ResonatoR GuitaRs oR, GIMMe the do... BRo!

first evidence of a resonator style guitar containing it’s own amplifying metal cones dates back to the USA in the 1920s, when a man named John Dopyera, an immigrant of Slovakian extraction, responded to a request from a renowned player of the lap steel guitar (George Beauchamp) to build such an instrument. A metal bodied Tricone was built to order by Dopyera and together the two men formed a business known as The National String Instrument Corporation, the guitars to bear the name ‘National’.

By the end of that decade Dopyera had left National to set up his own company with one of his four brothers, called The Dobro Manufacturing Co., in order to produce the original wooden bodied, metal coned Dobro instrument that he and brother Rudy had been working on outside of their commitments with National. This was because there existed disagreements within the National business, which retained sole rights and patents relating to the original metal bodied guitars.

Those among you of an enquiring nature will, no doubt, have sussed that the name Dobro was the derivative,truncated version of the full family title, but it also translates as good in Slovakian. The individual brothers were, residentially, spread far and wide across the USA, and this helped immensely in generating a rapid growth of interest in, and sales of, the novelty value of the new instruments, notwithstanding that three of the Dopyera brothers remained connected with National, who were, however, still the market leaders in cone amplified guitars as they remain today. Below is an advertisement that appeared on page 785 of the Sears Roebuck catalogue in the early 1930s showing a selection of the instruments.

Interestingly, two variations of each instrument were offered as either Spanish or Hawaiian, being respectively round or square-necked models, as they are called today. More on this later. Refreshingly, the Duolian model was offered at a [for then] walletbending $35 – twenty quid‘ish to you my son in British currency. Checking on today’s list pricing for a new NRP 12 (the current equivalent of a 1930s Duolian) we are distraught to have to cough up $2,700 – still well over two grand in Sterling! I spotted the pic below of the late, great Rory Gallagher’s 1932 Duolian to give you an idea of the model type. Heaven only knows what that baby would fetch on the open market today!

Historically, there is a very strong connection with the birth of the Dobro (as almost all resonators irrespective of actual brand and/ or model are generically known in the USA) and the Hawaiian lap steel guitars. As mentioned above the guitars sold by National were offered in two neck types – round or square. The former being for conventional style guitar playing, i.e. strapped on around the body. The latter being played laying flat on the lap, usually in a seated position. This lap/square necked style later became favoured by the country musicians of the day, who adapted a method of playing the guitar in horizontal mode while still standing. The players of this genre also favoured the Dobro wooden bodied models over the heavier metal bodied versions, not just on the basis of less weight to tote, but also for the very sweet slightly nasal tone of the Dobro. This is caused by the difference in the seating of the cone (in the wooden Dobro, the convex of the cone faces downwards, the opposite of the single cone metal bodied National Instrument range). Also a different bridge system is used, Dobros using ‘Spider’ style bridges, against the ‘biscuit’ style of the single-cone Nationals.

The round neck had some degree of flexibility over the square neck as it can be played in conventional flat picking, strumming style, finger style or slide style combined. The square neck/lap style is strictly a slide instrument, being actually played with a metal bar and usually metal finger picks – that is to say that the strings are not fretted in lap style as they have a very high action (too high above the fingerboard). I find that trying to play true country Dobro style is a challenging task as different techniques are required to be able to play quickly and with fluidity.

tunInG uP

Tuning a Dobro varies a little, although the Bluegrass players tend to invariably play in open G tuning (GBDGBD) as this coincides with five string banjo tuning – both instruments being difficult enough to play without being tuned differently from each other! Blues players also tend to favour either open G or open D (DADF#AD) – Robert Johnson notably being a G man, sometimes capo’d up a tone to open A. One of our generation’s true masters of this style of playing is Jerry Douglas. Check out the recommended discographies at the end of the article.

Back to the story though and while still in the 30s – 1932 was the year that National introduced the ‘biscuit’-bridged single cone (wooden bodied) resonator, which apparently came about as a result of the great depression in America –with the whole nation suffering financially National were forced into reacting to market conditions to make a more affordable model available, as their prime product was still the metal-bodied and very expensive Tricone. Such was the severity of the depression however, the company continued to suffer from falling sales.

The Dobro Company, however, seemed to buck this trend, and sales continued apace by virtue of a number of trading agreements being realised where Dobro joined forces with such names as Regal , Radiotone and several others supplying their less expensive wooden-bodied models for rebranding by the various partnership ventures. In the latter part of 1932 Regal from Chicago were formally licensed by Dobro in order to produce guitars under both names of Dobro and Regal, which they did in great numbers and also carrying brand names such as Kraftsman and Melobro, plus the aforementioned Radiotone National String Instrument Company’s fortunes worsened severely during this period – to such an extent that the Dopyera family – (still at that time financial investors in National) acquired a majority holding – merging the two companies under the title of National Dobro Corporation. Matters continued to worsen further for the National side of the business as aluminium (and most other metals) used in manufacturing was diverted for the nation’s war efforts.

Growth of the business was based on manufacture and sales of wood bodied instruments for the wartime years under the name of Valco. In 1959 Dopyera recommenced metal bodied resonator manufacturing and was bought out by Mosrite who then went broke in 1969, whereupon Dopyeras regained the brand names – resuming business under the mantle of OMI (Original

Music Company) until acquisition of the Dobro brand by Gibson in 1988, where it remains today. Phew! – Some serious Phoenix type activities going on here folks. Those of you wanting more history about these wonderful instruments could well be interested in a book by Bob Brozman, called The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments, from Center Steam Publishing.

Bob is a well known master of the steel bodied babies and is much plugged on You Tube, playing and proffering instruction in the dark arts of handling same – check him out. There are nowadays many other manufacturers including resonators in their portfolio, with Gretsch recently representing the Fender brand. Michael Messer (well known friend of BM and no mean reso player himself) offers a couple of very good single-cone models.

A site well worth a visit is Dave King Guitars You Tube website which actively demonstrates the variation in sounds available from different models as well as being a prime UK dealer for the National range of instruments.