Many Thanks! Tim Wilhelm Tue, Tim, interesting question about the guitar you inherited. I too inherited a dobro from my father who played radio shows in his teens with his father. They lived in Los Angeles at the time and I actually have some of their music they recorded.
Anyway, I am taking my dobro in for examination and to see what I can learn about it. Small world, however it has been said many times that music is universal. I have yet to seek information from the forum mentioned in the reply to your post. Hopefully We both learn something about these interesting guitars. Cooper Wed, You might find it helpful to join one of these groups and then share photographs and the story of the instrument on their forum. Thank you for reaching out to us-- best of luck in identifying the guitar!
Culture and the Arts Fri, Sterling Ruark Thu, See our privacy policy. Collections Search Search for Show only items with images. Show only items with no use restrictions. Sign up for Monthly E-newsletter.
Search Google Appliance Enter the terms you wish to search for. And it finished completely in the Second World War because, due to the war effort, metals were scarce, and in fact, most of the tooling was destroyed. The neck is partly hollow, and in a way it is better than the round-neck Tricone. The only problem is you have to play it on your lap. It launched the sound of what we know as the Dobro in country music.
It was never made for country music, it just suited it. They produced them very cheaply and very quickly, and they have a tone that is incredible for blues guitar.
J B Hutto, the Chicago blues player, played one. The illustrations you've seen on the last few pages are from the heavyweight 3kg in fact! And Rocket Ships! Michael Messer and other experts contributed insights to this Herculean tome, which is not just fit for your coffee table, but might just break it at lovingly illustrated pages. MusicRadar The No. Jamie Dickson.
Unfortunately, internal disputes within the National company that were present from the very beginning, boiled over. One big dispute between George Beauchamp and John Dopyera was over a single-cone resonator.
Beauchamp wanted them as they would be less expensive am a bit louder, but the perfectionist inside Dopyera had yet to find one that pleased his ear. This was already after a few failed attempts Beauchamp had with some of his other ideas, like a Bakelite early plastic neck. Dopyera felt lots of money was wasted on crazy unfounded ideas already by Beauchamp.
So by late , the Dopyeras became very disgruntled with the management of the company and what they perceived was the wasting of resources. Probably the last straw for John Dopyera was he found out that Beauchamp claimed the patent for the single-cone resonator for himself.
Dopyera and Beauchamp lived in different worlds and apparently were at odds on every level of personal, business and social interaction. Dopyera was a frugal inventor that was very health conscious, while Beauchamp was more or an entertainment type that was free wheeling and liked to party. They found that they could not work together successfully. Another problem was Ted Kleinmeyer, who had inherited a million dollars at 21 and was trying to spend it all before turning 30 when he would inherit another million.
Beauchamp did not know how to handle him, creating a huge strain on the company. Basically, he signed away his patent rights in disgust and planned his next venture. National also sold resonator Mandolins, Ukuleles and 4-string Tenor guitars based on resophonic technology. This was mechanical amplification before electric guitars were readily available. The resophonic guitar reined supreme in the late s and into the late s.
First played by Jazz players in dance halls because they were louder than a standard guitar. Later picked up by Hawaiian and Blues musicians because of the expressive nature and dynamics resonator guitars have. National saw business slow during the depression years, but orders kept coming which is not easy as they were selling a luxury item. Recreation and entertainment were both great escapes from the economical realities people were experiencing. National guitars likely survived for the same reasons the movie industry stayed successful.
Even Sears Roebuck distributed Nationals, even dictating some cost saving production changes as using less screws and fewer coats of lacquer be used. John Dopyera quit National and formed the Dobro Corporation with four of his brothers. The name was based on Do pyera Bro thers. The Dobro Manufacturing Company produced a competing single resonator design, with the resonator cone inverted.
The Dobro design was both cheaper to produce and louder than the tri-cone. He innovated the the inverted single resonator cone with a spider bridge, named because it had eight legs. Beauchamp had went ahead and patented the original Dopyera single-cone resonator prototype in his own name. The new Dobro design was both cheaper to produce and louder than the tri-cone. Some feel it is not as well balanced, but became part of its appeal. John Dopyera had confidence in his new design.
John Dopyera once called the Dobro resonator his second good design. Since he had to leave his patents with National when leaving the company he needed to come up with a new resonator design. Dopyera felt this new invented design as better.
National had soon introduced their own single resonator design, the biscuit, which is the one John Dopyera claimed to have designed before leaving National, though the patent was now registered by Beauchamp. National also continued to produce tri-cone designs, which some players preferred. The single-cone resonator were cheaper to build, therefore allowed for a less expensive resophonic guitar.
The Dobro was made with a wooden body as Dopyera could not afford to purchase the machinery for metal body guitar making. This triggered a war between National and Dobro. Beauchamp was actively trying to put Dobro out of business. In some documents it was said that instrument dealer while visiting National was told by Beauchamp that Dobro infringed on some of Nationals patents and National had won a lawsuit.
This of course was completely false. Beauchamp also claimed that the unique spider bridge found on Dobros originated at National. Also false. These fake claims did result in some loss of orders for Dobro from some instrument dealers. These wild and untruthful assertions by Beauchamp got National into a legal mess as he even brazenly committed his claims in writing to some visiting dealers.
National was having cash flow problems and due to the pending legal issues with Dobro found Beauchamp in a odd position.
Beauchamp had bee dabbling with electric guitar pickups since around , but rather than launching an electrified instrument at National, he chose to work closely with Adolf Rickenbacker. This showed the precarious position National found themselves in. The Dopyera brothers would eventually win in a court settlement. Then Ted Kleinmeyer, nearly broke and a few years away from the rest of his inheritance , sold his controlling interest in National to Louis Dopyera, brother to John and Rudy.
In the shakeup that followed, Beauchamp and several other employees were fired. Beauchamp firing was probably partly because of the enterprise he had started with Rickenbacker and seen as a conflict of interest. Now out of National, George Beauchamp needed this new opportunity. Beauchamp even took night courses to learn more about electronics. Dobro was also experimenting with magnetic pickups in the early s.
Arthur J. Victor Severy also worked on Dobro electric instruments. Dobro did release an electric guitar in , but had little impact until years later. National had an electric guitar around right before the merger with Dobro. Adolph became president and George secretary-treasurer. They called the instruments Rickenbackers because it was a famous name thanks to cousin Eddie and easier than Beauchamp to pronounce. George Beauchamp died of a heart attack in while deep-sea fishing near Los Angeles.
He was only The history of Dobro and National is long and complicated and full with instability. However in , the Dopyera brothers secured a controlling interest in both National and Dobro, and merged the companies to form the National-Dobro Corporation.
Soon the electric guitar and amplifier was invented and it began to challenge the resophonic guitar in popularity. Big changes were coming. After the merger, National-Dobro Corporation offered some electric instruments in their catalog.
The company was eventually moved from California to Chicago as much of the instrument manufacturing was based there.
The move started around This was a re-birth for the company. Every major electronic company was in Chicago and it was probably clear that National-Dobro future would have to be soon be producing electric guitars.
During WWII the National, like many other companies found it hard to get raw materials to build their products. No metal body Nationals were made after The government even ordered a halt to guitar manufacturing. They survived making model airplanes for the war effort to help train pilots. When the war ended, the technology had changed and electric guitars took over in popularity.
National resophonic guitars were loud, but electric guitars were louder. At one point they contracted Regal to build their guitars as the exclusive builder of resonator guitars. They lost the rights to the names during World War II which led to a number of other names. The Original Musical Instrument Company was the last name used with Hound Dog being a brand of resonator guitar when Gibson eventually purchased them in Gibson currently owns Dobro and manufactures single-cone, spider bridge Dobros resonator guitars and Hound Dog brand guitars.
Epiphone has also made resonator guitars at a lower price point. It was and the National-Dobro Corporation was dissolved with the new partners buying out the remaining stockholders. Valco made airplane parts throughout the war. When the war ended, they made a few prewar style resonator guitars mostly from leftover parts. Valco manufactured electric Spanish and lap steel guitars, and vacuum tube amplifiers under a variety of brand names including Supro, Airline, Oahu, and National.
They also made amplifiers under contract for several other companies such as Gretsch, Harmony, and Kay.
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