Also I tried uploading photos, not sure if they're showing as I'm on mobile. Let me know cheers

I'll check out the photos on your home page tomorrow and maybe I can fix it so that they are uploaded in the thread.

But for now since it's getting late let's take care of the ID.

The two key numerals are the first and last, which will tell you the year and the decade. 2 = year, 0 = decade. So this guitar was assembled at the Gibson facility at Opry Mills in Nashville in 2002. I say "assembled" because the body was not built in Nasvhille. When Gibson shut down the Dobro facility in Southern California in 1997, they took some metal bodies to Nashville during the move where production resumed in 1998. There were no metal body Dobros built in Nashville. The only Gibsons I have ever heard of in their long history having metal bodies were some aluminum lap steels in the 1930s designed to compete with Rickenbacker.

The "D" at the beginning of the serial number does indeed signify wood, but apparently what they did is attach a neck that could have just as easily gone on a wood body  Dobro that week. It could have already been stamped waiting to go on a guitar, or if it was stamped at the time of assembly maybe an employee didn't know any better since every other Dobro built there since 1998 had a serial number beginning with a "D." 

With all the reflections on the back I'm having a difficult time figuring out which model it is. A photo of the top might help.

 

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Originally posted by MarkinSonoma

I'll check out the photos on your home page tomorrow and maybe I can fix it so that they are uploaded in the thread.

But for now since it's getting late let's take care of the ID.

The two key numerals are the first and last, which will tell you the year and the decade. 2 = year, 0 = decade. So this guitar was assembled at the Gibson facility at Opry Mills in Nashville in 2002. I say "assembled" because the body was not built in Nasvhille. When Gibson shut down the Dobro facility in Southern California in 1997, they took some metal bodies to Nashville during the move where production resumed in 1998. There were no metal body Dobros built in Nashville. The only Gibsons I have ever heard of in their long history having metal bodies were some aluminum lap steels in the 1930s designed to compete with Rickenbacker.

The "D" at the beginning of the serial number does indeed signify wood, but apparently what they did is attach a neck that could have just as easily gone on a wood body  Dobro that week. It could have already been stamped waiting to go on a guitar, or if it was stamped at the time of assembly maybe an employee didn't know any better since every other Dobro built there since 1998 had a serial number beginning with a "D." 

With all the reflections on the back I'm having a difficult time figuring out which model it is. A photo of the top might help.

 

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Thanks Mark! Thats great info, the owner is pretty excited to hear that news!  Any thoughts if I should lower that tall tailpice to the body? None of my other resos are set up like that, see photo.

I haven’t ever seen a tail piece, round neck or square neck, that high up from the body. Don’t look right to me.

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Originally posted by RezBluez

I haven’t ever seen a tail piece, round neck or square neck, that high up from the body. Don’t look right to me

My thoughts exactly.  I'm thinking this was a poorly done part replacement.  Easy fix though, just need to redrill the pilot hole on the tailpiece to the right depth! Thanks Rez!

The good thing at least is it has to go down, so you won’t see the old hole.

Someone could of had a thick piece of padding under it at one time, and it could have fallen out at some point. I see no other reason for it being that high.