[Frankenstrat2]

Originally Posted by Johnny Guitar

OK. I'd never heard this but for a quick conformation I went to my McCabes flyer and looked at the workshop taught by a great player/teacher Fred Sokolow and it says "Lap style Dobro/Lap steel guitar".

Even though I took this class a couple of years ago I have no memory that these were considered "different instruments" beyond the obvious electric versus resonator thing. (I wonder what country players say if they play a resonator guitar which is a different brand than Dobro?)

Thanks for clearing that up (though actually you've introduced a great deal of confusion to me) :roll: :?

Well I was confused about it also bacuase there are round neck resonators and square neck ones. Then I realized that the square neck ones have high nuts and are played lap style and not fretted, while the round necks have a lower nut, are played upright, and can be fretted as well as slid upon (slided....er- used for slide)

Lap steels only come one way- lap style, high nut, no frets.
Dobro and lap steel have the same principals but diverge when lap steels started appearing with 8 and 10 strings and later with double necks.
Guys who play reso dont usually refer to themselves as Dobro players, they play resonator guitar. Dobro is a brand name associated with resonators guitars.
I agree, there is alot of confusion.
It took me a while to sort it out, but I believe I am correct.
By the way- Fred was also correct to title his course lap style Dobro/ lap steel. He is indicating that you will not be fretting the guitar, but playing it on your lap with a bar rather than a bottleneck. Anything you can do on a 6 string square neck dobro you can do on a lap steel.
One of the main differences is that it is very difficult to properly amplify a resonator guitar, whther upright or lap style. That is one of the reasons that lap steel, and later pedal steel eclipsed the dobro in country music .