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Necked box lute (321.322-5-6). This kind of steel-string guitar was created by the Dopyera (or Dopera) brothers. Its distinctive feature is a metallic resonator, single or complex, with an internal tone chamber, placed inside the instrument body.
Although the aim was to amplify the sound, a significant change in the timbre was also achieved. The idea was based on the design of certain banjos which had similar resonators at the back of their soundboxes.
The Dopyera’s first design, called Tri- Plate, was introduced in 1926. This was the reason why the National String Instrument Corporation was created the year before. Such specimen usually has a neck and a body made of a single metallic piece as well as a wooden fingerboard and pegbox. The resonator consists of three inverted-cone-shaped plates.
These plates, covered with rhomboidal soundholes make active by means of a three-legged bridge.
In 1928, three of the five brothers left the firm to set up the Dobro Corporation, word formed by the first syllable of Dopyera brothers. Since then, the instrument has been known as the Dobro guitar.
The resonator guitars have been adopted by players of blues and country music and, in the last few years, by some rock singers, too.
Inscriptions: PATENTED 1458
Label: TRADE/NATIONAL/MARK
L. 97.5 x w. 36 x h. 8.1 cm.
Gift, Dr. Emilio Azzarini’s Collection, 1964. IM 323