Ca. 1968 Dopera Original Plectrum Banjo
The 5-string banjo was
immensely popular during the late 19th century, but it needed
modification to serve as a rhythm instrument in early jazz bands. The new
musical forms were better suited to strumming than fingerpicking, and the
droning of the open 5th string caused problems with chording. Some
early jazz banjo players simply removed the shorter string; this lead to the
creation of banjos with only four strings, which were intended to be played with
a plectrum. The tuning of the four long strings remained the same as on a
contemporary 5-string banjo (C-G-B-D). While most bluegrass players have shifted
to an open G tuning, plectrum banjos are still commonly tuned the way they were
a century ago. The result is a deep sound, excellent for rhythm playing, with
less cutting power but more sustain than a tenor banjo and close chord voicings.
Although the popularity of the jazz banjo waned as guitars became louder (and
more electric), the plectrum and tenor variants never completely went out of
production. The folk music boom of the 1960s lead to a revival for the banjo;
Pete Seeger and his long-necked Vega particularly stirred interest in 5-strings,
but the tenor and plectrum variants saw renewed interest as well.
This was the situation ca. 1968, when John and Rudy
Dopyera started making banjos. The brothers had previously made banjos in the
early to mid-1920s under the National brand, which would make its mark starting
in 1928 as a manufacturer of resonator guitars. The National banjos had several
features that presaged the first tricone guitars: metal resonators with
3-dimensional flares and engraved decorations, some with shield-shaped emblems.
When the brothers returned to banjo making in the 1960s, the resonator designs
were very similar. The rest of the instruments, however, was unique. Cast
brass rims and tone rings gave the banjos enormous volume and a
surprisingly warm voice, without the metallic clank associated with resonator
guitars. There were plectrums, tenors and 5-strings variants made, as well as a
6-string guitar-banjo called a “banjitar” on the headstock.
Equally notable as the construction was the decoration.
All banjos were heavily engraved on the resonator and headstock overlay. My
banjo’s resonator still bears the hand-drawn
outlines of the engraving pattern. The patterns must have taken a huge
amount of time to draw and engrave, and very few surviving specimens have the
same pattern. Most of the aluminum resonators were also anodized and dyed in
wild, intense colors. A few were even selectively anodized, leaving complex
patterns of dyed and silver aluminum behind the engraving. Close inspection of
my banjo reveals that the aluminum pot was dyed to match the resonator, though
the coloration is quite subtle. The matching headstocks bore engraved overlays
and lopsided shapes that strongly hinted at mandolin scrolls. As was often the
case with National guitars, the necks themselves were fairly plain: single
pieces of maple with unbound rosewood fingerboards, most had simple dot markers.
The Dopyeras attempted to “Americanize” their name by
dropping the “y”. The four- and five-string versions were branded as “Dopera
Original”, while the six-string banjos were labeled as “Dopera Banjitar”. The
brothers weren’t legally able to use the Dobro name in 1968 – it was owned by
Semie Mosely of Mosrite fame, who had been building electric and acoustic Dobros
for several years. The Dopyeras built very few banjos in the 1960s before
switching back to resonator guitars – one estimate puts it at around 10 of each
kind of banjo. The serial number on my
headstock doesn’t refute this low figure. Within a few years, the Dopyeras'
revived resonator guitar business would morph into OMI, which regained the
rights to the Dobro brand name after Mosrite’s bankruptcy.
Although few were built, the Dopera Original banjos were
high-quality instruments with much to recommend them to players. Remarkably,
despite all the metal involved in the construction, my plectrum doesn’t weigh
any more than the average banjo. It’s very easy to play (thanks, no doubt, to
the modern truss rod) and it offers a much wider dynamic range than my
Vega tenor. It can be just as loud when strummed
hard, but playing with just fingers reveals a much softer and warmer side as
well. My banjo is all original and generally very clean, with just a few
scratches to the resonator and minor dings along the headstock.
