In the mid 1920’s, shortly before the invention of the electric guitar, acoustic guitarists playing in bands were straining to be heard over the sound of the other instruments, especially when horns were in the group. An inventor named John Dopyera came up with the idea of putting metal cones into an acoustic guitar to increase its volume, and the resonator guitar was born. This pragmatic design innovation produced an instrument with a midrangey and metallic acoustic tone that later became a favorite with blues players, and much later with bluegrass musicians.

The brand Dobro was created by Dopyera and his brothers in the late ‘20s. Like Kleenex is for tissues, Dobro has become the generic term that many people use when referring to the resonator guitar. However, the name is now technically a trademark of Gibson, which owns the Dobro brand.

Gibson has a number of different Dobro models presently on the market, including its Hound Dog line, which consists of (from lowest to highest price-wise) the Hound Dog Roundneck and Hound Dog Squareneck, the Hound Dog Deluxe Roundneck and Hound Dog Deluxe Squareneck, and the USA-Hound Dog Roundneck. For the uninitiated, roundneck resonators have conventional rounded guitar necks that can be fretted, whereas squarenecks are made strictly to be played lap style, with bars or slides, and the action is raised about a half-inch above the fretboard. Roundnecks are typically used for blues, and squarenecks for bluegrass.

In this review I’ll be covering the Hound Dog Deluxe Roundneck ($831 MSRP, $499 street), which is made from figured-maple plywood. It’s got a nice-looking orange finish, which Gibson calls Vintage Brown, and black binding, and it looks more expensive than the list price suggests. It’s equipped with Gibson’s spun-metal Dobro cone, on top of which sits a circular nickel-plated coverplate with ornamental cutouts for the sound to pass through (a standard feature of resonator guitars). Two round sound-holes with screen covers are situated between the coverplate and the top of the neck. Three smaller soundholes, without covers, sit between the coverplate and the neck (see Fig. 1).

The bridge is of the “spider” variety, which is a common design on resonator guitars. In a spider bridge, the saddle—in this case, made of ebony-capped maple—sits in a spoke-like frame that extends to the outer edges of the resonator cone, allowing the vibrations of the strings to pass through on numerous points. A metal tailpiece sits behind the bridge and is attached to the body through the end pin, which is also a ¼-inch jack for the guitar’s pickup system (more on that in a bit).

FFIG. 1: If you look through the sound holes in the Hound Dog Deluxe’s coverplate, you can see some of the spokes of the spider bridge, which transfer the string vibrations to the cone (seated inside the body in an opposite orientation to the coverplate), which then reflects the sound outward.

The Hound Dog Deluxe has a 19-fret, 25-inch scale Mahogany neck that joins the body at the 12th fret. The neck features a Rosewood fingerboard and pearl dot markings, and a headstock emblazoned with the distinctive Dobro logo. The truss rod is covered with a bell-shaped black cover, and the 1.75-inch-wide nut is made of Tusq. The Grover tuners hold the guitar in tune nicely and allow for smooth adjustment.

The instrument comes with medium gauge strings on it. The action is set high enough for slide playing, but not so high that you can’t fret it for conventional guitar parts.

Mounted inside the body is a Fishman resonator pickup. Because it’s a passive model, you’ll need to run it through an external preamp to get sufficient gain.

Considering that the Hound Dog Deluxe is manufactured in Asia, one might expect the build quality to be inferior to a domestically made guitar. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case with this instrument, which has an impressive solidity to it and appears to be well constructed. The case is not included, so plan on adding the cost of one to the price. On the bright side, this means you can choose the kind of case that suits your needs.

Hound of Sound
The Hound Dog Deluxe is relatively inexpensive as resonator guitars go. High-quality resonator guitars typically cost over $1,000, and can run as high as $5,000 for deluxe, custom-built models. So with its $500 street price, my expectations for the Hound Dog Deluxe’s sonics were relatively modest. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Although it’s not as loud as I expected it to be, its tone is swampy and midrangey, which is what you want in a resonator guitar, and it is excellent for acoustic blues. I was less impressed with its tone for bluegrass, although without raising the action to where I could comfortably use a heavy bar on it, it’s a little hard to really judge. If you wanted it strictly for bluegrass, you most likely would get the squareneck model, anyway.

Although the wood-bodied Hound Dog Deluxe doesn’t have as extreme a tone as a metal-bodied resonator—the prototypical acoustic-blues guitar—it’s got a smooth sound that’s a snap to record. I found it much easier to record than my metal-bodied Dobro 33H, which is tricky to successfully mic. The Hound Dog Deluxe required little more than sticking a condenser mic in front of it to get a solid recorded tone.

I was less excited by the sound of the Hound Dog Deluxe through it’s pickup, which seems to accentuate the upper midrange of the instrument and makes it pretty sensitive to feedback. Properly EQed, it will suffice for an electric sound when playing with a loud band, but in quieter live situations, mic the instrument if possible, or use a combination of miking and the pickup.

Final Resonation
On the whole, I was impressed with the Hound Dog Deluxe. It’s a well-built instrument with characteristic resonator tone and a very reasonable price tag. Having the built-in pick-up gives you added versatility for live performance. I wish that it included a case, but at this price, it’s hard to complain.

PROS: Good sound. Easy to record. Well built. Nice looking.
CONS: No case included. Passive pickup requires an external preamp. Pickup tone is a bit harsh.

Mike Levine is a New York City-area musician and music journalist, and is the former editor of Electronic Musician.