1967 Dopera by Mosrite "Bantar" 6-string Guitar Banjo

This is a very cool & curious invention from a collaboration of when Semie Mosley bought the Dobro name back in the mid-60’s. Semi wanted to make some resonator guitars & banjos w/his flair on 60’s deco style & this 1967 6-string Bantar is quite the coolest thing in the shop. It’s got a Mosrite neck w/a very Gumby-like headstock shaped like a high end Mandolin having intricate rope lettering & outer border binding simply cool-cowboy for sure. It’s got open back Gretsch tuners w/chrome parts & arm rest. These have no serial # that we can find. Its resonator is a made from lightweight aluminum w/an anodized Red finish all over & engraved on every edge & all around the wild concave back center section. So Deco & cool. This is in extremely clean all original condition & comes in its original black tolex hard case.

Out Takes off the web from the MosriteForum.com group in 2023:

This is an odd bird I came into… A six string guitar banjo (bantar) that is supposed to have a Mosrite neck.

When Mosrite bought the Dobro name and plant in Gardena California, they made the Mosrite Dobro (a/k/a Mobro) there until they moved it to Bakersfield. During that time, one of the Dopyera brothers tried his hand at making banjos under the names “Dopera”, “Dopera Original” and “Dopera’s Own”: Four string tenor banjo, 4 string plectrum, 5 string Banjo and 6 string Bantar (the model I have). Apparently, they are quite uncommon, by some accounts only 10 of each model. They were a flop and they stopped production after a limited run.

During this time, the Dopyeras were on friendly terms with Mosrite, and there has been some suggestion that many of their creations were actually constructed in a corner of the Mosrite factory or at the Gardena plant under Mosrite ownership. Mosrite was already making necks for the new Mobro’s and it is believed that they made the necks for the Dopera banjos. It definitely has the feel of an electric guitar neck over a banjo neck.

There are a lot of similarities between this Dopera Bantar and Mosrite necks: slim profile, volute, glossy maple neck. There are also some similarities to the Mobro necks: dot markers, Waverly, open back strip tuners, the truss rod cover is reminiscent of some Mosrite truss rod covers, metal of the truss rod cover is of the same kind as the nut on the square neck dobros.

But there are differences…. Some Mobros used a zero fret and placed a serial number at the bottom of the fretboard like the guitars. The bantar has heel cover– I couldn’t find that on any Mosrite instrument.

Does this neck look like it might have been made by Mosrite? Is this a Mo-Jo ?