Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 i've had a nice liberty dobro for a couple of years but not really made much progress on it until very recently. i'd always tuned it in standard dobro open g tuning but i just didn't feel it at all. tuning to open d (d a d f# a d) has made all the difference. having the root on the bottom feels a lot more natural and am just loving it - its all kind of flowing. i'm now tending to pick the dobro up rather than my other guitars. nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Way to go! Are you playing it Spanish- or Hawaiian-style? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 i'm playing it spanish style - but with an australian accent and living in england. its pretty confusing : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Please, tell me about your Liberty! Pics, clips, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 its a great guitar. i was looking for a resonator guitar and spotted this one on ebay. i put in an opening bid of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Wow! That looks pretty sharp! Did it come with the internal reso pup? Speaking of clips ... ya got any string cutters? Those whiskers are gonna put somone's eye out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 it doesn't have a pup at the mo. i've not gigged with it yet so haven't had any pressing need. a lot of folks swear by just miking up with a sm57 so i might try that and see how it goes. yes - have some clippers here. time for a trim : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 The sm57 will prolly do the job. Just gotta make sure you don't wiggle around too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 especially if i don't get round too cutting those strings - recipe for a bloodbath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Since you're using open tunings, I'd guess you're playing slide. What are you using for a slide? I've used socket wrenches, bottlenecks (my current), etc. Have you played your dobro in standard tuning and just picked around on songs? btw, I also really dig slide in standard tuning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 i do a bit of slidin (just with a brass dunlop slide) and a bit of normal pickin and stuff. open d is a really great tuning for both. i played it in standard tuning a lot when i first got it - mainly just picking. i really liked it for that. i couldn't get anything decent going with a slide in normal tuning. was not good. do you have a dobro? what you got? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Nah. I don't have one. Maybe down the road, but I'm still digging my Gitane D-500 djangobox. I've been thinking how cool the dobro would sound in an acoustic swing setting. I know that Oscar Aleman used one. Bob Brozman does some of those cool standards on dobro. Been wondering about anyone else who uses the dobro/reso for that kind of music. I know it's generally thought of as a blues or bluegrass instrument, but it's still a guitar ... and a guitar can make whatever music the guitarist wants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 those gitane's look fantastic. you're absolutely right. dobro could well and truly light up an acoustic swing type combo. it has the sound that can just bite through. i also like the sound of the dobro when its almost out of control - jeff lang does some of that where its overdriven and kind of manic. powerful sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 I'll dive in here just for the heck of it. When you say you were playing in "standard dobro open G" I'm curious - there are really two versions. Lap style (bluegrass) players use "dobro G" (also known as "high bass G") which is GBDGBD (the bottom two strings are tuned up - be careful doing this with your biscuit bridge). The reason they like that is that they can play in any key so they don't have to retune or capo. Most of us who play Spanish style use normal open G (DGDGBD) and yes, you are right, the root note is on the 5th , but the 6th string is also a legitimate bass. IMHO open G is a raunchy nasty blues tuning - Walkin' Blues, Come in my Kitchen, Roll'n'Tumble - stuff like that works really good. I've got a really crappy clip of my 75 year old Type 27 spider bridge doing Roll'n'Tumble at the Annex Open D is a great tuning, but I think it is a little "prettier" - both for slide (Steel Guitar Rag, Poor Boy) and for fretted (Police Dog Blues, Vestapole...). It certainly can be made to cry (Dark was the Night is a great example) but you can use harmonics a lot better in open D. Again, there is a crappy version of Police Dog at the Annex (but not on a reso) Lots of players also used reso's in standard tuning - the one that comes to mind was Blind Boy Fuller (Keep Truckin' Mama, Jive Woman Blues....) as far as I know he never played with a slide. I do know he tuned down two half steps however. It seems like about the only people who do decent slide in standard tuning are the electric players. (It is also interesting that RJ never used a reso, but most of his songs sound good on one) I've fooled around with lots of different slides over the years and have settled on heavy glass homemade wine bottle necks. I love the story that Rory Block tells about her Craftsman spark plug socket "girls, just smile at your mechanic while he is working on your car and go over to his tool box. Find the one that fits....." Glad to hear that you're enjoying that Liberty - slide on in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aussieguitarnut Posted March 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 thanks for chipping in freeman. you're right - i meant regular open g. those song ideas are great - i'm gonna work on my repertoirre to help learn some stuff. i'll add those open d ones to my list. how do you go about making your slides from the wine bottle necks? i might have a look into trying that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 thanks for chipping in freeman. you're right - i meant regular open g.those song ideas are great - i'm gonna work on my repertoirre to help learn some stuff. i'll add those open d ones to my list. how do you go about making your slides from the wine bottle necks? i might have a look into trying that! There a lots of great open D songs for both slide and fretted. I do a few Kottke imitations (Watermellon is a great combo slide-fretted song), and of course Little Martha is kind of a standard. Kelly Joe Phelps does all his slide work in open D (but he plays lap style and he capos all over the place - I kind of gave up on learning any of his stuff). There is another cool trick that (sometimes works in open D) - take any open G song and move it up (away from the floor) one string - ie anything you would play on the first string moves to two, etc). You can kind of figure out what to do with the first string - it is like the 6th in open G (part of the chord, but not the root). Anyway worth noodling around with. Not all wine bottles make good slides so I (1) drink lots of wine to try different things and (2) stick my pinky in lots of wine bottles (don't try this at a party). My preference is thick heavy straight necks - I usually stock up several for the day I'm going to cut. Score the neck with a regular glass cutter (those little wheeled thingies) once completely around. Then warm the bottle in an oven at 200-250 degree (or until lightly brown, er, no wrong recipie). Wearing heavy leather gloves and safety glasses, plungeg the neck into cold water and give it a little twist - it should snap off at the score (but lots of them break on the seam). I tend to get around 50 percent yield - that is why it is important to drink lots of wine (and if you drink the wine just before the yield goes way down). I then polish the broken edge on my belt sander but you could use emery paper. The broken end goes out - I wear mine on my pinky. I make mine long enough to span the fretboard on all my gits including the 12 strings. Most of mine come from red wine bottles but if you have a real curved fretboard you might find something from a white works better. They are cheap, easy and fun to make and kind of funky. If you drop one then you just go down to the cellar and get that nice cab you've been savings and make another one. I've got a few pics of slides but I can't post from this PC. Will do tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members C70man Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Freeman, Can you be more specific on the varietal? Does a Cab make a better slide than a Merlot or Shiraz?I kinda like the long necks on German Gerverztraminer.Hurry, I'm getting pretty tanked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 Freeman, Can you be more specific on the varietal? Does a Cab make a better slide than a Merlot or Shiraz?I kinda like the long necks on German Gerverztraminer.Hurry, I'm getting pretty tanked! I learned that bottle cutting technique from Mark Hanson, who claimed the old Portuguese Matus rose' bottles made really good slides. I hated that crap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scottgd Posted March 24, 2008 Members Share Posted March 24, 2008 i'm playing it spanish style - but with an australian accent and living in england. its pretty confusing : ) Wow, I didn't think that could be done with a Liberty. You MUST be making advances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 25, 2008 Members Share Posted March 25, 2008 slides sliders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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