Tri-cone moved while re-stringing
 

Okay, let's get it out of way - I'm a dumb ***. I recently bought a National tri-cone Style 1 resonator with a very old set of strings on it. I bought new strings, loosened all the strings on resonator at once (didn't know any better) and the tri-cone moved. Now when I tighten the strings - usually OPEN G or D tuning, the high E string is fractionally higher than the B and it makes getting a good sounding slide on the B string nearly impossible because of the angle. Does this make sense? Any ideas or suggestions are very much appreciated. I have tried to move the tri cone around many times but I get the same result. The local guitar shop can't get me in for 4-6 weeks, so I would love to fix this issue myself.

And yes...I now know to remove one string at a time in order to keep tension on the bridge.

remove strings
remove coverplate
make sure T Bar is centered on the cones, and all the speakers are sitting flush in their wells
replace coverplate
restring

There's a good pic of a tri-cone internal view here...

https://i.imgur.com/WgQBcNE.jpg

Sounds like the high E is not in it's slot on the wooden bridge top. Just loosen the string enough to slide it back and forth so can feel it go in and out of the slot.

The entire wooden bridge topper might have slid one way or the other. If you need to adjust it just gradually all the strings evenly until you can move it.

Yes that would be the best place to start! But on the Nationals the wood saddle is generally glued into the Tbar so I don't know if that moved

Thanks for the replies. The E string is definitely positioned correctly in the slot on the bridge, so looks like I'll be taking the plate off and getting into the belly of the beast this weekend! I appreciate the help.

Try loosening the strings just enough to slide things around. With the string tension you might feel things settle into place without a complete removal.

That's one reason why I don't take all the strings off when I restring mine.