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Old 09-23-2019, 05:53 AM
BudHa BudHa is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 167
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I play blues with a slide on my resonator guitars. I own a Gretch Boxcar, Gold Tone PBR-D with a Beard Legend cone, and a National steel NRP. For general information: the NRP has a biscuit bridge steel body, the Boxcar and the PBR-D have a spider bridge laminate wood body. The two different styles have very different tones to me. The Boxcar is a great value. I also bought a Boxcar after watching Toby Walker on Youtube. The Boxcar is no match for the PBR-D or the NRP but is still a very good instrument.

I bought my 2007 PBR-D used, in 2018, for $500 with a good quality hardshell case. I changed out the 11 year old Beard BC-1 cone for a Beard Legend cone. Huge difference in tone with the Legend cone. I really love this guitar. I often see these on the used market for a reasonable price.

The NRP is a 2009 model. I bought it in 2019 for $1500 with OEM hardshell case. It is in mint condition. I replaced the cone with a new National cone. I assumed replacing a 10 year old cone would be a good idea. There was noticeable tone improvement with the new cone. The NRP is a much better built guitar than the other two and I would buy another if mine disappeared.

On another note, I bought a Gold Tone Beard GRS, online from Guitar Center, before I bought the NRP. The GRS is biscuit bridge steel body guitar that looks similar to a NRP. I thought since I liked my Gold Tone Beard PBR-D, I would like the GRS. I did not care for the tone or the construction of the GRS. In open G tuning it sounded like a banjo. I tried different cones and strings and was never able to get decent tone from the guitar. When I had the cone out, I inspected the construction inside. The structural design was somewhat similar to the NRP neckstick design but the workmanship and execution was very sloppy. I took the GRS back to Guitar Center I went on the hunt for my NRP.
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