenborn

I've worked by way through Troy's Beginning Weissenborn series and and working on some of his other songs. Good stuff.

Have fun.
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Old 08-23-2020, 06:00 PM
zeeway zeeway is offline
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Probably you know this by now, but the strings are so high above the frets, so when you ‘slide’ a note, you can do it smoothly without hitting the frets.
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