More Than You Really Wanted To Know About the Dobro
Part 1 of 2

By Ken Brown

April 11, 1995

INTRODUCTION: The Dobro as a Misunderstood Stepchild

The sixth member of the bluegrass family of instruments (the orphan child that Bill Monroe still refuses to recognize) and the only one invented in America, the dobro is still the least understood. Comments like "Wow! Lookit the action on them strings!" or basic questions like "Say, how do you tune that thing, anyway?" indicate the average picker or onlooker doesn't know much about the dobro. And it never fails to surprise me when I find that even seasoned bluegrass veterans (and I'm talking here about folks who have won banjo contests, played in for decades in the top amateur bands, and have worked in the recording studio) don't know very much at all about the dobro, unless they happen to play one (questions like "Hey! What's that thing?" are an immediate tip-off). This essay on dobrology will, I hope, fill in some of those knowledge gaps, but most of all may help you, as banjo, guitar, mandolin, bass, or fiddlepickers to interact with those of us who, as Waldo Otto of the Trailblazers likes to say, "have a metal block." And at the end of this essay you'll find a list of recommended readings. Much of this essay is based on those sources, and the rest is based a personal viewpoint that comes from 15 years of opinionated dobro picking. Here we'll discuss such matters as dobro serial numbers, the value of pre-war dobros, how the thing works (ie., a look at the intestines of the dobro), tuning, and proper miking.

HISTORY OF THE DOBRO: This Section Not for the Faint of Heart

The history of the dobro is a labyrinthine nightmare, one that is only sketchily documented and based on sometimes contradictory sources. Personally, I wish both you and I could skip this section and go on to the next, but I've got to stick with it. The only undisputed fact seems to be that the dobro was NOT invented by French Canadian fur trappers. As far as I'm concerned, the most definitive source is Wheeler (1990), specifically the chapters on National, Dobro, Valco, Regal, and Mosrite, but other details can be found in King (1991) and Gear (1978). The details given below may seem to be of little intrinsic interest, but they show why it is often impossible to tell how old a given instrument might be.

Almost everyone knows that the dobro was developed by the Dopyera brothers (who later Americanized the spelling to "Dopera"), Czechoslovakian immigrants who came to America in 1908, and that Dobro is an anagram formed from "DO pyera BRO thers." All five of the brothers, John, Robert, Rudolph, Louis, and Emil were involved to some extent, though John, Rudy, and Ed (Emil) were most involved in production. But when was the dobro invented? Was it 1928, as some histories say, or 1929, or was it in 1926 or 1925 as other sources imply? To answer that, we must be more specific. The bluegrass dobro as we know it (woodbodied, with a single resonator, 8-legged aluminum spider, and raised nut) apparently was first produced in 1928. According to King (1991:18) it was invented in the summer of 1928 and offered for sale later that same year (although on the same page there is reprinted an article from Guitar Player magazine giving the date as the spring of 1929 - see what I mean?). Two patents for this kind of instrument were filed by Rudy Dopyera on June 29, 1929, and February 1, 1932, and awarded in 1932 and 1933, respectively. The instrument pictured in the drawings for the second patent (see King 1991:19) is the bluegrass dobro as we know it. King (1991:18) says that dobros produced before the patents were issued have "Pat. Pend." stamped on the coverplate.

But if we delve into the history a little further, it gets more complex. The first resonator guitar was not the single-cone woodenbodied bluegrass instrument that we are familiar with, but the tri-cone National guitar. This instrument had three small metal cones arranged in a triangular pattern, joined by a three-legged bridge, carried in a metal body, and this is the familiar blues dobro, still played in slide guitar style by musicians like Steve James, of San Antonio. The National Company was formed at Los Angeles about 1925 by John Dopyera, with George Beauchamp, and others such as Adolph Rickenbacker and John's nephew, Paul Barth. The patent for the threeand four-cone version was filed in 1926. According to John, he experimented with tin, copper, brass and other metals over about a six-week period before settling on aluminum for the cones. Then, in 1928, John left National, the company he founded, to his expartner Beauchamp and created the Dobro Company, using the newly invented single cone. The patent was put in Rudy's name to avoid legal difficulties with Beauchamp (Wheeler 1990:290). This, then, is the actual birthdate of the familiar bluegrass houndoggie.

Meanwhile, Louis Dopyera became a majority stockholder at National, Beauchamp left, and in about 1932, National and Dobro merged (using the name "National Dobro Corporation"). During this period, resonator guitars were made under both the National and Dobro names. The corporation moved from California to Chicago in the winter of 1936.

The company began buying wooden bodies from other companies like Harmony and fitting the metal parts to them. The company had already begun selling resonators to Regal before the move, and since Regal was better equipped for making the wooden bodies, many of the instruments made in Chicago by National Dobro had bodies made by Regal. During this period many of the metal parts were made in California and shipped to Chicago, where they were installed in wooden bodies made by Chicago makers like Harmony, Regal, Kay, and Gibson.

This widespread exchanging of parts means that it is often difficult to tell just who built what part of an old pre-war dobro. Each of these companies had their own emblems, of course. The Dobro Company used the familiar lyre design with the name "DOBRO" in caps. National used a shield design crossed by a diagonal bar bearing the name "NATIONAL." Regal used a green, gold, and black decal and the headstock bore the name "Regal" in script letters, along with a crown symbol. As a rule, however, the presence of one of these decals on the headstock gives no clue to how much of the instrument was actually built by any one company.

In the summer of 1932, Regal was licensed to use the Dobro emblem (King 1991:20), and many of these old instruments with the Dobro decal were actually built by Regal (including, in fact, all of the 14-fret models). Regal guitars had a slightly deeper body and headstocks that were either solid or were slotted with a router, leaving rounded ends on the slots; these generally had no serial number on the headstock.

Instruments built by Dobro had headstock slots cut by a dado saw, which left squared-off ends. Dobro, National Dobro, and Regal were the primary makers of the pre-war wood-bodied instruments that are often seen being played by bluegrass pickers (in fact, I suspect that most of the old prewar bluegrass-style dobros that survive today were probably built by Regal). Other companies such as Gibson, Supro, Harmony, Kay, Stella, Silvertone (Sears), CMI, and others built resophonic guitars at the same time, but most of these were F-hole models, metal-bodied, or electric instruments that are not likely to be confused with the bluegrass-style instruments that are of concern here (many of these also had unusual configurations of holes in the coverplate). Gear (1978:54) also lists Old Kraftsman, Wards, Gretsch, King, Broman, and Michigan Music. Other odd brands such as S. S. Maxwell and Norwood Chimes may be seen (King 1991:36).

The entry of the United States into World War II in 1941 shut down instrument production, since aluminum and other metals were needed for the war effort. The National Dobro Corporation was dissolved. In 1942 Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera formed a new company, Valco (named after the initials of the principals) that made aircraft components during the war. After the war, a few resonator guitars were made from leftover parts, but by then electric guitars were the rage and Valco mostly concentrated on these; the company went out of existence in the 1960's.

The 1950's were the Dark Ages of the dobro. As the Elvis Epoch unfolded, the country's fascination with rock and roll threatened to kill off country music and the newly-created musical style that came to be known as bluegrass. Interest turned to electric instruments and plastic components, and wooden dobros were banished to the attic. At the same time, however, a young dobro picker from Tellico Plains, Tennessee, by the name of Burkett Graves joined Flatt and Scruggs (as bass player!) in 1955, an event that was to alter profoundly the future history of the instrument.

In 1959, Emil (Ed) Dopyera resumed building resophonic guitars in California under the Dobro name (some were also built for the Standel Company). Instruments from this era have a slightly different shaped lyre on the logo (King 1991:41). In 1966 or 1967, the company was sold to Semie Mosely, and production of Mosrite dobros began. These are fairly easy to identify; the body has rounded shoulders, and the screens in the top are replaced by sheet-metal plates with diamond-shaped holes, flanking the fretboard. Mosrite quit building dobros in the mid-1960's, then resumed for a short while in late 1966 before going bankrupt in 1969. Ed and Rudy Dopyera once again resumed building dobros (the serial numbers start in 1968), but since the defunct Mosrite Company owned the rights to the Dobro trade name, these were sold under the "Hound Dog" and "Dopera Original" brand names. In 1970 the Dopyeras once again acquired the rights to the Dobro name, formed the Original Music Instrument Company in Long Beach, California, and began building OMI instruments with the Dobro decal on the headstock, just in time to take advantage of the "folk boom" launched a few years earlier by the Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and many others.

The OMI dobro (especially the Model 60DS) is the kind most commonly seen in use by bluegrass pickers. These instruments are fairly easy to identify. They have a thin body (body depth is 3-1/4") and may have blond or sunburst finish, but often have a dark brown, thick, opaque finish that is soft and prone to chipping. There are three small holes between the round screens (these holes are often absent from pre-war dobros). The nut is made of synthetic material, the knobs on the tuners are of plastic, and are larger than those on pre-war dobros. A serial number is stamped on the end of the headstock. OMI dobros are made in square and round neck, solid or slotted headstock models. The resonator is usually spun rather than stamped. OMI dobros are still in production today. Several years ago, about 1987, Gibson Guitar Corporation almost bought out the company, but the deal fell through.

The latest chapter in the history of the instrument is the advent of individual custom builders. All of the instruments discussed up to this point were massproduced, and while a certain amount of experimentation and modification happened all the time, the instruments were built by preparing large batches of soundwells, bodies, necks, resonators, and other components. One of the best known of the custom builders is Rudy Q. Jones, of Wannette, Oklahoma, who built instruments from 1975 until the early 1980's, when Bob Reed took over the business.

Both Josh Graves and Jerry Douglas have used Jones dobros. These instruments have a deeper body (3-3/4"), wider string spacing, and lots of volume in the bass range; they also have 3/16" solid walnut (rather than plywood) bodies with two-piece matched backs and headstocks with an unusual side profile (see King 1978; Warden 1977). I've played both Jones and Reed dobros, and find that the extra-wide string spacing is hard to get used to at first.

Other custom builders, such as Bobby Wolfe, Richard De Neve, and Tim Scheerhorn (Cook 1991) live in the northern or eastern parts of the country, and their products are seldom seen around here (see the cover of the August, 1991, Bluegrass Unlimited for a picture of Jerry Douglas with his Scheerhorn dobro). Instruments from these custom builders are usually considerably more expensive than OMI dobros. I recently had the opportunity to play a new De Neve dobro when the East Side Flash brought his out to Cap'n Tom's. The tone, volume, and string spacing are similar to the Reed, but the upper body shape is more rounded; the headstock is solid. De Neve uses inlaid fret markers instead of fretwire, an excellent idea since they're easier to see in the dark and don't get in the way of a capo.

More Than You Really Wanted To Know About the DobroPart 1 of 2

By Ken Brown

INTRODUCTION: The Dobro as a Misunderstood Stepchild

HISTORY OF THE DOBRO: This Section Not for the Faint of Heart

RECOMMENDED READING ON DOBROLOGY

More Than You Really Wanted To Know About the Dobro
Part 1 of 2