The name "Dobro" refers to a specific style of resonator guitar, but is now a trade name that is owned by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The "Dobros" name has a very long and very involved history that is closely interwoven with the resonator guitar's history as a musical instrument. The name was originally coined by the Dopyera brothers when they formed a company called the Dobro Manufacturing Company. In time the name came to mean any resonator guitar in common language, or specifically a resonator guitar that possessed a single inverted resonator. This particular design style was introduced by the Dopyera Brothers' new company as a means of competing with the biscuit and tri cone designs that were already patented and being produced by the National String Instrument Corporation. The Dobro brand later also began to appear on other instruments, notably lap steel electric guitars and solid body electric guitar styles, as well as on other resonator style instruments including Safari resonator mandolin instruments.
In 1993, Gibson acquired the Dobro name. The Gibson company announced at this point that it would continue to defend its right to the exclusive use of the Dobro and its name. Generally speaking, the Dobro name is one that is associated with single-inverted-cone resonator designs not only in resonator guitars but also other resonator instruments as well. The Dobros name is not normally associated with either the biscuit or tri cone designs, as both are more commonly associated with the National String Instrument Corporation brand.
The Gibson company now restricts the use of the name Dobro or Dobros to its own personal product line. Care should still be taken when interpreting documents that were written either outside the United States or before 1993, as in these cases the use of Dobro or Dobroist may not necessarily refer to the Gibson's Dobro product line. When Gibson informed other guitar makers using the Dobro name of their intention to reserve exclusive rights of the name, some players began to refer to their instruments under a new name, TIFKAD, which was meant to mean "The Instrument Formerly Known as Dobro".
As of 2006, many different instrument makers including Gibson were manufacturing different styles of resonator guitars following the original inverted cone design. Gibson has also begun to manufacture the biscuit style resonator guitar, but they still reserve the Dobro name when manufacturing inverted cone models which is the original style resonator guitar. Resonator guitars recreate the traditional look and sound, and have also become the foundation for even further, newer developments in the guitar world. Many Dobros and similar style guitars are actually hybrid electric guitars. Some Dobro manufacturers are adding strings to the original design in order to create 7 string and 8 string resonator style guitars. The Dobro guitar has seen a lot of growth and change as an instrument, but still throws back to more traditional style guitars of the past despite a lot of the updates that these instruments have experienced through manufacturers like Gibson.
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Originally posted 2008-11-19 05:41:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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