WTB: Dobro Hula Blues guitar

[Cameleye]

Title says it all. I'm looking to buy one of these somewhat obscure Dobro
Hula Blues guitars with OHSC. No "issues" please. Immediate cash payment.
Thanks, Ce.

[Guitar MD]

Check Facebook group

[Guitar MD]

Or Reverb.com (5 shown there)....

[Cameleye]

Following the ones on Reverb, thank you.
Was hoping someone just had one they weren't playing and, upon seeing this post, thought: hey, cash?

[Guitar MD]

If you are after a bargain, good luck. Perhaps should be combing thru Craigslist (no fees) not Reverb. Otherwise, try resonator-specific sites like Reso Hangout or Steel Guitar forum.

[Cameleye]

Thanks, GuitarMD. Following all leads.

[Guitar MD]

Curious. Why the Hula Blues in particular?

[Cameleye]

I have a dobro for lap style and thought the HB with its National style cone would provide a different tone. I appreciate the wood body for its tone and the lower weight (than say a metal National, which are also too loud for my purposes.) The 12 fret neck is also a plus for me.
Plan to leave it in Hawiian G tuning (low D) and play that style on it, maybe some bottleneck too. And then there's the rather low cost, which is also plus.

[Guitar MD]

Interesting.

I own vintage lapsteels, a National style 1.5 tricone squareneck, and a Lebeda mahogany dobro, so my default is lap style. I am selling the Lebeda in order to buy a wood-bodied biscuit reso for bottleneck playing. I’ve owned then sold/traded newer roundneck Nationals (Tricone & Style N) - liked the sound, but personally I didn’t find the playability to my liking.

There seem to be some great wood body biscuit resos on the market at good prices. I happened to play a Recording King Rattlesnake model at NAMM a few years back which you may wish to check out. Might be easier to come across than a Hula Blues. No Hawaiian stencil though...

Keep us posted.

[Cameleye]

For many years I held the trifecta: '29 Style 1 National tricone, black bakelite
Rickenbacher with cream panels lap and one by Gibson. Eventually found the woodbody dobro I now use regularly and liked it so much the others slowly got sold off. Probably miss the tricone the most.
I did try one of the newer wood Gretsches but felt it was a one trick pony.

[Guitar MD]

A Gibson lapsteel like this?



Unfortunately, I don’t have the tweed amp to go with it.

[Guitar MD]

Restoration project....

[Cameleye]

Yes, it was an ES-150, wasn't it?
Your seven string National is pretty darn cool!

[Guitar MD]

EH-150 lapsteel (ES was CC’s guitar model) with variations on the pickup. Amp was EH-150 model too w tweed covering that matched the lapsteel case. Rare finds....


Never played/owned a Ric model B, but the stable’s pretty full anyhow. Hard to part with these pieces of history. Started out in the 70’s with a nice Dobro that I had OMI swap the roundneck for a squareneck. A guy in Iowa (Richard Jacks) was a pro at tweaking them for ultimate vintage (Oswald, Graves) tone.

[Cameleye]

EH-150. Right. So comparing the Gibson with the National, I preferred the National. Just a deeper, fuller tone. Miss that one.