when I first started playing guitar in the early 70's I asked the guy showing me how to play about Dobro he said get me a butter knife with a plain handle, so I did and he tuned up my guitar and started playing it like one and it sounded great and I'm 58 and to this day I never forgot it could never do it but was blown away by his skill
i don't really get the negative comments here. the title is unfortunate but how would you want him to title it "convert your guitar to get something that will enable you to practice for a future purchased dobro"- a little long winded. He is just giving newbies an idea to do just that and everyone knows it, you would have to be moronic if you didn't get that point; so why the comments? Is this your moment to shine because you know technically something about the resonator, congratulations- you are the smartest person ever to walk the face of the earth!
Call a spade a spade. An acoustic lap style guitar is not all that unusual. That is what he has converted his guitar into. I converted a Yamaha to one nearly 50 years ago by the exact same method. I played it for several years until I bought a Kona Hawaiian Steel and later a Dobro. Kelly Joe Phelps plays one regularly. Yes, it is a great learner guitar for a musician who wants to try lap style without paying the cost for a resonator guitar.
@@cowboy6591 There is a difference between information and hate or mean spirited criticism. All I offered was information. You would not want to call a Gibson a Fender would you. I was not born knowing what I wrote. Someone else either taught it to me, pointed out where I could learn it or I just picked it up a bit at a time over the 50 years I have been playing resonator guitars of various brands. Currently I own five, none of which is a Dobro.
A suggested title would be, "Set your guitar up to play lap style". I agree, raising the strings does not a dobro or resonator make. In fact I came here specifically to make this comment. Before I bought a resonator I used a nut extender on an old guitar I didn't care anything about (doing this may warp the neck).
I always wondered if there was a way of doing that with a regular guitar. I know this is an older video but I still want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge. That's the best thing about social media is people from all different walks of life can share their knowledge and experience with anyone who wishes to watch or read. Here's hoping that 2021 is a lot better year than 2020.
Nice video! I started out by using a pencil to raise the strings and eventually got one of these converters. Very handy but they do leave a small mark on the fingerboard and headstock. Like the instructor said, you have to be very careful about using heavy gauges on an acoustic that's not set up for that kind of pressure. You'll mess up the neck and top of the guitar.
Thanks for the tip about possibly over stressing the bridge. I could have converted my old Ovation into a resonator, but it has had some previous bridge problems so I'll look for something cheap instead.Great licks at the end...inspirational.
Trust Jimmy Heffernan is one of the BEST teachers out there, and this vid will get u started to see if playing a Dobro is good for you. At this very moment, I've got a junker on my workbench set up this way that I plan to use to get a friend started.
Definitely going to look into ordering a guitar nut converter. They look to be $5-$10 or so, and to convert our cheap acoustic guitar into an Hawaiian guitar for $5 (and be able to convert it back without having to do any construction to the instrument) sounds like a pretty good deal :)
@@onlywhenprovoked he never said it was, what he probably wanted was for you to use your brain and see it's not a dobro, and something to practice on or use if you're in a pinch.
@@dominusanuli3595 its like saying let me show you how to turn your back yard into a professional sports arena, and then showing you how to play football in your backyard. Sure thats football But its never going to be a professional sports arena. Youre playing slide on a guitar. Itll never ever be a dobro. You can also play slide on a violin and itll never be a dobro either. Get it yet?
Cool video of a neat money saving trick. All those attempting this please heed the warning at the end about extra tension. A talented and responsible posting. thanks
when I started playing slide, back in the 80's in Buenos Aires, we used to slide a thin pen or something like that right before the second or third fret and tune accordingly. It was common folk knowledge back then, I guess the tradition has been lost. I still do it sometimes, since I own just the one acoustic.
I saw the nut riser on a guitar and thought It was a good idea. I used an old 12 string guitar I bought for 5 bucks. The neck was wide so it made it easier to play with the bar. I believe that I'm not trying to make a real Dobro but a training instrument until I can learn how to play
My husband converted my guitar into a 'dobro'. This allowed me to see if I wanted to spend the money to buy a dobro. I love it and he has ordered a resonator guitar for my birthday. Thank you Jimmy! Keep on playing. He is now returning my guitar to its former self, with no damage.
Just picked a rather high action but good sounding guitar at the Good Will for $25 & now it's a Dobro enough guitar! Thx for tips on tuning, strings etc
This is great playing, great teaching and accurate advice from a pro who knows what he's talking about. The only thing I'd add to the advice about using other than one's best, solid-wood guitar is to find a relatively inexpensive guitar with laminated wood. Often guitars that don't sound good for regular playing will surprise you with how great they sound for slide in open tuning. They will also hold up much better (under the stress of heavier strings and higher tunings) than solid wood guitars.
that nut converter is brilliant, I have an old 1972 FG-160 yamaha sitting around and I though "Search convert acoustic guitar into a dobro"...and here I am. Nice.
Excellent video. I rescued a lovely old Harmony guitar that was destined for the skip, gave it some tlc, fitted a nut raiser and a soundhole pickup and she sounds absolutely gorgeous ! I did a video with it called "jus fishin man" in open G and I've just discovered Dobro tuning GBDGBD, So i'll be trying that out soon :0) Thanks for sharing your knowledge
He has created neither a Dobro nor a resonator. That's a lap steel. Perhaps he's tuning it GBDGBD but that does not a resonator make. I was looking forward to a gaping hole in the top to fit the resonator into.
Have you not heard of the Dunlop Capo/Slide Converter? It raises the strings two optional heights in an instant at any fret and restores the guitar to its original setting just as quick and easy. Check it out, it works!!! A revelation!!
I love this music and the musicians who played this strument....dobro acoustic pedal steel lap steel etc.etc.I'm Italian sardo...I have difficoulttie to listen this music in the seventies and eighties.But thank tihs musicians today I listen this music all music with slide and I dream.We nomination this musica music of dreams.Because that music is my freedom.Thank for that video.And thanks all the musicians play that music
A lot of negative comments on here but I think what he has done sounds pretty dam good. So what if it's not a DOBRO with a resonator? When I was a kid growing up in the deep South I used to see old black guys carve a piece of wood and raise their strings up and then play with the neck of a whiskey bottle. It sounded great! I have an old Yamaha FG-180 Nippon Gakki Red Label. I'm thinking of converting it into this.
benkit49 Yeah there those who want the world to know they know everything bout everything always been like that ,you want to let em know what for but it never fuckin ends. For a fact I got a hold of one of those Grover nut raisers don't remember where cuz I didn't have money for stuff like that. Used a stout straight piece of wood and wrapped a string to n fro to make capo . My brother in Vietnam won a Hummingbird J45 / case n all in poker game and sent it to me back in late-mid 60s. I used a 13/16 long socket for slide then found an old cough syrup bottle square edges and long neck, that was best slide money couldn't buy I played on my lap never got the hang of tube or bottleneck in upright position.Heard an old white hillbilly Jimmy Tarleton play some amazing blues think he as from Carolina's. I think u might find him on utube .Yeah being resourceful comes from hard times u make due if you're lucky enough to have a brother that's a good poker player. heh heh heh
I got one to turn my oldest guitar (epiphone acoustic) into a lap guitar to play C6 - already having a guitar for standard and one that jumps around in open chords D, G, & C. Now I have a sort of lap steel for country or Hawaiian music (as if I could actually play Hawaiian music).
Actually, I live the sound of the slide hitting the fret marker. Gives it a more ‘natural’ feel, akin to hearing finger-squeak when changing chords on an acoustic.
I put a blank high nut that i had in my old guitar stuff and raised my Seagull S6.. this was just a couple of weeks ago!!! I couldnt wait to get my dobro out of layaway!!
Don’t get triggered, David, but yeah it’s definitely called a dobro and just Google why and how that happened. Is there something else you want everyone to call it?
I put a cheap amazon tailpiece on my old Yamaha to take the pressure off the bridge and top. The plus is that the tailpiece rings like crazy. Sounds blue-grassy.
Dobro was a brand name that became the name for the acoustic instrument. Like the pedal steel guitar, and yeah like slide guitar but much higher action
What the problem is with all these "How to..." videos is that at first there are so many words and then in the very end you hear/see the result. The reversed way would be the right one: First showing what is to expect and than how you do it. So the visitor can instantly see if this is it what he's searching for. In this special case: Let's first listen to your sound and I will know if I like it. So I don't have to watch the entire video and waste my time by realising in the end that it's not what I'm looking for. Not to offend you. Nice playing btw!
Ha, we think alike! I made the same comment, elsewhere, a few days ago. I stated that; if I ever get around to making a RU-vid demo vid, I would make it "Tarantino style". Show the end-result first. If it looks interesting then let the yapping commence.
That dreadnought guitar with the nut riser has a sound not too much unlike a modern open soundwell dobro like a Beard E model. Jimmy, took lessons from you during a weekend seninar in Burnsville MN in early 2000’s. I had a blue dobro that you might remember 😄
Of course everyone does it their own way, but .... the idea of a heavy bar (in my opinion) is so you don't HAVE to press down. The weight of the bar resonates wonderfully all by it's lonesome. I use a bar on my Epi Wildkat, and I use 009's and leave the action way down low so I can still rock it like a madman when I'm less than blue. True, it took a while to get the finesse, but nothing easy is worth having. 2 cents from Windy Nebraska! SOUNDS GREAT BY THE WAY!
Great idea and advice. I made a "banjo" outta my $100 acoustic camping guitar by taking off the low E, replacing the 5th w a used b string and tuning to open "G", sounds plenty good enough to practice any see if ur interest warrants some big bucks. Dobro, Banjo or a guitar... all n one cheap acoustic instrument.
Thanks for the video man I love those Rifts are playing I just copped em. Thought you were tuning to open G which led me to believe the bottom string would have been D. But I think you went GBDGBD right? That actually spreads it out a little more evenly for me and makes the bottom note the tonic I'm digging it thank you!
Why do you tune your strings up for open g tuning? I tune down. I tune to D,G,d,g,b,d. I'm wondering if this tuning does something special for the sound.
Great thing about this is that the quality of the guitar really doesn't matter all that much. Great thing to do with that old clunker you have back in the closet. That is a Grover nut extender by the way. It will probably be a bit wider than the nut you have on your guitar. That is ok, since you won't be fretting the notes. Just make sure it is even in relation to the neck.
This adaptation does mimic that haunting slide guitar dobro sound... maybe not the deep outback bayou, but some 'shine' around a campfire could do wonders to distort perception. Think I would try adapting one of those wire frame tail pieces found on old arch top F hole guitars to preserve the bridge from the heavier string tension that might pull it up from the top, maybe even add a taller bone bridge saddle... all for longevity. For the budget minded... all this can be found on Amazon. If your slide playing doesn't work out, the guitar can still be reverted back to original design.
I bought a different version of the lift thing once. it was taller, and had a wider string spread than the original nut. it was actually off the guitar a little on either side. After some bridge work, I got it to play much like a real dobro. Since the nut replacement lifted it higher than this one does, light strings on the high side were not a problem as much. it actually worked way better than I would have thought possible, but I also raised and widened how the strings set on the bridge. That made all the difference. Eventually, I converted it back and sold it, then converted another with a wider neck and wider string spacing to begin with.
stephen sheppard for some reason I love tuning my guitar, I get a little too obsessive and I go back and forth tuning each string to each other as perfectly as possible where there are no waves, and even when I'm playing different stuff I adjust so that my thirds will be the most in tune, or tune certain strings flat so that I can bend them up and they'll be in tune for major chords etc.
The Herb 😯 I ( standard tuning) get my 6th E string in pitch best as it feels then tune EADGBE according to that 6th. The rule is The 6th is tuned to the 1st E below middle C on piano. But nowadays u got internet tuning apps or this clip on thing-a-majigs since a piano may not be readily available. ( I really want one of those, I think they're cheap enough, but nothing beats knowing how to tune standard ,n all alternative tunings relate to the standard. 😯
The Herb There are tonal measurements more finite than 1/2 steps I can't remember what they're called but the guys point was you can never get "perfect" pitch but a relative pitch is attainable. In music classes we daily tuned to 1st E below middle C then instructor would play corresponding notes on piano. Weird, since stringed instruments preceded piano even Bible refers to King David as virtuoso on harp, but must have been very different than Harps we know today. Anyway if soloing you get as close as your ear tells you, but multi guitar playing ALL must be the same.✌
Nice. You don't need to buy a big nut, and cheap guitars with high actions are a dime a dozen. A guitar played slack keyed (Open tunings like G or D) using the same strings you got on it now will suffice for round neck bottleneck blues and fingerpicking. I've got several 30's guitars that are unsuitable for just about everything else without dropping big $$$. The only way you are going to make your guitar sound like a resonator is to drop one or more spun aluminum cones in it tied to a biscuit or bridge. Used New Nationals can be had for $1500 and up.
I had a dobro. Problem is my voice is deep bass range and I have a baritone tuned down to A. Dobro didn't tune down that low. So I put one of these on my baritone and it sounds great.
i tried this and tuned to open g and brought my bottom two strings up to 17 and 23 but during tightening strings they snapped on me ... ??? what did i do wrong?
"Square neck resonator" is a mouthful. The term "Dobro" has been used forever to describe these guitars. Especially by folks who don't play an instrument.
@THE FINGERSTYLE AND SLIDE GUITAR CHANNEL I was just repeating what he said. He is an amazing player, no doubt at all. And it's cool that you bring up intonation. Intonation is truly a neglected concept in the realm of guitar playing- and awfully important if one wants to get into proper slide and dobro techniques for sure. When he said "you're not gonna win any Grammy awards like that" I laughed hysterically. It was a really good and informative video.
I use a similar setup with a "beater" acoustic but always use a "slack" tuning, usually D. Have you ever lifted a bridge with the Dobro GBDGBD? Would like to learn some bluegrass. Thanks, Doug
