2018 Jack Dudley Reso-Knee Dobro-Style Hollow-Neck Resonator Guitar
This instrument is just wild! A friend of mine custom-ordered it to suit his tastes but as a man with too many Dobros and too little time, he's letting it go.
It was made by Mr. Jack Dudley of "Don't Fret Instruments" and, per his specs on a different one he made, it's built with a top and back cut from a cypress knee(!) and sides cut from a single piece of mahogany. The red bits are a mix of stained figured maple for the coverplate and (perhaps?) bloodwood for the knobs. The cone is a Quarterman and it has both an active EMG bass magnetic pickup (for lap steel tones) and Fishman Nashville spider-bridge acoustic pickup with separate jacks at the "butt-end." The Fishman is meant to work with the Jerry Douglas Aura pedal for most natural output, though it sounds good on its own, too.
The body is entirely hollowed-out so this instrument reacts like the resonator equivalent of a Weissenborn-style lap guitar. It's bizarre and wonderful to hear it just acoustically -- it's loud and vibrant with a heap of clarity and a sort-of sing-song lingering sustain as the notes decay in the long body.
For me, however, the icing on the cake is the Hipshot DoubleShot multi-tuner device at the tailpiece side of the instrument. These are $550+ expensive (plus another $70+ for the roller nut and whatever-the-cost for locking tuners to make best use of it) but they work! At the flip of a lever you can swap one tuning for another. In this case, the owner has it set for open D with the lever "un-tensed" and Dobro open G (GBDGBD) with it pressed-down. You can hear me do some faux-pedal-steel swells over chords with it in the clip. I can immediately see the virtue of that device for live use -- who needs two guitars?
At any rate, this thing is basically as-new save some minor scratches along the treble side of the "fretboard." It also has a light scuff or two on the sides just from handling but none of this is obvious. It also comes with its original, custom-made, hard case.
Specs are: 25" scale, 1 3/4" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" spacing at the bridge, 5/8" string height over the body, 14" at its widest at the bottom, 11 3/4" in the middle, 7 1/2" a little below the nut, and 4" side depth overall.
The body is entirely hollowed-out so this instrument reacts like the resonator equivalent of a Weissenborn-style lap guitar. It's bizarre and wonderful to hear it just acoustically -- it's loud and vibrant with a heap of clarity and a sort-of sing-song lingering sustain as the notes decay in the long body.
For me, however, the icing on the cake is the Hipshot DoubleShot multi-tuner device at the tailpiece side of the instrument. These are $550+ expensive (plus another $70+ for the roller nut and whatever-the-cost for locking tuners to make best use of it) but they work! At the flip of a lever you can swap one tuning for another. In this case, the owner has it set for open D with the lever "un-tensed" and Dobro open G (GBDGBD) with it pressed-down. You can hear me do some faux-pedal-steel swells over chords with it in the clip. I can immediately see the virtue of that device for live use -- who needs two guitars?
At any rate, this thing is basically as-new save some minor scratches along the treble side of the "fretboard." It also has a light scuff or two on the sides just from handling but none of this is obvious. It also comes with its original, custom-made, hard case.
Specs are: 25" scale, 1 3/4" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" spacing at the bridge, 5/8" string height over the body, 14" at its widest at the bottom, 11 3/4" in the middle, 7 1/2" a little below the nut, and 4" side depth overall.
I love how the markers go right through the soundhole up here.
The case is tough, workmanly, and heavy-duty.
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