Dobro
Dobro is an American manufacturer of resonator guitars and the name for these and such instruments.
The name goes back to five Slovak immigrants to the USA, who first started building guitars at the National String Instrument Company . Three of them, John, Rudy and Ed Dopyera , started their own businesses two years later. The name Dobro is an acronym from Do pyera Bro thers, but it may also be a play on words, as dobrý is the Slovak word for good . The Dopyera brothers built their first three-plate resonator guitars around 1927 in collaboration with the National Guitar Co. The brothers then founded the Dobro Company , which existed until the merger with National in 1932. A few years later, the companies separated again. Today Dobro is often synonymous with all resonator guitars with a wooden body. Resonator guitars with a metal body are called National Steel in the USA , while in Germany these are usually called Dobros .
Currently (2011) the rights to the name Dobro are held by the guitar manufacturer Gibson .
Like other resonator guitars, Dobros are used for slide play (e.g. in open G tuning).
Discography
- Mike Auldrige, Bob Brozman , David Grisman : Tone Poems III. The Sounds of the great slide & resophonic instruments. acoustic music ACD-41. 2000
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Tony Bacon, Paul Day: The Ultimate Guitar Book. Edited by Nigel Osborne, Dorling Kindersley, London / New York / Stuttgart 1991; Reprint 1993, ISBN 0-86318-640-8 , p. 48 f. ( Resonator Guitars ).
- ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. Gerig Music, ISBN 3-87252-249-3 , pp. 34–39 ( Wish You Were Here ), here: p. 35.