Thanks to guys like Howard Parker and Byrl Murdock, and their Youtube vids, good instruction is readily available. Thank you guys.
In the past, I’ve always shipped my dobros the long freight trip from Idaho to Beard in Maryland, or to Scheerhorn in Tennessee (when Tim still lived there). Always wanting the ‘magic touch’, I paid the expensive freight both ways, and paid quite a bit for the expert dobro mechanic-ing.
Last week I, for the first time, completely re-built and hot-rod’d a Rob Ickes model Wechter-Scheerhorn guitar that I bought from Rob Ickes 20 years ago.
From Beard guitars I purchased D’Addario locking tuners, Hipshot Double Shot bridge (changes tuning back-and-forth from G to D with throw of lever), roller nut assembly, Nashville bridge pick up and #14 spider assembly.
From National guitars I purchased a Scheerhorn cone.
And then I completely dismantled the dobro on my work bench. The actual re-build work probably took less than three hours. But it took me four days of circling my workbench, scratching my chin, figuring and re-figuring a few sticking points, but in the end, success, the guitar is now a ‘hoss’, a banjo killer both acoustically and sounds really great plugged in (I use the Jerry Douglas Aura pedal).
Key challenges and little helpers:
* I had to “manufacture” an aluminum nut shim to go under the roller nut assembly, 3mm x 5mm x 48mm. I did this with 3mm aluminum stock I miraculously had in my garage, using simply a hacksaw and flat file. The nut assembly has two needle-size pins that you have to drill and tap into the neck of the guitar.
* I had to lessen the width of the Scheerhorn cone by 1/16” (slightly more). I did this by placing the cone on a clean smooth flat surface, and marked a black marker pen around the rim, and slowly and carefully sanded with 180 grit on a sanding block, the mark off, rotating the cone….working ever so slowly and carefully.
* Wiring the nashville bridge into the jack pin was a head-scratcher. No instructions, Google images provided a photo with proper tab choice. And Fishman has a few tips about grounding (but very limited help).
* Mounting the Hipshot was pretty easy (one screw) and I cut a piece of a felt cocktail coaster to go under the assembly where it hits the lower coverplate
* Amazon sells an inexpensive cork guitar neck support that works great on all my guitars, spanish or lap. Highly recommend.
* Amazon sells a small powered screw driver (made by Skil) that really helps remove all the screws with pit crew speed. Hand tighten for final tension.
Feel free to PM me if you’ve any questions—again this is the first time I’ve attempted a complete re-build, so my advice is hardly experienced—but I can give you a pep talk.
And again, thank you Howard, thank you Byrl, and all that patiently take the time to help the rest of us.
(photo: now I need an iPhone teacher
)
proud appalachian american
