Spider Bridge

I was disappointed with the spider bridge finish such that the legs were not flat at the ends as they should be. This required a lot of lapping work, almost reverting to the milling machine to get right! i suggest these are prepared in advance before shipment, even if they cost more it would be worth it. Oh, don't believe that you can bend these legs..they break.

New Dobros are very poorly built and sound dreadful. I bought an old one from an old hippie lady. It sounded good. But I replaced it with stewmac stuff-a Quarterman Cone and a new Spider...I could not true my old spider. It sounds great. I made one other alteration...I got a dobro saddle made from rock maple with an ebony tip. Using my stewmac radius gauge, nut ruler and nut files, I made myself a new saddle. These saddles are a lot better than the traditional all maple saddle. Being in Australia, we can't get any parts or tools here. I get everything from Stewmac. They are really cool about returning stuff you're not 100% happy with. I received a slightly bent file and they sent me a buch of new stuff and apologised. How cool is that?
Stephen, Adelaide, South Australia

I purchased a new Dobro through Guitar Center last year. It was my first experience with the type. After reading about setup I decided to take it apart and check it out. The original spider was pretty rough. Only four of the legs were touching the cone. It was obviously porous and as I tried evening out the legs and getting them in contact with the cone, I broke two of the legs off.

So, I ordered a new spider from Stew Mac and awaited my fate. I was so concerned I made arrangements with a Luthier to take my ordered parts and install them. The parts (I also ordered a cone and a bridge blank) arrived a couple of days later and were very well packed.

The new parts looked *very* good, and I couldn't resist "test fitting" them. They went in perfectly. Before I knew it I was tuning up and was back in business.

Good service, good parts and good prices. Stew Mac has earned a new customer!