The Book

Entirely and lavishly illustrated with over 1100 musical instruments and amplifiers and more than 100 artistes who used them - this is the definitive collection of all the various developments, designs, colours and engraving patterns of everything produced by the Dopyera Brothers in their various companies throughout the 20th century - National, Dobro, Supro, Valco, Mosrite, Regal and OMI. It also features lap steels, amplifiers and various National and Valco manufactured items for other Trade houses. The book is concluded with an updated list of the serial numbers of known and re-discovered instruments - now in excess of 4200.

Gallery - Samples of the book's illustrations

Inside The Book

Arranged from the earliest National Banjos and Triplates, Duolians, Style 0s, wood bodied Nationals, through Dobros both wood and metal, jazz style acoustics, electrics, solid bodies, Resoglas and the last Valco guitars of 1968. There are sections of instruments covering the Gardena period, Mosrite, and OMI both in Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Following these are sections on Lap Steels and Consoles from 1935 to 1968.

A large section of amplifiers from the 1930s to the 1960s (both National, Supro and Trade House variants) follows, and the book concludes with a 36 page database of serial numbers and various data of National, Dobro, OMI and a large cross section of recently discovered Valco instruments.

Gallery - Page Spreads