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Topic: FYI: John & Rudy Dopyera collection for sale |
Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 13 Jul 2005 9:24 am |
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http://www.elderly.com/articles/dopyera/
The John and Rudy Dopyera Collection
We are very proud to offer for sale the combined collection of John and Rudy Dopyera. Few instrument makers represent the American Dream quite as completely as these two inventors, innovators, marketers, and all-around creative force behind both the National and Dobro companies.
The Dopyera brothers were born in what is now Slovakia, and came to the U.S. with the wave of Eastern European immigrants around the beginning of the 20th century. (In fact, the word “Dobro” is both a contraction of “DOpyera BROthers” and the word for “good” in their native tongue.) Engineers, tinkerers, businessmen, and accomplished musicians (their family had a history of violin making going back centuries, and Rudy was by many accounts an exceptionally talented and soulful Gypsy-style violinist), the two Dopyera brothers combined their Old World skills and traditions with the booming technology and futuristic tastes in art of pre-WWII America. Who else thought that spun aluminum might be a good material for sound projection? Who else engraved beautiful Art Deco designs on the bodies of their guitars? Only the Dopyeras.
The unusual, experimental, and mostly one-of-a-kind instruments in this collection – John’s unusual (and spectacular sounding!) resophonic violin, Rudy’s balalaika-inspired Lullabyka, the Art Deco-influenced steel body uke and tenor guitar, even the actual workbench on which John perfected the fabled tri-cone resonator system – are uniquely American (and uniquely Dopyera) innovations.
There’s no doubt that many of the great blues and slide guitar players owe their careers to these radical innovations of the Dopyeras; and there’s no question that both country and bluegrass music developed a whole new voice after the introduction of the Dobro. Because of the Dopyera brothers, American instruments – and American music – have never been the same.
Here are some web references: http://www.nationalguitars.com/part1.html http://www.gibson.com/products/oai/dobro/story.html
Rudy Dopyera passed away in 1978 and left his instruments and workshop to brother John, at that time 85 years old. When John passed on in 1988 the combined instruments and contents of the two workshops were packed up and put in storage by the family. Family members have now decided to sell the existing collection, plus the historic workbenches on which the brothers did much of their early work.
Sold as a collection. Serious inquiries email dopyera@elderly.com.
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Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 13 Jul 2005 11:34 am
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"If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it".
I don't have to ask the price and I still can't afford it. |
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Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Russ Young
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
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Posted 13 Jul 2005 12:06 pm
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It just goes to show you how much individual tastes vary! I think the bass is subtly understated, at least compared to the Dobro Hawaiian Guitar,which seems to be the Swiss Army Knife of resonator guitars.  |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Posted 13 Jul 2005 12:12 pm
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I see a huge resurgence in resonator balalaika coming up. Time to get in front of this fad, fellas...
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 13 Jul 2005 12:20 pm
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| Wow. I wonder who's gonna spring for this collection? A museum, maybe? |
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John Bushouse
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Posted 13 Jul 2005 8:22 pm
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| I think the Hawaiian is great; kind of reminds me of Knutsen's guitars. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 14 Jul 2005 2:55 am
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I'd trade my wife for the bass. And she's a beauty, I must add.
The Hawiian cord pocket is great! Serves as a cup holder when plugged in. |
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Bob Stone
From:
Gainesville, FL, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2005 7:25 am
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Howard R. is being conspicuously quiet.
Is he up to something? Hmmmmmmmmmm...[This message was edited by Bob Stone on 14 July 2005 at 11:45 AM.] |
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HowardR
From:
N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville
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Posted 14 Jul 2005 9:21 am
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 .....I'm up to several things that I will post when the time is right
This however is not one of them, unless of course every member of the forum were to buy a hat from me....
I do have something that is not far from completion and I believe it will outshine anything in the Dopyera collection, and it is an amazing collection. |
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Keith Cordell
From:
San Diego
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Posted 14 Jul 2005 9:26 am
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I can just see the SNL guy looking at the cord compartment on that and saying "You put your weeeeeed in there..."
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GFI D8 Non-Pedal, Peavey Delta Blues, Goodrich H10K VP, Modded Vox V-847, Ibanez DD1000 Digital Delay, Dunlop Lap Dawg bar
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