2006 Gold Tone PBS-M Paul Beard Dobro-Style Resonator Squareneck Guitar

The PBS-M is one of the deluxe Paul Beard models available from Gold Tone. Its main upgrade is that the body wood is all solid mahogany with a nice, ruddy-red-brown sunburst finish. It also has flamed maple binding throughout. Otherwise, it's similar to other Gold Tone squareneck spider-bridge models with the Beard "open soundwell" build and US-made Beard cone and spider and a Beard/US-signed setup note in the body. 

This one's owned by a local consignor and he's used it as a workhorse for a while, but now has a stable of more-vintage Dobros to sling for shows. It has a bunch of use-wear including a lot of scratches near the heel and some nicks and dings here and there, but it's in good order overall and definitely has that good, saucy, extra-mids bluegrass Dobro vibe. It's also a pretty good looker, too.

The owner installed a couple of pickups in the past -- a magnetic electric one that was stuck-on near the end of the fretboard and an acoustic/undersaddle one installed at the bridge. The "acoustic" one is still on it, though there's an issue with the treble-side element in that it does not have even string-to-string balance on that side of the bridge. My experience with these suggests that it will need to be replaced as I sussed-out any obvious problems (bad fit, low string pressure, etc.) and even rewired the harness for that pickup to double-check that the harness wasn't the problem. So -- there's a jack for that pickup at the endpin area and a second football-style jack at the 3/4 position on the side.

I only set it up and adjusted the wiring as mentioned. I have it strung for bluegrass open G with 52w, 40w, 32w, 24w, 17, 14 gauges tuned GBDGBD.

Specs are: 25" scale, 14 1/4" lower bout, 10 1/2" upper bout, 3 7/8" depth at the endblock, 1 7/8" nut width, 1 11/16" string spacing at the nut, 2 3/8" spacing at the bridge. String height above the frets is 3/8" at the 1st and 1/2" at the end of the board extension.

Woods are: solid mahogany top, back, and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, flamed maple binding.

The inlay is pearl.

Note the little cut-out at the treble-side screen -- for a pickup cord or...? Also note the grunge above the three holes -- it's leavings from the sticky stuff used to mount the magnetic pickup.

There's one filled volume-control hole on the lower-bout top and a rosewood-knobbed volume control for the acoustic pickup.

The only crack on the guitar is a tiny, not-through, hairline coming from a screw hole at the coverplate (see photo). It's essentially a finish crack as it doesn't go down into the wood much at all.

There's mucked-up finish on the edges of the back of the headstock on either side where you might expect it to rest in a wall-hanger unit.

Here are the curious scratches near the heel.

It comes with a gigbag.