Plans Books For Building Dobros

[Ian Supplee]

I wanna build a dobro anyone Recommend any good books for constructing Dobro s or anyone know where i can get plans i really really want to build one.

  Ian Supplee

[Paul Verticchio]

Same answer as our lap steel replies.

[William F.Eden]

Ian why don't you just get someone to let you take some mesurments off there Dobro. That is how I build what ever  .Bill.........

[Paul Verticchio]

Ian,

The responses you've gotten lately aren't too enthusiastic.

Whenever you ask a "kid in a candy store" question that amounts to "tell me everything you guys know about...." consider this: Volumes of books and articles have been written on those subjects.

Additionally, the fine folks on this forum are full or part time pro's. There are some who say they do it for fun or as a hobby but their work & knowledge have, to me, been truly pro-grade. They may not consider themselves pro's, but I do!

Most of us 'old guys' (50+) came into the craft when there were few [if any] books on the subject of repair.  There was no interweb and we had to seek out answers & knowledge by putting a lot of miles on the soles of our shoes and scouring libraries for information.  Most of that came from books on violin making and furniture making as well as general woodworking. This was hard to do as there weren't very many good repair people outside of major metropolitan areas.  In my hometown of 237 people, there were none within a hundred mile radius. We had to plan road trips to large cities and hope that a repair guy would let us watch him work for a few hours. You, my friend, are fortunate to have the resources you have.

Enough of my "When I was in school, I walked 6 miles to school every day in the snow ...and each way was uphill"  story.

Let me make this suggestion:

When you ask any question, pretend that you have to pay for the answer at regular shop rates (about $65-$80 an hour).  That is the imaginary value of each responders answer.  Their time is valuable. They answer questions in their spare time, if & when available, and give all of us their time & experience freely & selflessly. Also, speaking only for myself, typing a lengthy but adequately detailed reply is a real time consuming chore.

I sincerely urge you to do more research on your own. Use the web for more than finding pictures of pretty guitars. Use it to find answers to your rudimentary questions. Visit Stew Mac's free info & trade secret pages or Frank Ford's 'Items for luthiers' page (and similar pages on similar sites) often and definitely before asking a question here.  Tell us what you've learned on your own and then ask for more detailed or additional information based on YOUR research. 

Also, check the archives on this site often and search for specific subject matter.  The same questions have been answered a multitude of times already on this forum when a search of the existing archives would have answered the same "old/new" question.

In summary, you HAVE to pay YOUR dues Ian.  You can't have it all handed to you.  You HAVE the opportunity to benefit from hundreds of years of combined experience from some of the finest craftspeople in the business. You can make the best of that opportunity or you can "take advantage" (in its worst sense) of the opportunity.  And you have to admit, no one likes to be taken advantage of.

Keep you enthusiasm up but work harder on your own to find the answers you seek.  Google really is your friend (:

[Mark Dobbins]

you can join the guild of american luthiers, there you can buy plans and numerous books on building and repair,you will get 4 publications a year with alot of info . its well worth the money.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Paul, thank you for telling these things a non native-english-speaker can feel hard too express with tact.

[Ned Knepp]

OK Pierre, You have to stop with the "non native English speaker" bit. I remember when you first came here and your English was pretty good  but since then you have improved a lot. I haven't noticed anything in your posting that would indicate that you don't speak English at least as well as I do ( although my daughter would say that was not hard to do. )

Actually I do understand but I just want you to know that your presentation on this site is excellent. I would never guess you were not native to English from your posting. I have a lot of respect for people that speak multiple languages. It's all I can do to mangle this one. I know we have several "English as a second language (ESL) posters here and you all do well. I've been told that speaking a second language is not the same as writing in it.  Personally, I'm impressed that you all are able to do it so well.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Thank you Ned... [blush]. But I really feel awkward about the kind of vocabulary needed to express these things. I'm happy to see that I can be understood clearly on technical topics.

Cheers!

[Ned Knepp]

Vocabulary is something that every English speaking person struggles with. My daughter is very "in to" language and how it evolves. She was telling me a while back that English is estimated to contain over a million words now. A lot of them are drawn from other languages and, in turn, a lot of English terms have been pushed out to other languages. It's quite a mash up.

When it comes to spelling we have to be one of the most confusing languages. I don't know if there is a single rule in written English that doesn't have an exception. One thing to remember about English is that what constitutes an English word is determined by the speaker or the writer.  In essence, if you are "speaking English" it is English. There isn't any official governing body to determine that it is or is not English. It's one of the reason that we have incorporated so many terms from other languages. So far your vocabulary is just fine but if you have to use a term from another language... well that's English.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Nice way to see that vocabulary and living language thing! French has quite a number of foreign words included too... and a lot of rules-with-exceptions too! My wife is writing a litterature thesis about novels of a XXth century writer named Aragon, and she's very good at writing precise and "straight edge" French. I learned a lot from her work! But she showed me that language evolves a lot too... the subject is interesting and an endless subject of talking after diner.

[John]

Paul, 50+ is not old. And typing GOOGLE and this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo would have taken less time. Although Pierres referring to tact may not have applied then. 

Disclaimer: IMHO

[Paul Verticchio]

John,

I'd completely forgotten about that sketch.  Thanks for the refresher. (: I remember seeing that (or a different 'take' on that bit) in the mid-late '70's when the Pythons could only be seen on PBS TV stations.

Using the Python troupe to make a point is never tactful....but ALWAYS appropriate.

Thanks for the link & the grins John.

Have a great weekend (-:

[Ian Supplee]

Yea Pierre you speak better english than most kids in my generation cant! =]