MSA 10-6 Tour Pro reso neck- can I approximate it?

[Lynn Kasdorf]

The sounds that I hear coming from Travis Toy and others MSA 10-6 back neck sound incredible- excellent dobro tone, from what I can tell over my computer.

How do they accomplish this?

There have been various dobro simulators over the years that seem to consist of graphic EQs with every other slider all the way up or all the way down. Bobbe Seymour used to sell one that was just a Boss EQ set this way with the sliders snapped off. There was a Goodrich box, and others I'm sure.

Looking at the MSA site, that 6 string neck has 2 pickups and a built-in Jerry Douglas Aura pedal. If I got a Jerry Douglas Aura pedal, I wonder if a normal lap steel through it would be dobro like? Is there something else they are doing to get that sound?

Also- I do own a Fishman Aura pedal for acoustic guitar. Alas, it is not the Jerry Douglas variant. I wonder if it can be upgraded/patched?

[Jeff Heard]

Lynn,
I have a 10-6, and the back neck does deliver a great dobro sound. As I understand it, MSA uses the piezo elements from a Fishman Power Bridge; these are mounted in the bridge MSA machines for the 10-6.
There's also a Fishman preamp mounted in the guitar. It offers a lot of flexibility if you want to blend sounds (dobro and lap steel). The magnetic pickups are Fishmans, and to me they sound a lot like the humbuckers on a Gibson SG (think Derek Trucks). I can't say I have all the possibilities figured out, but I definitely get a dobro sound and a lap steel sound I like.
The JD Aura is mounted under the guitar, and the whole system (as well as the backlit fretboards) is powered from a rechargeable battery pack that never seems to die.
As for running a normal lap steel through an Aura, the Aura is designed for a piezo type pickup, and the results with a magnetic pickup would probably disappoint you.
I also have an Aura DI I use with acoustic guitar, and the Fishman image gallery does contain some "dobro" images, but I believe they're generated using the old style pickups that mounted to the center of the cone, rather than the Nashville dobro bridge pickup. They do NOT make an acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup sound anything like a dobro. I think the results would be even more disappointing using a lap steel with a magnetic pickup. That said, I haven't looked at the Fishman image gallery lately; they may have more dobro images available since I last looked. And yes, you can connect the AURA DI to your computer and load new images (I am referring to the AURA DI, not the Jerry Douglas device, which has sixteen images installed). Here's a link to the image gallery
https://fishman.com/aura-software/

Bridge.jpeg

[Lynn Kasdorf]

Thanks for the detailed reply- exactly what I wanted to know!
Cheers- Lynn