Please recommend an online dealer for National

[drolling]

The bug's bit hard since I finally ponied up for a good resonator guitar last month..

No more putzin' around modding knock-offs, transplanting cones, etc.. even my very nice bell brass Dobro pales beside my new steel Delphi & the hot-rodded Regal's finally goin' on the chopping block after many years of faithful service.

It's a Resolectric I'm after now, but they're proving difficult to track down.

Where do you guys get your National Resophonics?

thanks!

[sinner]

One like this?
http://www.gbase.com/files/store_images/159/1553589/Photo1_f2959.jpg (http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/gearinforequest.aspx?Item=1553589)
that one's at Elderly but I see them come up on GBase. My favorite dealer for Nats, old and new, is Lenny at VintageNationals.com in Santa Barbara. Don't know if Lenny has a resolectric but you could call and have him keep an eye out, great guy Lenny!

[drolling]

Yeah! That's the one.. Elderlys is a great place, but they're back-ordered right now..

I'll give Lenny a holler..

thanks!

[mt10]

I just saw one hanging on a wall at a guitar shop in Seattle. I am sure they would ship it. The shop is called Dusty Strings.
Phone is 206-634-1662, you can give them a call if you are interested. They usually are willing to come down from their asking price too.

[drolling]

I just saw one hanging on a wall at a guitar shop in Seattle. I am sure they would ship it. The shop is called Dusty Strings.
Phone is 206-634-1662, you can give them a call if you are interested. They usually are willing to come down from their asking price too.Thanks mt, but I just put a deposit on one that's a few thousand miles closer to me.. I'm always on the edge of suspense when a guitar's traveling across the continent - I've heard so many horror stories & seen so many pix of guitars destroyed in shipping that I always try to go w/the closest store I can find.

And these guitars are really, really popular these days - Elderly's has a waiting list that's several months long!!

I think National's a pretty small operation, too. But the quality's very high these days. I played about a dozen of their new guitars last month, and they ranged from excellent to spectacular.. They really leave the competition in the dust.. AND they're made here in north america, which is a nice change (for me, anyway..)

[mt10]

I generally have a hard time buying a guitar before having the chance to play it, that on top of the risk of damage, I can relate.

I have to say, your last few posts have been dangerous, ever since your "Finally got a National Steel" post, I have been GAS'n for a National. Actually ever since that and since I decided I really liked resos. Which was last week since that is when I got my first. I have the second on the way, but I keep wondering if I should have just gotten a National. I love the Liberty I got but there is just something about owning a National.

Congrats on finding and picking up your new National.

[gnugear]

Do it ... get the National ... you know you want it.

[drolling]

I generally have a hard time buying a guitar before having the chance to play it, that on top of the risk of damage, I can relate.

I have to say, your last few posts have been dangerous, ever since your "Finally got a National Steel" post, I have been GAS'n for a National. Actually ever since that and since I decided I really liked resos. Which was last week since that is when I got my first. I have the second on the way, but I keep wondering if I should have just gotten a National. I love the Liberty I got but there is just something about owning a National.

Congrats on finding and picking up your new National.Thanks!

You've got a Dobro on the way, IIRC.. That might hold you for a while - they're really just about as good as it gets when it comes to wood body/spider bridge style resos, and the more recent hybrid designs are still a heck of a lot better than the gazillion asian-made knock-offs that have flooded the market in the last 10 years.

When the Dopeyra (sp??) bros. split up, one guy (National) went w/the small cone/bisquit bridge design & the other (Dobro) kept the big cone/spider design. You can't really say one's *better* than the other.. in fact, I used to think that a brass tricone would be my ultimate resophonic, but it turns out that I prefer the 'bottom-of-the-line' single cone steel model above all the rest..

When I noticed the other guitars in your sig, I figured it's only a matter of time before you get a style O, which is the quintessential reso that everyone knows from that old Dire Straights album.. No hurry, tho'.. Did you slowly work up to it, or was that EJ your first strat?

I wish I could show off some pics of mine, but I'd like to see the Liberty, if you could post a pic - They certainly don't seem to be copying the two big guys, like everybody else does. And I'd be interested in hearing about that incoming Dobro. Up till this year, they were making a dozen or more different models. What are you getting??

[mt10]

Here is a pic of the Liberty

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/ericswong/IMG_0124.jpg

I'll try to take some better shots when the Dobro comes in. The Dobro is a '92 F60. I don't know much about it but it looked nice so I thought I would give it a try.

I was also wondering about the tricone since I figured I had the single cone covered. But I haven't played or heard one outside of sound clips so I am not sure. From what I have heard, I think I also prefer the single cone since I like the volume and the slightly harsher sound of the single cone.

I like the idea of working up to the National, for one I am pretty much broke now, and for two I haven't earned it yet. The EJ was my second Strat, not that I am good enough to say I have really earned that either. My first was a MIM that I actually thought was a great guitar.

[drolling]

That Liberty looks great! Much nicer than the pix on their website.. And your incoming Dobro was made before Gibson took over in '93 and started messing with the line, so I'm not sure what an F60 is either - but feel free to post a pic & review when you get your hands on it..

Be careful with the tricones. So far the only dog I've bought online was a Regal RC-51 tricone. If I didn't live in another country, I'd have sent it right back - traded it in at a shop for less than half what I paid after working w/little success to stop the rattling & increase the volume. Nickel-plated brass, it looked amazing, but sounded terrible & didn't play very well, either. If you go the budget route, make sure you get to play it first!

BTW, I'm still on my first (and probably last) strat, a '93 MIJ ST-54 w/Fralin p-ups & Callaham hardware..

[sinner]

Since we're all sharing our reso (and National) joys, here's my 1931 National Duolian I got from Lenny's:

http://images.lilypix.com/albums/olddata/4d2e7bd33c475784381a64e43e50922f/3188_p50321.gif
http://images.lilypix.com/albums/olddata/4d2e7bd33c475784381a64e43e50922f/3188_p50323.gif
I also had a new Vintage Steel Tricone, and we're right, great quaility from National Resophonic, but had to recently sell it. Some day I'll get another Tricone, maybe this time a shiny nickel one, or better yet a vintage German Silver!
Something like this (provided for your's and mine GASing pleasures):

http://images.lilypix.com/albums/userpics/10028/InvisibleGuitar5.gif