As John Dopyera’s shop was flourishing, so was a new craze: Hawaiian music. John had an eye for what made instruments best for players and patented some improvements for both violins and banjos before he and his brothers, Emil and Rudy, would begin building the first production resonators.īut I’m getting a little ahead of the story. In the 1920s, John opened his own small music shop in Los Angeles, where he built and repaired violins, banjos, and guitars. As the winds of war began to blow through Europe, the Dopyera family moved to California in 1908 to pursue a better life. John had built his first violin by his teens and was following in his father’s footsteps to become a master builder of instruments.
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His father was a talented musician and a luthier of fine violins in their native Slovakia. But my research, which includes many conversations with elders who were there in the instrument’s early decades, and popular consensus says it begins with John Dopyera. And So It BeganĪs with seemingly everything in the world of guitars, the history of the resonator is hotly debated. John Dopyera came up with an idea based on the Edison phonograph’s method of creating volume via a small disk attached to a horn. I was also fortunate enough to spend time around the Dopyeras, the first family of the resonator guitar, and their direct torchbearers, and to hear so many wonderful stories about my favorite instrument’s history. I went on to not only play that instrument to this day, but I’ve had the pleasure of building Sho-Bro resonator guitars for Sho-Bud, as well as resonators for the Original Musical Instrument Company (aka Dobro), Crafters of Tennessee (builders of Tut Taylor resonators), and more recently, to having my own Owens line of resonator guitars for a time. I’d never heard anything like it, and I immediately knew I’d found my instrument! It was called a Dobro. It had a large, round metal plate on top that looked like a shiny hubcap, and a fat, square neck. His left hand gripped a metal bar, which he pressed against the strings. It was suspended horizontally by its strap, and he played with his hands hovering over the top of the guitar. I noticed he wasn’t holding his guitar in the usual way. The band was gathered around a single microphone when suddenly one of the players by the name of Uncle Josh Graves came up from the back. We were checking out his favorite bluegrass band, led by guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo picker Earl Scruggs, who had the Flatt and Scruggs Grand Ole Opry Show, sponsored by Martha White flour. One Saturday afternoon, I was watching television with my dad. I longed to find one that would be mine alone. As a kid I wanted to play too, but someone else was already playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle, and that made it very difficult to choose my own instrument. I can send you photos and even a video I recorded using it 17 years ago.Everyone in my family plays a musical instrument. It is in great condition except for dirty rocker switches. The back of the headstock had a small metal Made in Japan tag held on with tiny nails. It has the Guyatone G logo on the headstock and the truss rod cover says Tokoyo Sound Co. Where it is different from all the others I have seen is the two 3 position rocker switches on the upper horn. It has 2 single coil pickups with massive slugs, trem arm, 1 vol and 1 tone knob in the usual spot. I am wondering if I have one that was not mafe for export. I have been searching the web for a couple weeks, and can’t find a single photo, drawing or ad for this one. I am trying to identify a Guyatone that I got at a swap meet in the S.F. I have had many guitars over the last 47 years. Even in its original state its value is only about 1,500 at best. Now before someone has a hissyfit that i’ve ruined a “vintage” guitar, and diminished it’s value, remember it had already been painted five times before. An outstanding job! Shoot, ol Wilson Picket hisself played this guitar back in 66 or67. I just wish he could have seen the finished guitar.
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passed and he did get to see the oak veneer and he really liked it. I had started the refinish project before Charles. Never stripped! Just sanded and a new color applied. This guitar had been re-painted five times previously. I replicated the pickguard in carbon fiber. I refinished the guitar by veneering the top in oak and a sunburst finish was added.
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I’m a short fella, as are my extremities. I’ve been aquainted with this guitat since 1965. I have (and cherish) a1957 Fender Duo-Sonic, that was “willed” to me by a very dear friend who passed on a few years ago.