Original (formerly "Original Musical Instrument Company", also known for its acronym "OMI") 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 an ...

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 ...

through its

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

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 company uses the brand to produce and commercialize

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 gui ...

s. The company was formed in 1967 by two of the original

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 ...

brothers, Rudy and Emile, to manufacture

s. They produced their first instruments under the brand "Hound Dog". In 1970 the company reacquired the

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

name that had been sold in 1966 to

Semie Mosely 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 fami ...

of Mosrite, although it carried on using the Hound Dog name for a time. In 1993 the Gibson Corporation acquired Original, and subsequently changed the name to "Original Acoustic Instruments", moving the manufacturing operation to its headquarters in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. Gibson Corporation still produces

resonator guitars through its

company,

."O.C. Sees the End of Dobro Era" by Greg Johnson
on ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', 4 Mar 1997

References

External links

Dobro Hound Dog resonator guitars
at Epiphone website (archived, 3 Dec 2019) Gibson Guitar Corporation Defunct manufacturing companies based in Tennessee {{Musical-instrument-company-stub

See also

References

External links