11 Facts About Dobro

1.

Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone.

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2.

Dobro was originally a guitar manufacturing company founded by the Dopyera brothers with the name "Dobro Manufacturing Company".

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3.

The Dobro name appeared on other instruments, notably electric lap steel guitars and solid body electric guitars and on other resonator instruments such as Safari resonator mandolins.

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4.

Dobro is both a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and a word meaning 'good' in their native Slovak, but in many Slavic languages.

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5.

Dobro was the third resonator guitar design by John Dopyera, the inventor of the resonator guitar, but the second to enter production.

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6.

Unlike his earlier tricone design, which had three ganged inward-facing resonator cones, the Dobro had a single outward-facing cone, with its concave surface facing up.

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7.

Dobro was louder than the tricone and cheaper to produce.

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8.

Dobro's failure to convince his fellow directors at the National String Instrument Corporation to produce a single-cone version was a motivating factor for leaving.

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9.

Valco ceased production of Dobro-branded guitars after World War II; however, the Dopyera brothers continued to manufacture resonator guitars under various other brand names.

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10.

Dobro became Gibson's Original Acoustic Instruments division, and production was moved to Nashville in 2000.

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11.

Dobro was first introduced to country music by Bashful Brother Oswald, who played dobro with Roy Acuff starting in January 1939.

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