Guitars made under license

[Larry Conrad]

Hi Michael,

I understand that Regal was authorised by Dobro to make guitars under their name and using their designs. So two questions: 1) Why would Dobro have been interested in allowing another company to copy their instruments? 2) Is there any difference in quality between the two. I have one of each, both from the '30s, and I have to say that both sound really great. I don't see anything to suggest that any corners were cut in building the Regal.

I guess the same quetions would apply to the old Gibson acoustics and the Gibson Kalamazoo. Any thoughts on that one?

[mark makin]

MESSAGE FOR LARRY
Hello Larry
Regal were licensed by the Dobro Corporation because of their success!
They found it increasingly difficult and costly to produce in LA and ship east of the Rockies. Eventually they were impressed by Regals quality and left them to it entirely - only shipping the relevant hardware for assembly in Chicago. Dobro finally gave up production of the "Dobro" and left Regal to produce them.
Regals often put the "Dobro" logo on the headstock as often as they used the green ellipse with gold crown "Regal" logo. To differentiate the instruments sometimes gets tricky. Dobros always have saw cut slots in the headstock whereas Regals are routed with round tops and bottoms. Regals nearly always have dark back and sides on sunburst instruments whereas the Dobro made instrument is usually sunburst on the back and sides as well.
Its a matter of taste as to which instrument is best - Regal or Dobro. Many Country players tend to prefer square neck Dobros but usually Round Neck Regals. Mike Auldridge is definitely a Regal fan!.
Many more questions about sound and quality though are posed by factors such as - Does it have a sound well or not? - Does it have round holes in the sound well? - Does it have trapezium shaped holes? - It's all a matter of choice. I think the bottom line is they're both quality instruments from the same time and background - "whatever lights your pipe," - as they say!

[Colin Brooks]

Hi there

I'm no expert on Gibson guitars but I often play a 1936 14 fret Kalamazoo that a friend owns. It is very lightly built, loud, and blessed with great tone, a fast speaking guitar much better than many more recent Gibsons I have played. I seem to remember that Johnny Shines had a friend called Robert something who wasn't averse to playing Kalamazoos. Did you know that Gibson had a super cheap line, Kel Kroydon, that featured parrots painted on the front of some of their guitars? Perhaps a truly knowledgable Kalamazoologist could elaborate.

[ChickenboneJohn]

Although I'm no expert on this issue, my understanding is that some of the big American guitar factories had commercial arrangements going with other manufacturers. This was done in the form of subcontracting or licence agreements, which on the face of it might seem a bit odd (like Gibson supplying National with acoustic and archtop bodies).

It was all a matter of supply and demand - if it was simpler for a company to buy in parts from someone else because they didn't have the manufacturing capacity or it was cheaper to do that, market forces dictated that they did it. In the example above, it meant that National could punt out more guitars, Gibson had the capacity to make more bodies, so both companies ended up increasing their outputs and profits -simple economics.

I think quite a few of the companies back in the 30s and 40s were pretty close in terms of personal and trade links, so companies like Regal, Kay, National, Harmony etc. were all doing business with one another for their mutual benefit. Also, the volume of guitars put out to the mail order companies and 'jobbers' (wholesalers) was enormous, and there seemed to be an amazing and baffling number of brand names established by a relatively small number of big makers. The Kel Kroyden is typical of this sort of thing. I believe this was Gibson's real budget line product, and the name was also used on children's wooden toys when things were getting real tough for Gibson.

[Colin McCubbin]

In August ’37, National-Dobro contracted all Dobro assembly to Regal, agreeing to sell Regal hardware by the unit. By that time National-Dobro’s attention was focused on production and profitability.

Louis Dopyera had bought out all his brothers and, except for a few odd shares, was sole owner of the company. All five brothers continued to collect royalties for use of the Dobro brand name.

The introduction of a cheap, efficient gear machine in ’36 allowed solid headstocks on lower-priced guitars. Regal began using solid headstocks on all models of Dobros in a new serial number sequence beginning apparently at one and continuing into four digits.

Once Regal took over all Dobro production, it ceased numbering any guitars except for a occasional enigmatic marks like “J” or “HH25.”

National-Dobro, however, continued the Dobro number series, which had reached the 9000s, usually with an “L” prefix, on National guitars. Regal never numbered resonator guitars carrying its own trademark, except by accident.

Regal mixed and matched hardware freely on all its Dobro guitars, apparently using whatever tailpieces or coverplates were handy at the time.

After ’37 Regal used the f-hole and crossed-window dies on metal guitars and sold them with or without pickguards. Distributors, studios, and mail-order houses sold Regal-built resonator instruments under brand names that included Alhambra, Broman, Bruno, Gretsch, Magno-tone, More Harmony, NIOMA, Norwood Chimes, Old Kraftsman, Ward, and Orpheum.