Chords for Dobro Spider Bridge & Cone Upgrade
Tempo:
90.35 bpm
Chords used:
G
Bb
D
Em
C
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
between a dobro and a resonator because a lot of [G] people use that term interchangeably but
they're very very different in their architecture structure.
[Bb] So what's the same?
Well both the
resonator and a dobro have a spun aluminum cone that looks kind of [Ab] like a hubcap or a speaker
cone just like you have inside your speaker cabinet.
The dobro cone is shaped [Abm] sunken in and
it's called a spider bridge.
The spider bridge rests on the cone because [Em] well it looks like a
spider web.
[G] So this rests on a lip inside the guitar and the ends of the [N] spider rest on the
cone.
The strings go over the bridge on the spider and they resonate and that's where you
get that high lonesome cool sound from that so many of you are familiar with in bluegrass music.
If you're a fan of Jerry Douglas he plays a dobro.
Here is a 1937 National Resonator that's in the
shop for a neck reset and a lot of other work.
This is a resonator cone and it looks like a
hubcap but it's also a spun aluminum cone and it rests in the lip inside the guitar and there's a
biscuit bridge.
It's called a biscuit because it looks like a biscuit and that's what the strings
rest upon when they go up the neck to the peghead and the strings then cause the cone to vibrate.
This sound is more associated with the Delta blues, the bottleneck slide blues that you hear
played so often.
Both guitars are quite often used for their tone just for regular playing but the
dobro is more associated with the country bluegrass high lonesome sound of playing and the resonator is
more associated with blues style so there is a big difference between the two.
When we pulled [G] the
cone and played off of this guitar [N] we found this dobro doesn't have a round recess it's oblong
which means the original cone was jammed into this space making it really impossible for it to
resonate the way it should so before I put the new cone and upgrades into this guitar I gotta
take out the router with the rabbiting bit which we're going to do now to slightly widen the recess
right here to make this viable for [Em] a new home.
It's
[E]
always a little nerve-wracking taking something
like a router with a rabbiting bit to any kind of a musical instrument because what you take away
you can't put [N] back.
Anyway the whole point of this exercise was to widen the rim here where it was
oblong and crushing and compressing on the cone so this cone was damaged in shipment I've straightened
the rim so if this worked according to plan this should drop nicely in like that.
Anyway everything
to resonate properly and not to develop rattles I got to make sure this spider is level so I've
got a dead flat aluminum platen holding this spider bridge not with a lot of pressure just
in place what I'm doing is tapping to see if any of these spiders are high so this one's just a
little tiny bit high these are very delicate so you got to be really careful with this I put a
little piece of rubber sham underneath about a sixteenth inch thick and gently press down with
my thumb to bend that leg so that it's now contacting her egg.
Okay I've carefully adjusted
all the legs of the spider and I've been sanding it on this 220 grit paper and I have sanding marks
a little flat on each one of these legs that means now when we install it on the cone and
installed in the Dobro that everything will have uniform contact and we can count on optimal tone
for this cool install rubber.
The cone in a resonator or Dobro is the heart and soul of the
tone just like a speaker is the heart and soul it's essential heart and soul of a speaker cabinet
that you play through so anyway I've got a few more things to show you about the process that
was involved in making this work and so I'm gonna try and dust off a few of my Dobro licks and play
out while we show you [D] these extra photos.
[G]
[C] [D]
[G] [Em] [G]
[C] [D] [G]
[A] [Bb] [G]
[A] [Bb] [G]
[Ab] [Bb] [G]
[Bb] [C]
[D] [G]
they're very very different in their architecture structure.
[Bb] So what's the same?
Well both the
resonator and a dobro have a spun aluminum cone that looks kind of [Ab] like a hubcap or a speaker
cone just like you have inside your speaker cabinet.
The dobro cone is shaped [Abm] sunken in and
it's called a spider bridge.
The spider bridge rests on the cone because [Em] well it looks like a
spider web.
[G] So this rests on a lip inside the guitar and the ends of the [N] spider rest on the
cone.
The strings go over the bridge on the spider and they resonate and that's where you
get that high lonesome cool sound from that so many of you are familiar with in bluegrass music.
If you're a fan of Jerry Douglas he plays a dobro.
Here is a 1937 National Resonator that's in the
shop for a neck reset and a lot of other work.
This is a resonator cone and it looks like a
hubcap but it's also a spun aluminum cone and it rests in the lip inside the guitar and there's a
biscuit bridge.
It's called a biscuit because it looks like a biscuit and that's what the strings
rest upon when they go up the neck to the peghead and the strings then cause the cone to vibrate.
This sound is more associated with the Delta blues, the bottleneck slide blues that you hear
played so often.
Both guitars are quite often used for their tone just for regular playing but the
dobro is more associated with the country bluegrass high lonesome sound of playing and the resonator is
more associated with blues style so there is a big difference between the two.
When we pulled [G] the
cone and played off of this guitar [N] we found this dobro doesn't have a round recess it's oblong
which means the original cone was jammed into this space making it really impossible for it to
resonate the way it should so before I put the new cone and upgrades into this guitar I gotta
take out the router with the rabbiting bit which we're going to do now to slightly widen the recess
right here to make this viable for [Em] a new home.
It's
[E]
always a little nerve-wracking taking something
like a router with a rabbiting bit to any kind of a musical instrument because what you take away
you can't put [N] back.
Anyway the whole point of this exercise was to widen the rim here where it was
oblong and crushing and compressing on the cone so this cone was damaged in shipment I've straightened
the rim so if this worked according to plan this should drop nicely in like that.
Anyway everything
to resonate properly and not to develop rattles I got to make sure this spider is level so I've
got a dead flat aluminum platen holding this spider bridge not with a lot of pressure just
in place what I'm doing is tapping to see if any of these spiders are high so this one's just a
little tiny bit high these are very delicate so you got to be really careful with this I put a
little piece of rubber sham underneath about a sixteenth inch thick and gently press down with
my thumb to bend that leg so that it's now contacting her egg.
Okay I've carefully adjusted
all the legs of the spider and I've been sanding it on this 220 grit paper and I have sanding marks
a little flat on each one of these legs that means now when we install it on the cone and
installed in the Dobro that everything will have uniform contact and we can count on optimal tone
for this cool install rubber.
The cone in a resonator or Dobro is the heart and soul of the
tone just like a speaker is the heart and soul it's essential heart and soul of a speaker cabinet
that you play through so anyway I've got a few more things to show you about the process that
was involved in making this work and so I'm gonna try and dust off a few of my Dobro licks and play
out while we show you [D] these extra photos.
[G]
[C] [D]
[G] [Em] [G]
[C] [D] [G]
[A] [Bb] [G]
[A] [Bb] [G]
[Ab] [Bb] [G]
[Bb] [C]
[D] [G]
Key:
G
Bb
D
Em
C
G
Bb
D
_ _ _ _ _ _ between a dobro and a resonator because a lot of [G] people use that term interchangeably but
they're very very different in their architecture structure.
[Bb] So what's the same?
Well both the
resonator and a _ dobro have a spun aluminum cone that looks kind of [Ab] like a hubcap or a speaker
cone just like you have inside your speaker cabinet.
The dobro cone is shaped [Abm] sunken in and
it's called a spider bridge.
The spider bridge rests on the cone because [Em] well it looks like a
spider web.
[G] So this rests on a lip inside the guitar and the ends of the [N] spider rest on the
cone.
The strings go over the bridge on the spider and they resonate and that's where you
get that high lonesome cool sound from that so many of you are familiar with in bluegrass music.
If you're a fan of Jerry Douglas he plays a dobro.
_ _ _ Here is a 1937 National Resonator that's in the
shop for a neck reset and a lot of other work.
This is a resonator cone and it looks like a
hubcap but it's also a spun aluminum cone and it rests in the lip inside the guitar _ and there's a
biscuit bridge.
It's called a biscuit because it looks like a biscuit and that's what the strings
rest upon when they go up the neck to the peghead and the strings then cause the cone to vibrate.
This sound is more associated with the Delta blues, the bottleneck slide blues that you hear
played so often.
Both guitars are quite often used for their tone just for regular playing but the
dobro is more associated with the country bluegrass high lonesome sound of playing and the _ resonator is
more associated with blues style so there is a big difference between the two.
When we pulled [G] the
cone and played off of this guitar [N] we found this dobro doesn't have a round recess it's oblong
which means the original cone was jammed into this space making it really impossible for it to
resonate the way it should so before I put the new cone and upgrades into this guitar I gotta
take out the router with the rabbiting bit which we're going to do now to slightly _ widen the recess
right here to make this viable for [Em] a new home. _ _ _
_ _ _ It's _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
always a little nerve-wracking taking something
like a router with a rabbiting bit to any kind of a musical instrument because what you take away
you can't put [N] back.
Anyway the whole point of this exercise was to _ _ widen the rim here where it was
oblong and crushing and compressing on the cone so this cone was damaged in shipment I've straightened
the rim so if this worked according to plan this should drop nicely in _ like that.
Anyway everything
to resonate properly and not to develop rattles I got to make sure this spider is level so I've
got a dead flat aluminum platen holding this spider bridge not with a lot of pressure just
in place what I'm doing is tapping to _ see if any of these spiders are high so this one's just a
little tiny bit high these are very delicate so you got to be really careful with this I put a
little piece of rubber sham underneath about a sixteenth inch thick and gently press down with
my thumb to bend that leg so that it's now contacting _ _ _ her egg.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Okay I've carefully _ adjusted
all the legs of the spider and I've been sanding it on this 220 grit paper and I have _ sanding marks
a little flat on each one of these legs that means now when we install it on the cone and
installed in the Dobro that everything will have uniform contact and we can count on optimal tone
for this cool install rubber.
The cone in a resonator or Dobro is the heart and soul of the
tone just like a speaker is the heart and soul it's essential heart and soul of a speaker cabinet
that you play through so anyway I've got a few more things to show you about the process that
was involved in making this work and so I'm gonna try and dust off a few of my Dobro licks and play
out while we show you [D] these extra photos.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ [G] _
_ _ _ [C] _ [D] _ [G] _ _ _
_ [A] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [A] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
they're very very different in their architecture structure.
[Bb] So what's the same?
Well both the
resonator and a _ dobro have a spun aluminum cone that looks kind of [Ab] like a hubcap or a speaker
cone just like you have inside your speaker cabinet.
The dobro cone is shaped [Abm] sunken in and
it's called a spider bridge.
The spider bridge rests on the cone because [Em] well it looks like a
spider web.
[G] So this rests on a lip inside the guitar and the ends of the [N] spider rest on the
cone.
The strings go over the bridge on the spider and they resonate and that's where you
get that high lonesome cool sound from that so many of you are familiar with in bluegrass music.
If you're a fan of Jerry Douglas he plays a dobro.
_ _ _ Here is a 1937 National Resonator that's in the
shop for a neck reset and a lot of other work.
This is a resonator cone and it looks like a
hubcap but it's also a spun aluminum cone and it rests in the lip inside the guitar _ and there's a
biscuit bridge.
It's called a biscuit because it looks like a biscuit and that's what the strings
rest upon when they go up the neck to the peghead and the strings then cause the cone to vibrate.
This sound is more associated with the Delta blues, the bottleneck slide blues that you hear
played so often.
Both guitars are quite often used for their tone just for regular playing but the
dobro is more associated with the country bluegrass high lonesome sound of playing and the _ resonator is
more associated with blues style so there is a big difference between the two.
When we pulled [G] the
cone and played off of this guitar [N] we found this dobro doesn't have a round recess it's oblong
which means the original cone was jammed into this space making it really impossible for it to
resonate the way it should so before I put the new cone and upgrades into this guitar I gotta
take out the router with the rabbiting bit which we're going to do now to slightly _ widen the recess
right here to make this viable for [Em] a new home. _ _ _
_ _ _ It's _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
always a little nerve-wracking taking something
like a router with a rabbiting bit to any kind of a musical instrument because what you take away
you can't put [N] back.
Anyway the whole point of this exercise was to _ _ widen the rim here where it was
oblong and crushing and compressing on the cone so this cone was damaged in shipment I've straightened
the rim so if this worked according to plan this should drop nicely in _ like that.
Anyway everything
to resonate properly and not to develop rattles I got to make sure this spider is level so I've
got a dead flat aluminum platen holding this spider bridge not with a lot of pressure just
in place what I'm doing is tapping to _ see if any of these spiders are high so this one's just a
little tiny bit high these are very delicate so you got to be really careful with this I put a
little piece of rubber sham underneath about a sixteenth inch thick and gently press down with
my thumb to bend that leg so that it's now contacting _ _ _ her egg.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Okay I've carefully _ adjusted
all the legs of the spider and I've been sanding it on this 220 grit paper and I have _ sanding marks
a little flat on each one of these legs that means now when we install it on the cone and
installed in the Dobro that everything will have uniform contact and we can count on optimal tone
for this cool install rubber.
The cone in a resonator or Dobro is the heart and soul of the
tone just like a speaker is the heart and soul it's essential heart and soul of a speaker cabinet
that you play through so anyway I've got a few more things to show you about the process that
was involved in making this work and so I'm gonna try and dust off a few of my Dobro licks and play
out while we show you [D] these extra photos.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ [G] _
_ _ _ [C] _ [D] _ [G] _ _ _
_ [A] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [A] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _