The Dobro was originally a guitar manufacturing company founded in 1928 by the Dopyera brothers with the name “Dobro Manufacturing Company”. The Dopyera brothers started the OMI company making Dobro style guitars in 1967 under the “Hound Dog” brand name. In 1970 OMI bought the Dobro name and manufacturered their own “Dobro” guitars with the traditional “Dobro” peghead sticker. In 1998 Gibson bought Dobro.

The Dobro is a single cone resonator guitar that is easily confused at first glace with the single cone National guitars. But in fact, they are fundamentally different in construction and design. The Dobro resonator is dish-shaped, opposite of the volcano-shaped National resonator. The Dobro has an eight legged bridge support (called a “spider”) that spans the dish and conducts the string vibrations (compared to National’s biscuit system).