The National String Instrument Corporation was an American guitar company first formed to manufacture banjos and then the original resonator guitars. National also produced resonator ukuleles and resonator mandolins. The company merged with

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson (guitar company), Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. ...

to form the "National Dobro Company", then becoming a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

of Valco until it closed in 1968.

History

Early years

1930 National Triolian resonator mandolin

The second company was formed by

George Beauchamp George Delmetia Beauchamp (; March 18, 1899 – March 30, 1941) was an American inventor of musical instruments. He is known for designing the first electrically amplified stringed instrument to be marketed commercially. He was also a foun ...

, a vaudeville

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conv ...

player and house painter, and inventor John Dopyera, a violinist and

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...

). Dopyera had seen an amplified Stroh stick violin nearby with a small flat diaphragm and long attached horn. He used that initial idea, but with a large spun conical inverted speaker to create his patented multiple resonator designs. Dopyera was assisted with his nephews Paul and Carl Barth spinning the first aluminum diaphragms on wooden bucks. They first experimented with their novel ampli-phonic design in a large walnut console instrument. Soon afterwards the first German silver Hawaiian guitar was built by John and Rudolph Dopyera. This guitar, #101 was later modified with a mahogany Spanish neck for regular guitar playing. Beauchamp had suggested to Dopyera the need for a guitar loud enough to play a melody over brass and other wind instruments. In 1927, National produced the first resonator instruments and sold them under their ''National'' brand. They had metal bodies and a ''tricone'' resonator system, with three aluminium cones joined by a T-shaped aluminium ''spider''. Brother Rudolph Dopyera, who previously worked with Weissenborne, hand built the original tri-cone models with diamond holes, prior to the second production stamped metal bodies by engineer Adolph Rickenbacher. They built metal resophonic mandolins, tenor guitars and ukuleles, some of which were ornately engraved with rose, lily of the valley and chrysanthemum designs. Wooden-bodied Triolian and Trojan single resonator models eventually followed once the Dopyera brothers departed, based on inexpensive

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

student guitar bodies supplied by

Kay The name Kay is found both as a surname (see Kay (surname)) and as a given name. In English-speaking countries, it is usually a feminine name, often a short form of Katherine or one of its variants; but it is also used as a first name in its own ...

Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. Howeve ...

, and other established instrument manufacturers.

Dobro

In 1928, Dopyera left National, and 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. National soon introduced their own single resonator design, the "biscuit", which Dopyera claimed to have designed before leaving, though the patent was registered by Beauchamp. National also continued to produce tricone designs, which some players preferred. In their 1930 catalog, National list eight key ''associates'', including Adolph Rickenbacker, George Beauchamp, Harry Watson, Paul Barth, and Jack Levy. In 1932, the Dopyera brothers secured a controlling interest in both National and Dobro, and merged the companies to form the "National Dobro Corporation".

Resonator guitar designs

The ''National'' brand and trademark are particularly associated with two of the three basic resonator designs: * The tricone design with three resonator cones * The biscuit design with a single cone Terms such as ''National'' or ''National pattern'' are often used to distinguish these patterns from the ''

'' design.

Notable artists

Some artists associated with National guitars include: * Johnny Winter * John Kay * Black Ace * Scrapper Blackwell * Bumble Bee Slim * Bo Carter * Ray Davies * Reverend Gary Davis * Blind Boy Fuller *

Arvella Gray Blind Arvella Gray (January 28, 1906 - September 7, 1980) was an American blues, folk and gospel singer and guitarist. Gray was born James Dixon, in Somerville, Texas. He spent the latter part of his life performing and busking folk, blues and ...

* Son House * Mark Knopfler *

Babe Stovall Jewell Stovall, better known as Babe Stovall (October 14, 1907 – September 21, 1974), was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist. Stovall was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, United States, in 1907, the youngest of eleven children (th ...

* Tampa Red * Bukka White *

Bob Brozman Bob Brozman (March 8, 1954 – April 23, 2013) was an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist. Biography Brozman was born to a Jewish family in Long Island, New York, and began playing the guitar when he was six. He performed gypsy jazz, ca ...

* Sol Hoopii *

Chris Whitley Christopher Becker Whitley (August 31, 1960 – November 20, 2005) was an American blues/rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. During his 25-year career he released more than a dozen albums, had two songs in the top 50 of the Billboard mains ...

* Oscar "Buddy" Woods *

Dan Auerbach Daniel Quine Auerbach (; born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has ...

* Reverend J. Peyton *

Tinsley Ellis Tinsley Ellis (born June 4, 1957) is an American blues and rock musician, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and grew up in South Florida. According to ''Billboard'', "nobody has released more consistently excellent blues albums ...

* Sid Griffin

References

External links

Vintage National guitars
{{Mandolin family instruments Manufacturing companies established in 1927 Resophonic instruments Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in Los Angeles 1927 establishments in California