Demonstrating the 1930's Regal Dobro

circa 1935, light gauge strings, played with heavy spark plug socket slide

Category:

Music

Tags:

• guitar
• slide
• resonator
• acoustic
• bottleneck
• Stephen
• Houpt
• dobro
• original
• Regal
• delta
• blues

[gtrfreak18]

Great playing, and a nice dobro! I'm thinking of getting one myself and trying to learn a bit (my primary instruments are acoustic rhythm and bass), but I'm curious...do you have the action set higher than a standard acoustic dreadnaught for playing slide? I know it seems to vary by the player, but I have a glass slide I try using on my guitars and no matter how I try, either I don't have the touch for it yet or some other factor causes buzzing (may be where it's glass instead of metal...?).

[houpts]

@gtrfreak18 these days when I'm playing the dobro, I always use a glass slide, a heavy one from Diamond Bottlenecks. At the beginning, try sliding just on the first string. Angle the slide back. Put the slide on your little finger. The slide should be placed on top of the frets, but the string should not touch the frets or the neck. If your action is too low, this will be very difficult to accomplish. I plan on making and posting an instructional video soon.

[houpts]

@gtrfreak18 Please see my new instuctional video in two parts.

[houpts]

Some do, I'm sure. I put a 13 on the 1st string.

[DanskeSange]

What is the thing at the headstock? (-:

[houpts]

That is an intellitouch tuner.

[gtrfreak18]

@houpts Thanks so much for the pointers Mr. Houpt! I will try that beginner's technique on my acoustic instead of my low-action Stratocaster, that was no doubt one of the problems...I look forward to seeing your instructional video/s soon!

[BUGSLY]

how do i get to the cross roads?

[DuskY1991]

Do any of those old-timers take medium gauge strings at all? I might want one some day (I seem to collect and want to learn all kinds of stringed instruments).

I like your playing!

[starrchild99]

Beautiful guitar. Can't believe it's that old!