John Dopyera
| John Dopyera | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ján Dopjera July 6, 1893 Stráže, Slovakia (former Austro-Hungarian Empire) |
| Died | Jan 3, 1988 (aged 94) Grants Pass, Oregon, USA |
| Occupation | inventor and entrepreneur |
| Years active | 1926–1988 |
John Dopyera (born Ján Dopjera; 1893–1988) was a Slovak-American inventor and entrepreneur, and a maker of stringed instruments. His inventions include the resonator guitar and important contributions in the early development of the electric guitar.
John Dopyera was one of 10 siblings born at the closing of the 19th century. His father, Jozef Dopyera, was a miller in Dolná Krupá, Slovakia, where they moved shortly after the birth of John. Gifted in music, Jozef played and constructed his own violins; the makers of which were popular around Slovakia for their craftsmanship. Under his father's guidance, John built his first fiddle still in his boyhood days in Dolná Krupá. In 1908, the Dopyeras emigrated from Slovakia to California, United States sensing a war would erupt in Europe. In the 1920s, Dopyera founded his own store in Los Angeles where he worked making and repairing fiddles, banjos, and other wooden string instruments. Around this time, Dopyera patented several improvements on the banjo.
In 1925, Dopyera was asked by vaudeville promoter George Beauchamp to create a louder guitar. Beauchamp needed a guitar that could be heard over other instruments when played in an orchestra. Dopyera invented a guitar with three aluminum cones called resonators (similar to diaphragms inside a speaker) mounted beneath the bridge, which was much louder than the regular acoustic guitar. The tone of the guitar was rich and metallic. Dopyera and his brothers Rudy and Emil, as well as other investors, founded the National String Instrument Corporation to manufacture the new type of "resophonic" guitar, which was sold mainly to musicians working in cinemas and jazz clubs in the USA. After several years, the three brothers left the corporation and started a new company, Dobro (the name they also gave to the instrument), a play on words derived from the "Do" in Dopyera and "bro" from Brothers, and a word which means "good" in Slovak. Their slogan was: Dobro means good in any language!.
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