Chet's Paul McGill resonator

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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby bill raymond » Thu May 09, 2013 12:47 am

Dan,
The upper bout soundholes are about 65mm dia., the coverplate soundholes are about 45mm dia.. They are covered with a mesh made from a thick thread/thin string woven in pairs, with no decorative Vs, just a nickel plated trim ring. The metal metal plate on the headstock is rectangular, 42mm wide, 18mm high, rounded corners; it reads:

DINAMICO
DEL VECCHIO
PAT. 40,843 SAO PAULO
INDUSTRIA BRASILIERA

The print is silver on a black background within a silver border. On each side of the word DINAMICO there is a zig-zag line with an arrow head pointing away from the word. As one might expect, the Del Vecchio brand name is in large print, the model Dinamico in smaller print, the line with the pat. no. is smaller and the last line in the smallest print.

Any other questions--just ask, I'll be happy to answer them.
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby DAN SAGE » Fri May 10, 2013 4:33 am

Thank you Mr. Raymond for the invaluable additional information (at least to me). It helps to solidly "nail" down (a la Del Vecchio) a point in the DV timeline/design. Maybe with enough input, it will become possible to identify an approximate age using the design and the information on the metal plate on the headstock.

Mr. Schwickerath, I have looked at my 2000 DV again, after seeing some additional pictures of some recently manufactured DV's, and I am now convinced, as you stated, that DV is making their new guitars better. If they can get the intonation and fret spacing correct, they may have a really nice guitar on their hands. One of the things, I noticed on the recent guitars is the use of kerfed strips, instead of just pieces of bent wood to attach the backs and tops to the sides. They appear to be using larger sound holes and covers again in their upper bouts, at least on some of their short scale guitars. It also appears, that they are installing additional neck reinforcement, as many people have stated, at least on request. The kerfed strips, the fancier trim, and finish appear to be standard on all of their recently made guitars.

Dan Sage
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby bill raymond » Fri May 10, 2013 5:00 pm

Dan,

Don't read too much into kerfed liners. Many fine guitars have solid bent or laminated liners. In fact, the laminated liners (and "reverse kerfed" liners, too) add rigidity to the sides and are often preferred to kerfed liners.

Bill
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby guitarchuck » Fri May 10, 2013 8:32 pm

Dan,
My 2008 just has strips of wood, not kerfed liners. The work inside does look fairly neat. All of my soundholes are exactly the same size. The neck does have what appears to be a maple center strip of wood that goes the length of the neck thru the headstock. I don't know if you have seen the photos of my guitar or not. You will need to scroll down the page a little to see the photos:

http://www.misterguitar.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2443&hilit=Del+Vecchio+photos&start=10

My guitar plays in tune up and down the neck.
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby John C. » Sun May 12, 2013 3:30 pm

Hi Dan-

Thought I'd share my DV story. I purchased it in late 2011 from the original owner's son after his father passed. The son is a "rocker" & wasn't interested in keeping the DV.

His father bought it in 1970 after seeing an ad in the August 1970 Guitar Player magazine. The ad shows a long scale model w/ "V"s covering the mesh; it has 2 larger soundholes & 6 holes on the coverplate. The nameplate is square.

The copy reads: "Del Vecchio Dobro is made of Brazillian rosewood. The bridge saddle rests on the internal resonator. Patented construction for silk & steel strings provides musical tone suitable for folk, blues or country. Lists for $165.00." The store was "Guitar Imports" on Hollywood Blvd. in California.

This DV is also a long scale w/ the 2 larger & 6 smaller soundholes, but the mesh is plain, no plastic "Vs" nor metal covering, and the nameplate is oval. There's a well-known publicity shot of Jerry holding a DV w/ an oval nameplate.

The owner made substantial mods to it: the frets were redone & the bass-side tuners are not original. It also has a metal (possibly a Gretsch) bridge instead of the plastic one. Pretty sure the tailpiece is not original & the "hand rest" has been removed but is still in the case.

Hope this info helps a bit. Really enjoy your posts!

Thanks,

John C.
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby DAN SAGE » Sun May 12, 2013 11:37 pm

Everyone, thank you, for the additional information. You probably shouldn't encourage me in any way, it just leads to me using up more valuable space on the Chetboard, for my wild eyed speculations. If I get some time, and can figure out how to upload pictures, I may try to post some pictres of my Del Vecchios. My oldest one just went to the “to be pitied” luthier who works on mine for some jumbo frets. I believe there is a picture of my McGill resonator guitar in a back issue of Fingerstyle Guitar (no. 36 – Jan/Feb 2000) (Chet Atkins Guitarist of the Millennium) on page 44 in the upper left hand corner. It is the one with the back showing. The guitar with the front showing looks basically, like the front of mine. I bought it used, like almost all of my guitars.

Point taken on the kerfed lining strips. My 2000 has strips, which are slotted only on the inside of the curvature, but I have seen some pictures of Del Vecchios, which have kerfed strips, where the cuts alternate between the inside and the outside of the strips. I had not seen anything like that before, and I am sure they were also made before 2008, since they didn't have the shiney slotted sound hole covers or the wooden ring around the center hole in the cone well cover.

Mr. Schwickerath, thank you for the link to your 2008 D.V. pictures. It is a very beautiful guitar. Do you know if the slotted “shiney” sound hole covers on your guitar are still made from aluminum. Your covers are what are used on the current production guitars, according to Del Vecchio. Your guitar also has the wooden decorative ring around the center hole in the cone well cover, which replaced the aluminum ring on the older guitars like my 2000. D.V. may have made both upgrades about the same time. The pickup on your guitar also looks like a higher quality pickup than the ones on my DVR's. The original ones on my DVR's have a solid plastic cover, with no pole pieces showing on the top of them. As mentioned before, one of them sounded okay, and the other one sounded terrible and I replaced it, the capacitors, and the pots. I think there is another pickup on a third DVR, but it is a major basket case, and I am afraid to look at it. Maybe someday.

John C., can you elaborate more on your Del Vecchio's nameplate, if you don't mind. Do any of the descriptions below match what you have on your guitar?

Now for some expanded thoughts on D.V. name plates: The one thing that all of them have in common is that the words Del Vecchio appear on all of them. Most of them also have Sao Paulo and some form of Industria Brasileira on them.

1.Probably the oldest??? name plate, that I am aware of, is a rectangle with the corners cut off and the words Del Vecchio, Sao Paulo, and Industria Brasileira on it.

2.I think the next oldest one is an elongated octagon with the music staff doing aerobatics on it and the words Del Vecchio and Sao Paulo on it, along with some music notes. I have seen Blue and Brown ones of these.

3.Probably the next oldest plates are elongated oval plates with Dinamico and lightning bolts on the top of it and Pat. 23.032 on the bottom (50's???).

4.The next one is probably the one most familiar in the U.S., since it was probably used for most of the 60's + ???. It is a rectangular plate with Dinamico and the lightning bolts on the top and pat. 40843 appearing towards the bottom. This number later changed to 40.843, with the added decimal point.

5.The next one was probably the same plate, but with the number changed to 265.048.

6.The next plate was just a straight rectangle, with no lightning bolts or Dinamico. The pat. number was changed to a C.G.C. Number (whatever that is), C.G.C. 61.198.768/0001-06. These plates were probably used on all their guitars, if they had a plate, no matter what the model was.

7.The C.G.C. Number was then changed to C.G.C. 44.001.808/0001-69. This is the same number that is on the current guitars, no matter what the model is.

8.The shape of the current guitar plates have changed to a rectangle with rounded ends. It looks like a racetrack.

All of the proceeding was based on illiterate guesses, as opposed to educated guesses.

Dan Sage
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby John C. » Mon May 13, 2013 12:58 pm

Dan-

Lots of great information in your latest post!

I made a mistake calling the nameplate "oval." It corresponds to your #2, the "elongated octagon." The one on my DV is brown.

Although you can't see the nameplate too clearly, here is a link to Jerry's "Cookin" LP which shows him playing the DV; can't find an image of the publicity shot I mentioned, but this album cover photo was taken at the same session.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jerry-Reed-COOK ... 6249957%26

Thanks,

John C.
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby guitarchuck » Mon May 13, 2013 5:23 pm

Mr. Schwickerath, thank you for the link to your 2008 D.V. pictures. It is a very beautiful guitar. Do you know if the slotted “shiney” sound hole covers on your guitar are still made from aluminum. Your covers are what are used on the current production guitars, according to Del Vecchio. Your guitar also has the wooden decorative ring around the center hole in the cone well cover, which replaced the aluminum ring on the older guitars like my 2000. D.V. may have made both upgrades about the same time. The pickup on your guitar also looks like a higher quality pickup than the ones on my DVR's. The original ones on my DVR's have a solid plastic cover, with no pole pieces showing on the top of them. As mentioned before, one of them sounded okay, and the other one sounded terrible and I replaced it, the capacitors, and the pots. I think there is another pickup on a third DVR, but it is a major basket case, and I am afraid to look at it. Maybe someday.


Dan,
I'm guessing that the sound hole covers are aluminum. A magnet don't stick to them, but they almost look like they are chrome plated...very shiny. The pickup seems to work good, but I never use it, I prefer the acoustic sound.

Although you can't see the nameplate too clearly, here is a link to Jerry's "Cookin" LP which shows him playing the DV; can't find an image of the publicity shot I mentioned, but this album cover photo was taken at the same session.


John, this may be the photo that you were thinking of:
DSC_0016-001.JPG
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Re: Chet's Paul McGill resonator

Postby srgntschultz » Mon May 13, 2013 8:53 pm

Why do some of the Del Vecchio guitars have the zero fret on them and some do not? And does it change the sound or tone of the del vecchio's in any way either in a good way or bad way?
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