” Vintage National Guitar Blog “

Hello my friends,

first off, let me say I’m sorry for the delay since the last entry. I’ve had a slew of spam attempts in the last couple weeks that I’ve been deleting before they can come on.

Today I’d like to answer some common questions and give my view on working on old Nats.

First off, let me say I’ve now gone thru around 300 vintage nats over the years. Most need the same typical work on them to get them playing to their potential again. The standard problems I see are…

-warped necks

-cracked or crushed cones

-dried out fingerboards

-dents, bumps and bruises

-Bad neck angles

-Replaced tuners

Regarding the necks, that along w poor neck angles and cones are the worst offenders. Many old Nat’s that were left in barns or attics were still strung and tuned close to pitch. 30 plus years of that in brutal heat and cold will warp the staunchest neck. Now, keep in mind, most all of these old necks DID have truss rods in them. Problem is, they often are not doing anything to keep the neck straight. The method they used was just routing a deep route into the neck under the fingerboard and pushing in a metal pipe and securing it w hide glue. That glue often shrank, and the pipe often has moved inside and doing nothing to help. IT can be reinstalled using modern epoxy, but often the neck itself will need to be either heat pressed straight or the bow sanded out of it on a flat surface. The fingerboard can then be re installed and the neck straight.

As for cones, they can often be massaged back into shape and be ready for several more years of service. The problem comes up often where they are actually cracked, especially on the ones that had the short added impressions around the outer edge. (pics to follow) Although the idea was good, add stiffness, the stiffening impression actually became a weak spot that often cracked there. You can tell by holding the cone up to a light and look from underneath. There often you can see light coming in from various cracks you may not have noticed. Another problem that is common is that the cone is just fatigued. It can be compressed downward from many years. I can reshape it to it’s original shape and size, and after stringing it up and waiting overnight, you’ll see the next day it begins to collapse again. It just doesn’t have the structural integrity anymore to keep it’s stiffness under the string pressure up above. At Vintage Nationals we try our best to save every old cone. We replace them ONLY as a last resort, not just because we like new cones. (I do love Nationals Hot Rod cone, and it’s the only replacement we use).

As for fingerboards, this is also an area of concern. While again, we try and save most fingerboards, there comes a point of diminishing return. Yes, you can use epoxies, superglues w wood dust, etc. and fix most cracks that are common. To what point though? Many of these old fingerboards are SO cracked and DRY, it’s not worth it. Again, we rarely need to replace a board, but it is a common problem. When you reset a neck, you are moving the headstock back towards the back of the guitar. This causes the fingerboard flap to rise upward vs. the body by a small amount. With a healthy fingerboard, this little but of downward pressure when you secure the flap to the body is no problem. With a super dry board, the flap will often just snap off right at the 12 or 14th fret. The ebony seems to hold up better than the died maple boards, but each can have this problem. (pics of ancient boards to follow). I must say, if you have to do this procedure and use a new duplicate board, the playability w a modern radius and new frets are fanatastic. Again, we ONLY do this if absolutely necessary, but if a fingerboard is shot, it’s shot and needs to be dealt with. All or duplicate boards are made to fit from the National factory and are exact replicas of whatever came off the guitar.

Dents and bruises are a challenge in themselves. I use an assortment of autobody tools along w some I made myself to get out most tyical bumps and bruises. One thing you see a lot of nowadays is 14 fret Style O’s getting cracks on the side bouts. You don’t see it on steel body 14 fretters because unlike brass, steel has no memory. Bend it, it stays. Brass does have a memory and when you make the exteme bends used on a two piece 14 fret body, the bend wants to go back some, creating tension in the body that is nowadays manifesting itself in tons of side cracks. Many dings we just leave alone and call it normal wear.

BAD Neck Angles are the most common malady. You have a neck that’s been under tension for 70 odd years. You often have heavy gauge strings on top of it all, and if the guitar sat for years under tension, something has to give! What good is an all original untouched Nat if the neck angle is way off? If the action is 1/4 inch at the twelfth fret, and the saddle has already been sanded down to the nub? If there is essentially no downward string pressure on the cone, killing the volume and creating a ton of rattles? Oh, its all original, but more likely is barely playable, unless all you play is slide, and it won’t sound near it’s potential. Resetting the neck is something that is jsut part of normal maintenance. In the process, the headstock moves back slightly to it’s original position, the action comes down towards the fingerboard, and you now have the correct downward pressure from the strings onto the saddle/cone. Rattles are gone, volume improves, and you can actually make chords all over the neck! If it needs it, it needs it! I do cartwheels when a Nat I buy does not need a reset. Problem is, that is a very small percent that don’t or that have had one done correctly along the way. I’d rather never have to do one, but c’mon, 70 years of tension, a minor adjustment after that long does not seem unreasonable, does it? If you think it is, come on by sometime and show me how you go about playing some of the old stored away Nat’s I get in. Then give me your opinion!

Replaced tuners are usually not an issue on old Nats. Although many come in w replaced and incorrect tuners, almost never was there any routing or headstock alterations. Usually it’s just another strip type tuner that fits the same way as the original, which probably lost a button or two along the way. Thank God theres no Grovering and routing as has been done on so many electrics over the years.

RENECKING…. Well, here’s another area of conflict. Although I have renecked many old Nat’s along the way, i’ts always for a good reason. If I reneck a single cone sq neck, I keep the neck w the guitar. IF, as I just did recently, someone has butchered an old sq neck by rounding it off by hand w a file, I’ll replace that. (see the 14 fret O just listed). The Bakelite necks are essentially useless. I often will replace these with a duplicate neck. (see the triolian w Palms currently on the site). The old neck goes with it, but a warped bakelite neck is no fun to try and play or work on in any manner. I never reneck a roundneck unless the current neck has issues that are not repairable. National made 10’s of thousands of guitars. The 10-15 total I’ve renecked over the years is not going to put a dent in the supply of original models. I do it when it’s needing to be done, not just to do it. We use exact replicas w attention to detail when it’s decided it’s needed and they end up playing like a new National w the body and cone of the original, a great playing guitar it is.

Well friends, there you have it. I’ve taken some flak along the way about working on some of my Nats. I can say as I mention above, ONLY when it’s needed to I make these changes. Don Young of National once said to me, “I get a kick out of it when guy comes in w his old Duolian w a crushed cone and bad neck angle, and starts telling me all about his vintage tone I can’t produce. What a crock!” That’s pretty funny. I’d say this, if someone comes across an old Bugatti from the 20’s they want to restore, are they going to use the old tires or use new ones? Do they keep the old leather interior of have it remade? When rebuilding the engine, do they only use old parts or make use of current technology? Some old Nationals need work, period! I do whatever the minimum is needed, never add to any finishes or take away from them, and end up with a guitar that sounds and plays fantastic. One that can be played all over the neck. One that has it’s full volume when played. One without rattles and buzzes from poor neck angles and faulty cones. Isn’t that how you want your Vintage National to play? I know I do! Thanks for reading, I will flesh out this arcticle w a series of pictures illustrating my points. Best, Len

Hi all,

This is going to hopefully be the first of many shared experiences I plan to bring you. I’ve asked many people w extensive National knowledge and experience to write arcticles for me. I hope to bring you many more over time. I’ve only in the last year had the pleasure of getting to know Mark Makin. As someone who’s interest is more recent, I love chatting it up with people that have been fanatical about Nationals for far longer than myself. Mark’s interest started in the early 60’s and continues to this day. Mark was instrumental in putting together the numbering system used by National back in the day and knows as much as anyone alive today about it. He also was responsible for several terms we’ve come to know and use, which were NOT used by the original National company. As a graphic artist, he coined phrases such as Chicken Foot Coverplate, and Exploding Palm Tree, among others. Enjoy this splendid arcticle by Mark, and again, I thank him for taking the time and energy to share with us! Hopefully he’ll be a regular here on the Blog!

What got you interested in Nat’s to begin with?

I first heard about a thing called a “National guitar” around 1963. A schoolfriend of mine had heard that they were used by blues singers and were made of metal. I think the first image I saw that identified the look of them was the famous Blind Boy Fuller music stool picture. This would be around 1965. In 1967, I met Son House in Birmingham, England and spent around half an hour talking with him backstage. As they called him on to the stage for his performance, he was helped by two staff holding each arm. I followed to the edge of the stage carrying his “Style 0″ ( I say HIS Style 0. Actually I believe it was borrowed from Tom McGuinness of Manfred Mann ). I went back to my seat (only three rows in front of Son House) and was absolutely stunned by the power of his performance. The National was flashing huge searchlight beams
around the auditorium from the single white spotlight to the stage. It was like a revelation. i just had to find one of these things! The first National I found was a 1936 slot head 14fret Duolian in a junk shop for 30 quid ($50). It was in perfect condition. I talked the guy down to $25. He’d had it for weeks and couldn’t understand the lack of interest. I have to say I was slightly disappointed that it was a dull grey and not shiny like Son Houses’!

How many Nat’s do you think you owned at one time or another over the years?

Easily over 60. Probably the most important instrument I acquired was a Style 2 square neck with the seven extra diamond holes around the edge. This, of course, identifies it as one of Rudy Dopyeras original test hand-built prototypes. It was numbered #133. I could easily have not bought this instrument when I got it in 1979. The guy that got it for me asked me over the phone if I wanted a “Style 2 squareneck”. I already had two of them. What would you say? He persisted and told me that even if I didn’t want it, he
was going to pass by my place and he would let me see it anyway. When he turned up and opened the case, I nearly dropped the coffee cups I was holding!!I didn’t wait to be asked twice if I wanted it! I sold this guitar to Bob Brozman in 1989. (Interestingly - #135 is in the Seattle Experience exhibition. It is a sister guitar to mine. Absolutely identical).
Over the years I have owned lots of different Nationals - Duolians,Triolians,Tricones,Silvo lap steel,Style N, Style 0s (12 and 14fret) Mandolin silvers, Dobros, Tenor Tricones, Plectrums, Guitarshaped tenors, lap steels, Supros, Glenwoods, etc. etc. My latest acquisitions are a 1934 National Estralita and a 1948 National Aristocrat.

What made you interested in collecting and sorting serial numbers?

I have an inquisitive mind and from the very first moment I became a researcher without realising it.The first National that I found, as I said, was a Duolian. It was C9458. In a very short space of time after that, I found C9449,C9453,C9454 and C9458. It seemed interesting to me that they were all so close together. I had some other numbers like Duolian C7919 which I knew the story of - it had come to the UK in the 40s with a B17 bomber crew - but the close range of numbers of these other Duolians meant they could not have arrived randomly like that. It seemed they had to be a batch imported by Boosey and Hawkes in London in 1937. Once I realised this, I could see the value of collecting numbers whenever I could find them.
During the 1970s, it became my quest and obsession to find out more and more of the chronology of National guitars. I wrote and communicated with John Gima, Michael Lee Allen,
Bev King, George Gruhn - I even visited OMI in Huntingdon Beach and met with Gabriella Dopera, Dee Garland and Ron Lazar.(I was plugging them for their history and all they wanted was to sell me a new Dobro 33!!). Through the 1970s, I managed to find around 200-250 numbers which I filed away.I started communicating with Bob Brozman around 1984 by phone and we shared what facts we had
found out. In 1987, I was playing in a band with Michael Messer and Mike Cooper and it was decided to invite Bob Brozman to a concert at the ICA in London to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Joseph Kekuku called “Sliding round the world”. When Bob and I finally met, we spent hours and days going through my paperwork and lists! Dozens of phone calls followed over the years and we merged our number list. I believe Dennis Watkins at Gruhns had been keeping records for years as well.He added some to Bobs collection and
slowly the list that you know evolved. I should say here, that I get incredibly frustrated with people quoting the list in the book at me as if it’s Gospel truth! Bob Brozman would be the first to admit that many
of our decisions in the serial list in his book are a “best guess”. Just because you write it down doesn’t make it carved in stone. There is still a lot about the dating we don’t know. Bob has only used dates as pointers to indicate model developments and changes that are known about in the company files. i.e Rolled f holes appear around Sept 1933. 14 fret bodies are early 1934.You can only date a National according to style features. We cannot be any more specific about when instruments were built. The earlier
instruments like Tricones are easier to understand because specific serial number sequences apply ONLY to that type of instrument and numbers can be estimated butin the case
of late 30’s Chicago numbers - everything they made on a daily basis got the next available number so maybe 3 tricones, 5 mandolins, 20 New yorkers and a tenor all got
sequential numbers. Unfortunately National did not make it as easy for us as Martin did!

What’s the Nat that you loved the best out of all you’ve owned?

To be completely honest, the National I would rescue from a fire would be a Variation 3, 12 fret Style 0, that I got from Bob Brozman. I have had it since the late 1980s. It is just perfect!.

What’s the Nat that got away that you’ve always regretted not grabbing?

A 1938 Style 97 that I passed on. It was only $400.

Describe the level of interest in the UK or/ Europe in general,growing or shrinking?

I would say definitely growing. There is a whole new generation who seems just as blown away by these things as we were and there is a whole lot of my generation who have reached their mid to late 50s, have got more money, lost the kids and are re-discovering lost interests. I’m not sure about the familiarity with Nationals now. Many people seem more interested in fixing-up guitars with “hot-rod” this and that, modifying nuts and bridges, messing with intonation and so few people are interested in just experiencing what these things are about from a players point of view. The parallels with slick electric guitars shows
the same polarised view. Some people think locking nuts and high-tec tremolos, super powered pickups are the way to go - but for me, I’d rather have a 1952 tele or a 58 Les Paul (I wish!).
The interest of myself and friends like Michael Messer, Steve Phillips etc goes back to the late 60s/early 70s but even then there were already established players like Mike Cooper who had bought a round-neck Tricone in a junk shop in 1956 for £7 and began playing in the early 60s with Nationals. (Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones was known to be playing a Tricone on the streets of Cheltenham around 1960!!)
You asked me about the level of interest in the UK - by the time Bob Brozman came to these shores (which WAS a defining moment!) Alan Timmins, Ralph Bown and myself had already built and finished a round neck Style 97 Tricone. This pre-dates everybody else! It was Alan Timmins and I who supplied Don Young with his first batch of cast T-bridges for NRPs new first range of Tricones. One of the leading collectors in the UK these days is Stuart Cumberpatch with around 30 Nationals. Michael Messer, of course, owned the “Harry Watson” presentation Tricone. George Harrison (a longtime reso-fan with Duolians,John Greven Dobros,cast lap steels,Supros etc) came to us to restore 2 National Ukes and 2 Regal ukes. Mark Knopfler and
Steve Phillips were also playing Duolians as early as the mid 1960s.
Up until 10 years ago, I think the interest was greater in Nationals than Dobros. -Cheers, Mark M.

Mark, thanks so much and please do KEEP WRITING for us! I very much appreciate your sharing!

Best,Len

Mark w some of his toys!

Hello Friends, Just how sweet is this? This is number 121, (sequence started at 100), so the 21st Uke made. These concert sized Ukes were made first, starting in 1928, then they converted to the smaller bodied model later on. This would have been one of the earliest instruments made at the fledgling National company. Look closely and you can see that it was hand crafted. Most likely John Dopera himself would have soldered this body together, carved this neck, and made and fretted this fingerboard! WOW, this is really a National treasure! Note the very earliest all mahogany neck supports. See the heel cap that would eventually wind up on the Don guitar to be made 6 years later. It still has the original paper gasket in the well. As you can see, it was owned by Vernon Johnson. Now he wasn’t a famous player, but he sure played the hell out of this Uke. You can tell he loved and played this instrument a whole lot! Let’s take a look as we bring this gal back to life!

Vernon Johnson loved his Uke and played it regularly during his adult life!

Concert sized 15 inch scale, case is a beauty too!

Banjo style tuners work lovely below….

Wow, the 21st. Uke made!

Note below the early all mahogany neckstick supports.

Below we look towards the bottom and see the early heel block and HUGE shim above the stick.

Interesting, he even installed a little dowel that fit into the big shim from behind.

Look above the stick end and see the post still jutting out.

Now we look forward towards the neck, another giant shim in place.

Below see the neckstick installed below the heel. Note the little mahogany side sticks that would be the standard National design. You can also see some glue alongside the stick at the body.

Well, there you go. We’ll be putting a bunch of effort into this one. I’ve already massaged all but one dent out. I’ll update this w more photos as it get’s finished up. This is certainly a special and historically important instrument. I can’t wait to get it finished up and back to it’s former glory!  More pics to follow, hope you enjoyed this!

Len

Hello my friends….

Well, here’s how I spent my weekend….. This very early (serial number 04) and rare B-Series Triolian was owned by a 75 year old player who recently passed away. This was his baby, and you can see he spent many an hour “customizing” his guitar w a large snake? on the back and cab like side decorating. Not to mention the clever strap holder at the headstock! After trying the usual chemical methods to remove the “decorations”, it came down to long and tedious hand sanding one little square at a time! Before you try this at home, I should mention I spent my teen years working in an auto body shop and have extensive painting experience to my benefit. This includes the skill to “feel” the paint w your fingertips under the fine wetsandpaper I used so as to effect as little original paint removal as possible. The fact that the squares were intermingled w the original finish, which made up most of the dark side squares, made it that much tougher.

Well, 5 hours or so later, I now have no fingerprints on my sanding finger! Good time to rob a bank I’d guess. In the end, I was very happy w the result and as you can see, took very little original finish off. After the fine sanding and hand polishing, it’s now looking fantastic. The guitar in general is in stellar shape, the neck finish is beautiful, and the fingerboard like new. All in all I’m thrilled w the result. Also see a pic of my B tenor alongside it. Enjoy the show…..

Sweet, eh? I was lucky, if this added art was laquer I’d have never gotten it off this cleanly asit would have melted into the original paint. I guess a blind squirrel will bump into an acorn every now and then!

Take care friends, hope you enjoyed the pictorial.

Hi Friends, sorry it’s been a while. Still waiting for several esteemed friends to get me some arcticles together. (HINT BROTHERS!) Today I want to talk about the various metals used on vintage Nationals.
I’ll cover materials in a different post, today I want to discuss metal gauges used. This is a controversial subject to a degree as you often hear people saying current builders should use thinner metal like the old ones used. National Resophonic, for example, uses .032 as their standard metal thickness. In fact, Don Young once asked John Dopera many years ago when he was working at OMI (dobro) what he would do different today. One thing he mentioned first was that he’d use thicker gauge metal. Let’s look at a few old bodies and discuss further. (note- partly due to popular demand, they are using a thinner gauged metal on their 14 fret Style O made today)

First off, let’s look at a very early Style O brass body. This is the same body on the “tale of 2 O’s” post, very early example w low serial number. As you can see, it’s a super thin metal measuring only .023!

Below you can see the very early german silver Style N shown in the earlier post. As you can see, it’s ALSO a very thin .024. If you look close at my poorly manicured thumb, you can see the gash from a coverplate has now healed!

Note in this second pic how the top actually bows in a bit from the pressure of the neck.

Below we see a later 1936-7 Duolian steel body. As you can see we have a fairly thin .026 gauge.

Having smaller steel bodies and rolled F holes, these still feel pretty stiff.

Now, the 14 fret body being smaller and stiffer than the 12 fretter seems to be fine w this gauge. The 12 fretter, like the O above, struggles some w such a thin gauge once the neck is attached as tension put into the top. In fact, you can see all kinds of shims and band aids inside the body of old Nat’s, partly to compensate for the lack of a stiff top.

Below see a 1932 Style N, pearloid headstock, brass body. (as most N’s were!) Still a thin .025.

One last thing I’ll mention, I have a Sears Duolian, early w hooks on coverplate. It actually measures a stout .032, same as used on new National Resophonics. That proves they used all types and gauges of metal to make old Nats. While there are plenty of people that believe the tone of the thinner early metal is superior to the thicker metal used today, I’m guessing that’s not always the case. First of all, as mentioned above, some of the old ones actually DID use heavier metal. Yes, your Duolian might actually be .032! More importantly, I believe the real difference between a great sounding old one w thin metal vs. one w heavier metal is more in the setup and neck angle than metal gauge. As you look inside more and more old Nat’s, you see all kinds of band aids used in putting it together. Shims at the neck inside, hanging bodies upside down and pouring hide glue inside around the neck joint, and other little band aids to get the neck and body joint stiff. Many left the factory w poor neck angles from the very start! In fact, the design itself was a bit crude as far as neck/body joining. That’s a post for another day. Cool stuff, hope you all find it interesting, I always do. Have a great day!

Hello friends, Today I’m going to give a little inside view of two Style O’s. It’s interesting to note differences in design/ manufacture over time. As you can see by the serial numbers, I have both a very early O w serial number S460 and S4718. We’re talking late 1930 for the first, 1933 w rolled F holes for the second.

Although many of the early O’s up until 5-600 were made w steel bodies, this one is brass. The first thing you may notice is both have the side posts inside the body. This was done as needed because many bodies, once soldered, will have a floppy back. What I mean by that is, if you removed all the posts, the back would essentially push in and out, like a dent on an oil can. Once all four posts are in, the back is just as solid as any other and the in/out flopping is gone.

You can also see the 33 O on the right has felt glued inside. The one to the left has glue residue inside the well. I find this perplexing as although there’s no doubt felt WAS used occassionally, I’ve never seen it consistently used and only see it on about one of 35 or so Nat’s I open up.

Above we see another variance, the coverplate is now ribbed to add strength to it vs. the previous smooth coverplate. You can also see the design has gotten more detailed, especially the main palm tree above the coverplate. The died maple fingerboard above from the 33 shows maple coming thru the dye.

Below, is a pic of S460 prior to neck removal. Note the use of Black neck and body supports on both models, even though black was not commonly used vs. unpainted plain ones.

Below, yet another pic of the same early O w neck removed. Note the cool Lucky Strike circle that was inside the body! Even has some cigarette ashes pushed against it along the way!

Now for a look inside……Note below the inside of S460, w it’s side fingerboard supports visible along the sides of the neckstick, and a huge shim under the well.

To the back below we see the standard tailpiece block along w the typical one or two shims that tighten against the end of the neckstick. You can see the footprint of the support I took out already in the dust.

Now, below, note some common crudeness in the early examples. Look at how rough the opening is on the early one for the neckstick. Looks like they used a can opener!

One last feature that is also interesting. I’ve seen this sporadically on various models, but never consistently. Note the difference inside the top below the fingerboard, first the early one…..

above early S460 is smooth

Below we see the angle irons soldered to the top.

Above, note the little angle irons soldered into the top. This created a snug slot between the neckstick and little side sticks. Not sure why they did this now and then but not consistently. Makes doing a neck reset just a little more complex. The last early feature to note is on S460. Note the tuners. The very early ones had the shaft below the gear. Shortly after, most all tuners adopted the stronger design of the post being over the top of the gear. See below.

Well, that’s it for today. Fun stuff inspecting old Nationals, you’ll never know what you’ll find inside!

Hope you enjoyed this little tour, and SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM!

Best, Len

Hello Friends,

Today I’m going to write about a couple of the very coolest and in my opinion, best sounding single cones National ever made. You’ve probably never seen this variant, as they were VERY early. In effect, you have a tricone back and sides, a tricone neck, and a single cone top. All made out of german silver. It would seem these are the very first metalbodied single cones made. Note the very early serial numbers, S74 and S131.

As you can see, the mahogany neck and headstock are those of a stock Style 1 Tricone. If you look close, you can see the sharp edges on top of a 3 piece body, just like a tricone.(back, top, and sides each 1 pc.)

I guess these could be called either a Style N or a Style O. I consider them prototypes. In fact, if you go back and look at the National factory catalogs, you will see the first sighting of a Style O was in June of 1930. The drawing shows a NON sandblasted body w square off slotted headstock. By the next catalog in around October, you see the O w the familiar Hawaiian sandblasting pattern. These would preceed both those. These two are also made of german silver, as was the tricone. The first ad mentioned German Silver, the second brass.

S74 Above…. S131 below….

These are to my ear by far the best sounding single cones ever made. Too bad they didn’t continue as they were here, but obviously a brass two piece body and squared off headstock is cheaper to make than a 3 piece(two hand soldered seams vs. one) German Silver body w a scrolled headstock.

I’ve now owned about 6 of these just like this. Maybe they made a run of 20 or 30 to experiment before settling on the Style O as we’ve come to know it. Either way, they are the earliest metal bodied single cones and possibly the best sounding they ever made. I’m a believer!

Hope you enjoyed this little tour. These are very important guitars and among the best made by National.

More Eye Candy!

S74 Above, S131 Below, my daily player!

Enjoy! Appreciate your opinions are comments.

This was a Bakelite Necked early Triolian. We’ve replaced the warped neck

with a beautiful Maple neck and Maple fingerboard.

I love these early Triolians!

See the full pictorial here…..

Hello friends, I get a lot of phone calls from people that have one way or the other caught the National Bug! It usually goes like, “man, I”m in love w that sound and I HAVE to have one. Which one should I choose, I need help!” Well, of course, first we need to determine what you’re going to do w your new tool/toy!

Purpose

Are you playing slide? A lot or a little? Mostly fingerstyle and strumming? For a slide specific instrument, nothing beats the beautiful syrupy tone of a tricone. Sustain to die for, not as loud as a single cone, but as John Dopera once noted, “the Tricone has a tone that flows like a river!” Think Tampa Red. You can get a tricone in both round and square neck variants. Early hawaiian music was played regularly on square neck Tricones, the most famous being Sol Hoopie. Again, for lap playing, the tricone is fantastic. Not many play single cone Nationals lapstyle. The lack of sustain drives the lapstyle players to either a tricone or spider bridged Dobro.

Tricone or Single Cone?

If you’re more a fingerstyle player, or like to play Blind Boy Fuller or add some slide w it like a Robert Johnson, you’ll probably gravitate to a single cone. The difference? Single cones are louder, have more attack, but disipate quickly unlike the tricone w it’s great sustain. More banjo like for lack of a better word. (cue the banjo jokes…..)

Build Material, choose your metal!(wood)

Once you decide between a tricone (3 cones inside) or a single cone, then it gets more interesting.
Most all tricones were made of German Silver metal w a 3 piece body. (They did make an M3 tricone of brass at the very end of production. It was painted w a wood grained look.)
The single cones came in a wide variety. Steel, brass, and sometimes german silver was used for single cone bodies in a wide variety of models. Often they were mixed together in the same body.
On top of that, several great sounding wood bodies models were also built and should not be overlooked when deciding which to buy. Keep in mind, the depression was in full pain mode and nothing was ever wasted. They were in effect trying to stay in business as well as grow it.

If you want the maximum in raw, trash can tone, sweetness be damned, then you’ll probably want a steel bodies model. Most all ( I say most because there’s an exception to every rule w old Nat’s) of the Triolians and Duolians were made of steel. As for Style O, many of the earliest ones were made of steel. A few even slipped thru made of german silver. Basically, although most Style O’s were brass, many steel bodies were sprinkled into the first 500 or so. After that, most all were brass. It turned out that steel doesn’t plate very well at all. You actually have to copper plate the body first so the nickel plating will stick. Most of these early steel O’s have poor plating on them as a result. Once they saw this, they realized they better stick w brass for that model. So, for a steel body, gravitate to the Triolian and Duolian models. Now, for a bit more versatility, you might want Brass as it has a sweeter tone, still plenty raw, but not as harsh as a steel body. A brass bodied Style O is very versatile and you can do most anything w it, from raw blues to sweet ragtime. Finally, National made several excellent wood bodies models. El Trovador, early Triolians, Aragon, Trojan and Rosita are the main wood bodies and all have their pros and cons. If you aren’t really wanting the harshness of a metal body, a wood bodied model that has been gone thru is a fantastic choice that is very versatile but still retains plenty of bite!

12 or 14 fretter?

These along w the style O come in both 12 and 14 fret flavors. Like most guitar manufacturers of the time, National switched from a 12 fret design to a 14 fret design in 1934. They actually kept the same scale length, so to get the extra two frets, they made the body shorter in height to open up the two frets. If you put a 12 and 14 fretter side by side, you see the 14 has a smaller body.
Most would argue you get more bass and a bit more volume from the bigger 12 fret body. Many feel the sound is more compact in a 14 fretter. My take? Each one stands on it’s own. I’ve had several 14 fretters that were absolute CANNONS! If you’re a fingerstyler that is used to playing above the 12th fret, you probably want the 14 fretter. If you’re a slide guy in open tuning most of the time, it’s just not that important and you may want to monster volume and tone of the 12 fret body. Nothing like sliding up to the 12th fret and feeling the old familiar body stopping your hand in just the right spot, the good ole 12th fret!

Anyhow, this is just a start to narrow down to what you really want, wether you know it yet or not.
I’ll be covering individual models and providing a ton of pictures in futures arcticles. (still working on figuring it out!) As for comments on this arcticle, I’d love to hear your story about how you decided to choose whatever National you’re currently playing and what you like most about it.
Best, Len

The last five years have been a wild ride in vintage guitar values in general. When I look at the electric market, it pretty much mirrored what the real estate market did. It was not uncommon for huge returns in a few year period on Pre CBS Fender Strat’s and Teles, Gibson Les Paul lines, etc. They’ve now pulled back 25% or so from their high of two years ago. Pretty much peaked the same time the real estate market peaked.

That market was, like real estate, heavily driven by speculators looking to get a fast return, which many did. Now those buyers are gone from the market to a large degree, just as they are in the real estate market. I don’t see near as many people trying to flip a house as I do trying to hold on to one they already own. I spoke with a nationally known electric dealer and collector recently and asked his take. He said “electric prices needed to go back by 35-40%, back to 2004 values because the clowns who drove them up to where they reached are long gone. When that happens, we’ll go back to the buyers who were the backbone of the industry for the last 30 yrs.”

One thing I’d guess is a lot of the money that bought $10-$50k and more instruments came from equity lines on homes that used to be given away by banks like candy. That money has also dried up. It’s hard to even qualify for them any more. In fact, in most of southern California, tens of thousands of people with equity lines that still have huge available credit are getting letter saying their lines have been frozen because their home value has dropped. I have a close friend that about to build a home on a lot he bought mostly with the money from a $250k equity line he has that he owes about $40k on. He got a letter last week saying they cut the credit line to $46k because his value had dropped! Ouch! He doesn’t have enough money and is now forced to sell the lot.

What has this to do with Nationals? They didn’t participate in any speculation whatsoever. Kind of wow but kind of hmmmmm. My take? For starters it’s a relatively small market, with many people still unaware the guitar even existed. The main reason I think is that people buy Nationals to play them. They buy them because they love them, fell in love w the sound somewhere someday. It often happens later in life, after years of solidbodies and twin amps. For me it was seeing a Son House video at 30 yrs old.

My point is, Nationals have just had a steady value growth over that same 5 yr period. Much like a CD in a bank, the value jump has been slow and steady w no spike up or down. A National today is worth more than it ever has been. I think there is just a steady but consistent increase worldwide in the sound and what you can do with it. It’s a good thing. People who buy a vintage National usually know just what they want and buy them to keep and treasure. Then they start wanting a second, a third. It’s all good and money in the bank! I’ll talk popularity trends in my next entry, have a great day!
Len