Installing a New Cone

[Bob Stone]

I just got a Quarterman cone, bone nut and maple/ebony bridge saddles for my 1990 OMI 60DS Dobro.

Any installation advice, especially for the cone, would be greatly appreciated. I've never installed or removed a cone before. Particular concerns are seating the cone/spider and tensioning the cone.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

[Andy Volk]

I'm in the process of doing the exact same thing, Bob. I bit the bullet ($40) and sprung for Paul Beard's video on Dobro set-up and maintenance and I'm glad I did. It's very clear and straightforward and filled with little tricks of the trade I never would have figured out on my own.

[Gary Pederson]

Bob, I have installed Quarterman's in a couple of OMI's. The biggest problem I had was getting it to fit in the recess. It had a larger diameter the the OMI cone & also larger then the recess. Beard reccommends routing out the recess to get the cone to fit. Since I didn't have a router I very carefully used a file to diminish the cones diameter. After about 3 years its still working fine.
I also have the Beard video & found it very good for as far as it goes. Its somewhat elementary though. I was disappointed that he didn't go into detail on making bridge inserts, like for instance, how to cut string grooves.

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[Mike D]

Hi Bob. If you go to FRETS.COM and to the links page there is a site where a guy replaces a Dobro cone, worth looking at.

I would recommend sanding the spider flat while you have it out, a piece of plate glass with 100 grit attached works well.
The inserts should fit pretty tight, I've use (carefully) a vice to do it after sanding them to thickness.
The tension screw should only be tightened to "snug" just to keep the rattles away
As to the slotting, if you don't have any special nut slotting files you can get by with a nail file for the unwounds and a neat trick with the wounds is to carve out a shallow "V" with the nail file, hacksaw blade or needle file and then use an old string of the same size to "file" the slot. Takes a little while but I think it was Scheerhorn I heard the tip from.

[Brad Bechtel]

Actually the link for replacing a cone is here. It took me a while to find it from Frets.com.

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Brad's Page of Steel:
www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

[Gary Anwyl]

I hope this isn't too late to be of any use, but I noticed that StewMac has put all of their free information pamphlets online. One of them is a nice guide to setting up a resonator guitar: http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-4006/index.html

[Lee Baucum]

I installed a Quarterman cone and spider in my Regal "import" and it really did improve the tone a lot. I did have to do a bit of sanding on the "legs" of the spider to get it seated properly. I was surprised that I had to do that. It was worth the effort.

Lee, from South Texas

[Bob Stone]

Thanks everybody. The Stew-Mac info seems most worthwhile. I don't agree with gluing in the cone as advocated in the Frets.com link.

I had the local repair guy install the new parts Wed. 3/7 so I could make my favorite jam session that night. The Dobro sounds great.

The nut and bridges purchased from Resophonic Outfitters are quality parts. The string grooves are pre-cut for normal gauge G tuning strings, but the parts required hand fitting for width and height. The guitar's body did have to be routed out to accommodate the slightly larger Quarterman cone.

I got lots of positive comments on the tone and volume of my Dobro at the jam.

The Scheerhorn bar is great too. No one loves a good bullet bar more than me, but the Scheerhorn is great for pull-offs and tipped-bar work. Compared to a Stevens, it's also much easier to handle for reverse slants.

I'll probably buy the Beard set-up & maintenance video too.

My Dobro sounds great and I'm having a ball with it. And I didn't have to sell my 1928 Tricone to afford it.