How come you never see beat-up old Tricones?
 

There is no shortage of old national duolians and style 0s that have been used and abused…finishing flaking off, tons of play wear, dings and dents, all sorts of creative home paint jobs to various degrees of success, but it seems like every old tricone is in generally good condition. People seem to have babied them a bit more for some reason. What I love about old nationals is how much abuse they take and keep on kickin.

Anyone ever see a heavily reliced tricone?

I still can't quite believe that I traded my National Style "0" Deluxe tricone in perfect condition for a used Estralita that I had to have a neck reset done.

Tricones certainly have a sound all their own - not always ideal for blues - too "clean" and can be temperamental due to the tricone set up.

The reason (well justification) for parting with it was the volume and , mostly the weight.

That isn't really uncommon with expensive niche instruments, which tricones have always been.

well, I've got one - my late '30/early '31 Style 1 has been through the wars, a few little dings in the back, scratches on the back that look like it was cleaned with a scouring-pad, & a lot of the nickel-plating has rubbed/worn off the front, although since it's made of nickel-silver, the wear doesn't show like it would if it was regular brass - but still, it's an original round-neck tricone that plays pretty good & sings sweetly, so I'm not complaining,

Very cool! I bet it looks and sounds awesome. I used to think Strats were the guitars that looked best when heavily reliced, but I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing carries wear better than a reso.