Founder
John Dopyera
1893–1988 · Trnava, Slovakia
The Slovak who built a guitar louder than a whole orchestra
He was handed an impossible commission: a guitar loud enough to cut through a big band. He solved it with an aluminium cone.
John Dopyera (pronounced do-PYAIR-uh) emigrated from Slovakia to Los Angeles and opened a violin shop. In the 1920s he got the commission that changed his life: vaudeville guitarist George Beauchamp wanted a guitar loud enough to be heard over a full jazz orchestra — amplification didn't yet exist as an option.
John and his brothers developed the resonator guitar: aluminium cones inside the body that mechanically amplified the strings. The National String Instrument Corporation was founded in 1927. After a falling out with Beauchamp, he broke away and started Dobro — the name a pun on Slovak for 'brother' and the English word 'good'.
Anecdotes & moments
- Son House played a National Style O on the 1930 Paramount sessions. The physical guitar — bought secondhand — has never been traced.
- Bukka White used the body as percussion, slapping the metal plate while playing slide. No pickup since has reproduced that sound.