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Topic: National Round Neck |
Bob Gleason
From:
Hawaii, USA
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Posted 13 Jul 2016 9:55 pm |
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| I know this is a little off topic for this forum, but I thought there might be some expertise here anyway. I'm working on a completely trashed prewar National round neck. The brass body is unsoldered in several places, original cream paint stripped completely, holes and dents in the body, tricones shot, etc. In other words trashed. Even in this condition it was still not what I would call affordable, but I've always wanted one so......... I'm not terribly concerned about value or collectability with this guitar, but still I want to retain the original flavor somewhat. All the guitars, with the exception of classicals, that I have made have had radius fretboards. I have the fretboard off this guitar now to repair the neck. My inclination is to slightly radius this fretboard (rosewood on a maple neck). My question here is did any of the pre WWII round neck Nationals ever have a radius fretboard? Thanks, Bob www.pegasusguitars.com |
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Eric Meyer
From:
Illinois, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2016 5:18 am
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Check out this page: http://www.guitarhq.com/national.html
There is tons of info on older Nationals.
Quick excerpt
"The pre-1933 single cone models seem very crude to me. Also, when National switched to 14 fret necks they changed to a 10 inch fingerboard radius. Prior to this, most 12 fret necks have a completely flat fingerboard radius (except for some 1934 twelve fret models). This is very uncomfortable to me (though if you play bottleneck this makes little difference)." |
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Bob Gleason
From:
Hawaii, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2016 10:59 am
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| Eric, Great site. Thanks. It is interesting that they posted a photo of the 1941 M3 guitar that they have and say the one they have may have been the only round neck ever made. I guess there are at least 2 of them now. Mine is way too trashed to be collectable, but I will try to get it back to as close to original looking and it will be fun to have it to play.--Bob |
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John Dahms
From:
Perkasie, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2016 4:52 pm
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Bob, when you first said your guitar was cream colored I was already wondering if it could be an M3.
What you have is a late model prewar tricone and regardless of how "trashed" it may seem to be it may be worth doing more research before making any changes to it. There may be someone out there who would be willing to trade a functional National or equivalent to you for the M3. They ain't making them no more.
_________________
Time flies like an eagle
Fruit flies like a banana. |
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Bob Gleason
From:
Hawaii, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2016 10:42 pm
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| John, Thanks for the thoughts. I considered just what you mentioned. I have been building, repairing, and restoring guitars full time for over 40 years. I don't claim to be the best, but I think I can do justice to this guitar. It's really a challenge, and I like challenges.National seems to be a friendly company and I've already gotten advice and new parts from them. The most difficult part of the project is the metal repair of the dings, dents, and holes in the body. I'm researching that a lot and will do what I determine to be best. Luckily no parts were missing from the instrument and I got to see exactly how it was braced up inside. They did some pretty rough work at National in the old days. I was actually surprised at the various plywood parts that all had wafers coming apart. I imagine newer ones are a lot nicer inside. |
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Ian McWee
From:
Worcestershire, UK
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Posted 15 Jul 2016 1:50 am
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Hi Bob,
If ever you need specific info regarding pre-war National Resophonic instruments the guy to contact is Mark Makin over here in England (www.markmakin.co.uk), author of the definitive book for all things National ~ Mark is a good friend & very helpful, knowledgeable guy 
Ian. |
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