Dobro

Dobro

Company type	Brand
Industry	Musical instruments
Founded	1928
Founder	Dopyera brothers
Fate	Acquired by Gibson in 1993
Successor	National-Dobro Company (merged entity)
Headquarters	Nashville , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Owner	Gibson Guitar Corporation
Parent	Epiphone (subsidiary of Gibson)

Dobro () represents a United States-based brand specializing in resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and produced through its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also commonly applied to any wooden-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar.

The Dobro brand was originally established as a guitar manufacturing enterprise by the Dopyera brothers. Their innovation introduced a single resonator cone oriented outward, providing competition to the inward-facing tricone and biscuit designs patented by the National String Instrument Corporation. The Dobro name has also been used for electric lap steel guitars, solid body electric guitars, and other resonator instruments such as Safari resonator mandolins.

History

During the 1920s, Slovak immigrant and inventor John Dopyera, together with musician George Beauchamp, aimed to enhance guitar volume. Dopyera secured a patent for a resonator design in 1929. That same year, he departed from National String Instrument Corporation to establish Dobro Manufacturing Company alongside his brothers Rudy and Ed, and Vic Smith. The name "Dobro" merges 'Dopyera brothers' with a Slavic term meaning "good." In 1930, Dobro Corporation, Ltd. was formed with additional investment from Louis and Robert Dopyera. This new entity directly competed with National.

Dopyera's Dobro design marked his third resonator concept but was the second to reach production. Contrasting National's three inward-facing cones, Dobro utilized a single cone facing outward with a bowl-shaped resonator. This approach delivered greater loudness while reducing manufacturing costs, overcoming price constraints that limited market penetration. Since National held the patent on an inward-facing single cone, Dopyera innovated by reversing the cone’s orientation and supporting the bridge on an eight-legged aluminum spider mounted around the cone’s edge (US patent 1896484), which improved sound projection.

Both Dobro and National manufactured various metal- and wood-bodied single-cone guitars, while National continued producing tricone models for a period. Numerous parts were supplied by National director Adolph Rickenbacher, and John Dopyera retained significant shares in National. By 1932, the Dopyera brothers had acquired control of both firms, merging them into the National-Dobro Company. In the 1940s, Valco purchased National-Dobro and discontinued Dobro-branded instruments after World War II; nonetheless, the Dopyeras persisted in producing resonator guitars under different brand names.

The Dobro brand was revitalized by the Dopyeras in 1964 but sold to Semie Moseley in 1966. Their Original Musical Instrument Company (OMI) regained ownership in 1970. Gibson Guitar Corporation purchased OMI and Dobro in 1993, incorporating it into their Original Acoustic Instruments division and relocating production to Nashville in 2000. By 2012, Dobros were manufactured by Gibson’s subsidiary Epiphone; however, as of January 2023, they no longer appeared on Epiphone’s website.

Dobro achieved recognition in country music largely due to Bashful Brother Oswald, who performed alongside Roy Acuff beginning in 1939.

The initial two Dobro prototypes are preserved at a museum located in Taft, California—the site where the instrument was invented.

On June 19, 2019, a 1933 Dobro Resonator Guitar Model 27 owned by musician David Gilmour fetched a record $112,500 at auction.

Epiphone Dobros

Among the resonator guitar lines crafted by Gibson are the following:

• Hound Dog
  • Round neck version
  • Deluxe round neck variant
  • Deluxe square neck model
  • M-14 metal-bodied design
• The Phil Leadbetter resonator collection by Gibson

External links

• History of the Pre-War Dobro authored by Randy Getz