I recently came to the conclusion that I was on the wrong track trying to play a biscuit cone resonator for my blues playing. Lots of people make them sound great but I’m not one of them. I also had a tri-cone resonator which I like better but still wasn’t getting the sound I was looking for. I had been overlooking spider cone resonators (dobros) because they are considered to be bluegrass guitars. It turns out that lots of people play blues on dobros and I just needed to open my eyes and ears. So I sold my biscuit cone resonator and bought a dobro.

It turns out that the history of these guitars mirrors my discovery. All three types were invented by John Dopyera. The National tri-cone came first after much testing. National started working on a single cone guitar to save production cost which became the Triolian (confusing name). Dopyera wasn’t happy with the poor sustain of the Triolian, but his business partner insisted on rushing it to market. Dopyera designed a spider bridge design with better sustain than the biscuit cone and left National to start the Dobro company with his brothers. Dobro is short for Dopyera Brothers. This all happened in the 1920’s. The companies later merged in the 1934 but went out of business when World War II made their production materials unavailable. The styles were later resurrected by new companies.

All three types have their strengths and weaknesses. The biscuit cone produces clearer notes but sounds thin when doing sliding chord changes. The Spider cone has a more trebly nasal sound that sounds good during sliding chord changes but produces weak single tones. The tri-cone is somewhere in the middle. Here are videos of the three types playing the same song. – Bret

2016 National biscuit cone resonator:

Vintage 1934 Regal branded spider cone dobro:

1997 National tri-cone resonator