OMI dobro resale values
Dave369
I own an OMI model 75 Dobro from 1991. It's a style 3 lookalike, you know,
the Lily-of the-Valley design that John Dopyera and his wife allegedly
designed for the original nat'l tricones. It's a nice guitar, I've played it
intensively for the last couple of months, and it has really "woken up" the
sound.
Anyway, here's the question: I've always wanted to own a Tricone, so now
I've taken the economic plunge (disaster ;)) and ordered a nat'l style 1
form the boys in San Luis Obispo. The thing is, I can't keep my Dobro when
the Tricone arrives, for economic reasons I have to let it go.
How much do you guys figure an instrument like my Dobro would be worth? It
has a few minor dings, but nothing serious, it plays and sounds great.
Oh by the way, it's a single cone bisquit-type round-neck all-metal
intsrument. ;-)
Thank you for your reading and answering time.
David.
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Elliot
Welcome to this ng. An engraved model 75, not that common. Your
Dobro is a beautiful instrument with an engraved pattern, rather than
the less expensive and more common etched design, as well as white
trim around the fretboard and fancy diamond fret markers. The
webpage for a picture is below. I am a bit confused because in this
picture it clearly has a spider bridge, while the specifications list
the 10.5" resonator and a biscuit bridge. Since your OMI made model
has a 9.5" resonator and a biscuit bridge it was made before the
Gibson acquisition and the eventual changeover to the larger reso and
spider setup. Gibson eventually dropped all metal bodied models except
for the 33 series. Whatever, it's certainly a beautiful dobro.
http://www.gibson.com/products/dobro/1995/engrave/75a.html
I have a similar instrument, a '93 DM-90, however the neck is plain it
it has the etched Hawaiian scene, the Stars and Moon coverplate, and
a 9.5" reso/biscuit setup.
http://rivuletguitar.com/Rivulet/nationaldobro/nationaldobrostock004/nationaldobro004.html
I bought it on ebay for $850 US, but your engraved model is worth
quite a bit more.
Anyway, you can search the inventories of stores such as Mandolin
Brothers but you will have a tough time finding your model. The 33
models are very common however the engraved models are more difficult
to find.
I have seen engraved 33's on ebay. You can search old auctions to
find the selling prices. Etched 33's sell for anywhere from around
$900 to $1400, give or take. From memory, I believe the engraved
33's fetch between $1800 and $2500, however sometimes they just sit
with no bids when the starting bid is placed too high. Better to
start with a low starting bid and use the reserve as your minimum
price if you decide to sell by auction.
BTW, if you cannot get a fair price for your instrument and end up
keeping it, replacing the cone with a spun National for $50 will
really improve the tone.
Hope this helps.
Elliot
"Dave369" <dak...@jubiipost.dk> wrote in message news:<3efa9e53$0$76140$edfa...@dread11.news.tele.dk>...
Dave369
getting that nat'l tricone is my first priority right now. Funny you should
mention the cone upgrade - I've seen many reports of players doing this, but
as I wrote, after playing a lot for these last couple of months, the tone
has certainly improved. Amazing what a little loving attention can do for an
instrument. That's the trouble of having several guitars - some of them has
to lay around pretty much unplayed, and this "puts them to sleep" in my
experience. Again, thank you - I'll check that picture now.
Seems to me that information about the original OMI Dobros is pretty hard to
come by after the company was bought up by Gibson.
David.
"Elliot" <esme...@earthlink.net> skrev i en meddelelse
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Dave369
you could specify your choice of either a spider or bisquit bridge assembly
on all models. Mine came, as it happened, with the bisquit bridge. Sure
enough, the guitar on the Gibson page looks just like mine, but I know for a
fact (the enclosed warranty card) that mine is an OMI Dobro.
I've been offered $ 1275 - what do you think?
Again thank you for your input.
David.'
"Dave369" <dak...@jubiipost.dk> skrev i en meddelelse
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Mike Dotson
I had an OMI 33-R ('91 I think) it had the style 2 'Rose' engraving. It was in
primo shape with a Quarterman replacement cone and I sold it for $900.00
(bought it for $600) about 5 years ago.
This was before National R-Ps had made much of an impact on the marker and the
demand for Dobro metal bodies was a bit higher than it is now. I think that's a
decent price.
Dave369
David.
"Mike Dotson" <ter...@aol.comNoSchpam> skrev i en meddelelse
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Elliot
Interesting that OMI let people choose between a biscuit or a spider.
I guess Gibson just figured that they would economize by
standardizing and take away this option for buyers. Then they jacked
up the prices of new ones into the stratosphere, and don't even
include a decent cone. A new 33 sells for about $2200 in the US.
No wonder they get flamed! May as well buy a National Tricone or
Style O.
$1275 is a decent price. It's really hard to predict what you could
get for it on the open market because you have to find a buyer who
will pay the extra money for the engravings. Like I've said, I've
seen them sit on ebay unsold, and I've seen them bid up over 2 grand.
I've also seen plain 33's go for that much on ebay, so the buyer
would definitely be getting a good deal.
Dave369
style 1 tricone.
Good friend of mine just got his style 1 baritone. Lord have mercy what a
nice guitar!
Thanks for helping me out here - will post the results when the Dobro gets
sold - for future refenrence.
I think the way that Gibson handles these instruments really suck, I must
say.
David.
"Elliot" <esme...@earthlink.net> skrev i en meddelelse
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Elliot
I couldn't agree more about Gibson's arrogance. They have a real
take it or leave it attitude. Their dobros are just plain overpriced
and the choices limited.
Anyway, I found some interesting current auctions on ebay,
particularly an engraved Lilly of the Valley DM33.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2540116935&category=621
It's up to $545 with two days left. Interesting to see what it goes
for. Looks like you were offered a pretty good price after all since
these things are selling rather slow this time of the year. The
bidding was a lot more active last winter. There are several other
DM33's up for auction however the high starting bids have scared
everyone away.
There's also a DM90 Duolian Stars and Moon at $430 with two days left
which may go cheap.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2540682991&category=2385
Elliot
"Dave369" <dak...@jubiipost.dk> wrote in message news:<3efb7202$0$76121$edfa...@dread11.news.tele.dk>...
Dave369
1275 offer.
David.
"Elliot" <esme...@earthlink.net> skrev i en meddelelse
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David Morton
esme...@earthlink.net (Elliot) wrote:
> Interesting that OMI let people choose between a biscuit or a spider.
> I guess Gibson just figured that they would economize by
> standardizing and take away this option for buyers. Then they jacked
> up the prices of new ones into the stratosphere, and don't even
> include a decent cone. A new 33 sells for about $2200 in the US.
> No wonder they get flamed!
They deserve to get flamed for the build quality too.
I have an OMI 33 (biscuit bridge) from the very early seventies and it's a
lovely instrument, everyone who hears it comments on how good it sounds.
I played several Gibson-made 33s recently and they were *AWFUL*, the build
quality was terrible and they sounded worse than the cheapo far eastern
knock-offs in the same shop.
David Morton
dak...@jubiipost.dk (Dave369) wrote:
> Good friend of mine just got his style 1 baritone. Lord have mercy what
> a
> nice guitar!
Ho yus, I am *so* happy with mine.