Talk:Dobro

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Regarding the trivia, it's my understanding that there is no such thing as a "major fourth" or a "minor fourth", only "perfect fourth", "diminished fourth", or "augmented fourth". The author probably meant "perfect fourth" and "major third", though in context it could be a "diminished fourth" instead of "major third". I don't know. (--pfunk42)

Contents 1 Resonator Guitar 2 Not all Dobros are resonators 3 Rem text 4 More on the generic use of "Dobro" 5 Partial refactor

[edit] Resonator Guitar

I would like to ask, since I don't know that much about Wikipedia policies regarding trade names, if it might be better to rename this article "Resonator Guitar" and have "Dobro" redirect to it. -- WCFrancis 17:43, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I don't know what the policy might be, but it strikes me that it might be better practice to rename as suggested. Cmadler 17:10, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

However, for the sake of the prevailing name (Dobro), would it not be best to forego the political correctness and reverse his suggestion? Have "Resonator Guitar" redirected to "Dobro"? Unregistered user, 20:53 5 Oct 2005 (UTC)

convention among my friends is to say "Dobro" when referring to the brand and "dobro" when referring to resophonics in general, especially squarenecks. I think squareneck quitars/lapstyle playing deserves its own page.

IMO both Dobro and resonator guitar deserve separate pages, and that's what I'm working on. Some of the material from this article would be better at resonator guitar, certainly. Andrewa 17:31, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Not all Dobros are resonators

See Talk:Lap slide guitar. Andrewa 17:33, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rem text

The instrument is also sometimes referred to as a "Hawaiian guitar".

This is probably true, but it's rather misleading. A more common meaning of Hawaiian guitar is electric steel guitar, and even this usage is ill-advised as in Hawaiian music the term means something quite different again, see steel guitar. Andrewa 16:14, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More on the generic use of "Dobro"

See Phil Leadbetter's A Brief History of the Resonator Guitar for some fascinating stuff... caution, some of the details contradict most other sources, but hey he's a guitarist not an historian. But what is really interesting IMO is his take on the Gibson attitude to the name:

Up until the time that Dobro® was purchased by Gibson, the word "Dobro" was used to describe all guitars that used a resonator. The word "Dobro" just became the slang name for this instrument pretty much like the word "Kleenex" did for tissue, or "Xerox" did for copy machines. Gibson decided that since they had purchased this name, and it was a trademark, they ordered all the builders who had been using this name to describe their instruments to cease using it. It was then that names such as "resonator guitar" and "resophonic guitar" became the politically correct name to identify these instruments. Some people have even called them a TIFKAD guitar, an anagram which stands for "The Instrument Formerly Known as Dobro"- Just a bunch of folks being creative I guess.

Food for thought. Andrewa 18:12, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Of course the flaw in that comparison is that Kleenex and Xerox were originally and still are brand names and contrary to popular myth, have never been used by other brands in reference to themselves. --JamesTheNumberless 16:12, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Partial refactor

Some stuff that should probably go somewhere:

As can be seen from the ukulele advert to the right, the model name was the price. So some instruments, while remaining unchanged physically, were sold over several years and therefore actually have catalogue model numbers that get progressively larger as time went by and their prices went up! This makes it nearly impossible to identify most instruments, although the higher the model number (price) the more ornate the instrument would have been as a rule of thumb.

special pickups are made for both single cone and tricone instruments. A pickup will amplify the sound signal and allow you to use an amplifier. Fishman makes a well-reviewed resonator pickup, as does Schatten.

But, I don't think it belongs in the Dobro article. The uke seems to be a National style resonator, and was made and sold by Regal. The pickup note applies to any resonator instrument. Andrewa 07:15, 2 May 2006 (UTC)