The National String Instrument Corporation was the company formed to manufacture the first resonator guitars. A modern tricone resonator guitar, with electric pickup A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more metal resonators rather than by a wooden guitar belly. ...

History

The company was formed by John Dopyera, the luthier who had invented the resonator, and George Beauchamp, the steel guitar player who had suggested to Dopyera the need for a louder guitar able to play a melody that would be heard among brass and other wind instruments. John Dopyera holding one of his hand-constructed violins John Dopyera (1893-1988) was a Slovak-American inventor and entrepreneur, considered by many to be the provider of the crucial bridge between the world of acoustic instruments and that of electric instruments. ... A luthier is someone who is capable of crafting and repairing any of the many types of stringed instruments. ... George D. Beauchamp (1899 - 1941), inventor of musical instruments and co-founder of National Stringed Instument Corporation and Rickenbacker. ... A Dobro style resonator guitar Steel guitar, strictly speaking, refers to a method of playing using a metal slide (or steel) on a guitar played horizontally, with the strings uppermost. ...

In 1927, the first resonator instruments were produced and sold under the National brand. They had metal bodies and a tricone resonator system, with three aluminium cones joined by a T-shaped aluminium spider. Wooden-bodied models soon followed, based on cheap plywood student guitar bodies supplied by the Regal Musical Instrument Company and other established guitar manufacturers. Model constructed from plywood. ...

In 1928, Dopyera left National, and together with four of his brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company to produce a competing single resonator design, with the resonator cone inverted. John Dopyera continued to hold stock in National. The Dobro design was both cheaper to produce and louder than the tricone. A modern Gibson Dobro Dobro® is a trade name now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar. ...

National replied by introducing their own single resonator design, the biscuit, which Dopyera claimed to have designed before leaving although the patent was registered by Beachamp. National also continued to produce tricone designs, which were preferred by some players for their tone.

In their 1930 catalog, National list eight key associates, including Adolph Rickenbacker, George Beauchamp, Harry Watson, Paul Barth, and Jack Levy. Adolph Rickenbacher (b. ...

In 1932, the Dopyera brothers secured a controlling interest in both National and Dobro, and merged the companies to form the National Dobro Corporation. A modern Gibson Dobro Dobro® is a trade name now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar. ...

In the late 1980s the National name and trademark reappeared on reproduction resonator instruments manufactured by National Reso-Phonic Guitars. As of 2006 their model range includes not only the tricone and biscuit mechanisms used on the original National instruments, but also the inverted cone design used on the Dobro. National Reso-Phonic Guitars is a manufacturer of resonator guitars and other resonator instruments including mandolins, ukeleles and 12 string guitars. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Catalog of 1930.