John Dopyera was a Slovak-American inventor and entrepreneur, and a maker of stringed instruments.
13 Facts About John Dopyera
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John Dopyera's inventions include the resonator guitar and important contributions in the early development of the electric guitar.
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John Dopyera was one of 10 siblings born at the closing of the 19th century.
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John Dopyera's father, Jozef Dopyera, was a miller in Dolna Krupa, Slovakia, where they moved shortly after the birth of John.
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Under his father's guidance, John built his first fiddle still in his boyhood days in Dolna Krupa.
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Around this time, John Dopyera patented several improvements on the banjo.
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In 1925, John Dopyera was asked by vaudeville instrumentalist George Beauchamp to create a louder guitar.
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John Dopyera invented a guitar with three aluminum cones called resonators mounted beneath the bridge, which was much louder than the regular acoustic guitar.
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In 1932, working together with Art Stimson, John Dopyera invented a new type of guitar design later recognized to be first ever industrially produced electrified Spanish guitar in the world.
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John Dopyera invented a string-gripping device on acoustic guitars, the forebear to that on all guitars today.
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John Dopyera's later patents included resophonic additions to nearly every string instrument, continued patents for the designs of banjos and violins, including the unique Dopera Bantar, which was a cross between the 5-string Banjo and 6-string Guitar.
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John Dopyera elected to stay in Los Angeles and continue making instruments.
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John Dopyera died at the age of 94 in 1988, having registered some 40 patents.