| Subject: | [RESOGUIT-L] Re: Nomenclature of: Dobro, Resophonic, Tri-cone, National Steel, | | Date: | , April 30, 2007 18:35:26 (+0200) | | From: | don.hergert <don.hergert @.......net>
|
I'm starting to really like the term "Square Neck". In bluegrass circles where
I play, it is pretty well understood to mean a Dobro-style square neck resonator
slide guitar. I don't think -- but don't know for sure -- if anyone uses
"Square
Neck" as a trademark, yet.
Once "Square Neck" is taken by someone as their trademark, I think I'll just
call it a "Hubcap".
:P
Best,
-- Don
Eugene <U14@clcc.org> wrote:
>
> At 4/29/2007 02:52 AM, Peter Nyce <pnyce@navpoint.com> wrote:
> >BTW, when did the term "reso" replace "Dobro"? I thought that Dobro name had become generic like TV Guide or Kleenex or Band-Aid. "I'm a reso picker" just doesn't have the same ring or connotation or inference as "I'm a Dobro picker". Don't'cha think?
> >
> >Pete
>
> I live in the greater Washington DC area and I am curious about how and when people living in other locales conversational-usage of "Dobro", "Dobro player", "Dobro picker", and similar terms evolved and changed. Feel free to send me replies off-List if you prefer.
>
> A number of people have commented about usage the "Dobro" trademark. I think that conversational usage of the term "Dobro" got fuzzy in the early 1970's (perhaps even the late 1960's). Prior to 1975-ish the terminology I heard used was "National," "Tricone," and "Dobro": referring to instruments resonator cone.
> * Dobro had a single cone with a spider bridge.
> * Tricone being the instruments with 3 smaller cones.
> * National had a single cone with the biscuit bridge.
> These 3 terms were applied to ukuleles, guitars, steel guitars, mandolins, and the occasional 4-string tenor.
>
> I find the phrase "Dobro player" ambiguous; but "Dobro picker" I associate with the Bluegrass genre of steel guitar playing. I can not identify when this distinction evolved. At one time I associated the term "picker" with players of non-electric instruments in the genre's of country and bluegrass; alas this distinction too has become blurred.
>
> In 1979 I purchased a used metal-bodied spanish guitar with biscuit bridge which had a Dobro (R) logo on the head-stock. An OK guitar (which I still own) but I initially did not quite what to call it; soon I went with the familiar convention and called it a "National." I certainly remember that the first time I brought this guitar to a Bluegrass jam; several people were puzzled and/or curious what the guitar was. That same day someone else had brought a lovely Tri-cone steel guitar which elicited a similar curiosity from a number of people.
>
> By the late 1970's many steel guitarists which were playing acoustic resophonic steel guitars had laid claim to the phrase "Dobro player" which further confused things. I recall Mike Auldridge in the late 1970's somewhat vehemently explaining to someone that he was a steel guitarist that played a Dobro guitar. It was at this moment that I became aware that the phrase "Dobro player" was becoming co-opted by resophonic steel guitarists.
>
> Regards
|
Re: Nomenclature o
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