Dobro is an American
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
of
resonator guitar
A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar's sounding board (top). Resonator guit ...
s, currently owned by
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
and manufactured by its subsidiary
Epiphone
Epiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his f ...
. The term "dobro" is also used as a
generic term
Trademark distinctiveness is an important concept in the law governing trademarks and service marks. A trademark may be eligible for registration, or registrable, if it performs the essential trademark function, and has distinctive character. Re ...
for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar.
The Dobro was originally a
guitar manufacturing
Guitar manufacturing is the use of machines, tools, and labor in the production of electric and acoustic guitars. This phrase may be in reference to handcrafting guitars using traditional methods or assembly line production in large quantities us ...
company founded by the
Dopyera
John Dopyera ( Slovak: ''Ján Dopjera''; 1893–1988) was a Slovak-American inventor and entrepreneur, and a maker of stringed instruments. His inventions include the resonator guitar and important contributions in the early development of the ...
brothers with the name "Dobro Manufacturing Company". Their guitar design, with a single outward-facing resonator cone, was introduced to compete with the patented inward-facing tricone and biscuit designs produced by the
National String Instrument Corporation. The Dobro name appeared on other instruments, notably electric
lap steel guitars and
solid body electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
s and on other resonator instruments such as Safari
resonator mandolin
A resonator mandolin or "resophonic mandolin" is a mandolin whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones (''resonators'') instead of the customary wooden soundboard (mandolin top/face). These instruments are sometimes referred to as "Dobro ...
s.
History
![Dobro style37 tenor guitar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Dobro_style37_tenor_guitar.jpg)
The roots of the Dobro story can be traced to the 1920s when Slovak immigrant and instrument repairman/inventor John Dopyera and musician
George Beauchamp were searching for more volume for his guitars. Dopyera built an ampliphonic (or "resonator") for Beauchamp, which was patented in December 1929.
[Supro guitars and amplifiers]
By Michael Wright on Vintage Guitar In mid-1929, Dopyera left the National company to start the "Dobro Manufacturing Company" along with his brothers Rudy and Ed, and Vic Smith. National continued operating under Beauchamp, Barth et al.
[ ''Dobro'' is both a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and a word meaning 'good' in their native Slovak, but also in many ]Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
. An early company motto was "Dobro means good in any language." In 1930, the Dobro company name was changed to the "Dobro Corporation, Ltd.", with additional capital provided by Louis and Robert Dopyera. Dobro was, during this period, a competitor of National.[
The Dobro was the third ]resonator guitar
A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar's sounding board (top). Resonator guit ...
design by John Dopyera
John Dopyera ( Slovak: ''Ján Dopjera''; 1893–1988) was a Slovak-American inventor and entrepreneur, and a maker of stringed instruments. His inventions include the resonator guitar and important contributions in the early development of the ...
, the inventor of the resonator guitar, but the second to enter production. Unlike his earlier tricone
A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar's sounding board (top). Resonator gu ...
design, which had three ganged inward-facing resonator cones, the Dobro had a single outward-facing cone, with its concave surface facing up. The Dobro company described this as a bowl-shaped resonator.
The Dobro was louder than the tricone and cheaper to produce. In Dopyera's opinion, the cost of manufacture had priced the resonator guitar beyond the reach of many players. His failure to convince his fellow directors at the National String Instrument Corporation to produce a single-cone version was a motivating factor for leaving.
Since National had applied for a patent on an inward-facing single cone (), Dopyera developed a design that reversed its direction: the guitar's bridge rested on an eight-legged cast aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
spider sitting on the perimeter of the cone (), rather than on the apex of the cone as it did in the National design.
In the following years both Dobro and National built a wide variety of metal- and wood-bodied single-cone guitars, while National also continued with the Tricone for a time. Both companies sourced many components from National director Adolph Rickenbacher, and John Dopyera remained a major shareholder in National. By 1932 the Dopyera brothers had gained control of both National and Dobro, which they merged to form the "National-Dobro Company". By the 1940s, National-Dobro had been purchased by Valco
Valco was a US manufacturer of guitar amplifiers from the 1940s through 1968.
Apart from its original products, Valco also commercialised electric and acoustic guitars and basses through its subsidiary companies.
History
Valco was formed ...
. Valco ceased production of Dobro-branded guitars after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
; however, the Dopyera brothers continued to manufacture resonator guitars under various other brand names.
In 1964, the Dopyera brothers revived the Dobro brand name. They sold the name to Semie Moseley
Semie Moseley (June 13, 1935 – August 7, 1992) was an American luthier and the founder of guitar manufacturer Mosrite.Mosrite.us website http://www.mosrite.us/en/about.php
Biography
Moseley was born in Durant, Oklahoma, in 1935. His fam ...
in 1966. In 1970, the Dopyeras' Original Musical Instrument Company
Original (formerly "Original Musical Instrument Company", also known for its acronym "OMI") is an American brand currently owned by Gibson through its subsidiary Epiphone. The company uses the brand to produce and commercialize resonator guitars. ...
(OMI) yet again reacquired the Dobro name.
The Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
Guitar Corporation acquired OMI in 1993, along with the Dobro name. The company became Gibson's Original Acoustic Instruments division, and production was moved to Nashville in 2000. Dobros are currently manufactured by Gibson subsidiary Epiphone
Epiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his f ...
.[Bluegrass instruments]
on Epiphone website, 28 Oct 2019
The Dobro was first introduced to country music by Bashful Brother Oswald
Beecher Ray "Pete" Kirby (December 26, 1911 – October 17, 2002), better known as Bashful Brother Oswald, was an American country musician who popularized the use of the resonator guitar and Dobro. He played with Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain ...
, who played dobro with Roy Acuff starting in January 1939.''Complete Dobro Player''
by Stacy Phillips, p. 213 – Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (2015) –
The first and second prototypes of the Dobro created by the brothers reside at the invention's birthplace o
Taft, California
in a museum about the town's oil production history.
On June 20, 2019, a 1933 Dobro Resonator Guitar Model 27, owned by David Gilmour was sold at auction for a record $112,500.
Epiphone Dobros
Current and past models of resonator guitars manufactured by the Gibson Company are:[
* Hound Dog
** Round neck
** Deluxe round neck
** Deluxe square neck
** M-14 metal body
* ]Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
's Phil Leadbetter resonator series
References
External links
History of the Pre-War Dobro
by Randy Getz
Dobro Birthplace
{{Authority control
Acoustic guitars
Manufacturing companies established in 1928
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Resophonic instruments
American companies established in 1928
Musical instruments brands