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#31
01-31-2020, 03:48 PM
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Ah, and this is an old pal of mine showing off his "german silver" style "O"
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! 
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#32
01-31-2020, 06:09 PM
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Saturday morning here and stormy and horrid humid......
The usual guitars are full of humidity and sound awful, so for my usual Saturday morning torture myself practice of running through increasingly more difficult fingerpicking tunes in C with capo on 3..... I was thinking of re-tuning the National M14 to standard tuning like you are thinking about, Doug. In this weather here, it is best to just have a pedestal fan going, but it is really noisy for acoustic guitar playing! Nationals are loud, loud, loud! Instead of re-tuning, I grabbed my ladder braced Waterloo WL-14L to sort of ease myself in and that hokey pokey ladder thing sliced through the fan noise! I will have a bit of lunch soon and grab the National after, perhaps.....but I thought of your potential quest for a National for standard tuning fingerpicking and keep coming up with my Waterloo instead! It could be the ‘transitional’ sound you may be looking for but a familiar size (L-00), fab V neck, all solid woods but the ladder bracing definitely gives it a reso type hokiness  BluesKing777.
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#33
01-31-2020, 06:33 PM
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Hi guys,
I think what I am experiencing is that most feared form of GAS, the dreaded National Reso GAS. Like most GASes it is irrational but now, after decades of suffering, it must be thoroughly explored. Accept no substitutes. My wife has agreed to a road trip to the "local" National dealer within the next 60 days so I can try out a roomful. I've decided against used. I've been burned one too many times and I have very little practical experience with used resos to know what to watch out for. Thanks for all the great input, pics and videos. It"s been really helpful. I'll report back after our trip! Last edited by Guest 33123; 01-31-2020 at 08:01 PM.
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#34
01-31-2020, 10:54 PM
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Quote:
 Or wait in the car? Kidding, good news..... When I got my metal Dobro, you couldn’t get a new National, not invented yet and occasional music acquaintances bought a beaten old 30s National but one local guy had some special Tricone.....you could GAS all you like but not expect to ever have one. Then National Resophonics started and you could GAS away on all kinds of funny things. Now as far as showmanship, the only National to get is a shiny one, doesn’t matter what or how many cones, because as I have mentioned, people come from everywhere just to look at it! Run a slide down my metal Dobro and get a huge cheer! True! Bizarre! Run a slide down a Gibson and nobody will even notice, ever. Run a slide down a wood body National and a few National fans may notice . Like Steve James said, if the guitar has a hubcap on it, people expect you to play slide on it. So keep these points in mind when shopping.So, if you want to sit quietly at home and plunk some standard tuning stuff on a National but don’t want the happy shiny people to annoy you, and you don’t want everyone to ask you to play Mark Knopfler, go for the plain wood body with minimal adornment. They may sound the same as a shiny! If you want to play at the Ritz in your best tux and the lights come up and you want everyone to gasp at your shiny National Silver Tricone #4, well....you know what to buy. I went to see Mark Knopfler in Dire Straits years ago BECAUSE of his National. And in the middle of the gig, the lights went down and when they came back up, he was sitting there playing the famous National with “Romeo and Juliet” and the sound.....and the lighting...made it look like spun gold, and it could have been...and everyone did gasp with a capital G! GASP! Just magic. I played my shiny Dobro at 2 or 3 clubs and people waved to me in the street! I kid you not. A guy that worked in one of those clubs yelled out to me across a busy intersection: “Ya still got that Dobro?” I had only been fingerpicking for a couple of years so I certainly hadn’t blinded them with my skill. I now want a custom Koa National Estralita I saw on the Nat site...rats. And....and..and. Good luck with your shopping! P.S. there is a forum by Michael Messer for resos. BluesKing777. Last edited by BluesKing777; 01-31-2020 at 11:03 PM.
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#35
02-01-2020, 01:46 PM
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Yeah I don't think I need anything shiny or flashy. Not a slide guy either. I'm just looking for a cool sonic change up that appeals to me. I really like the sound of the M-1 Tricone and they have one in stock along with about a dozen other different styles like the Wocket etc. Should be fun! Last edited by Guest 33123; 02-01-2020 at 02:18 PM.
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#36
02-01-2020, 07:27 PM
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Quote:
Cool, but keep in mind the thing about guitars with hubcaps and slide...unusual for standard tuning - maybe like a full 3 turbo V8 BMW coupe to drive to the train station or supermarket or church on Sunday.... So, this in mind, and like I said previously I played my Dobro in standard tuning for years....only acoustic I had for a long while......you have some preparation to do maybe before going to the reso shop. All their Nats could be in slide tuning Open G or Open D so the sliders can walk in and try them all out. SO, you can either learn a few Open D or G things or ring ahead and tell the shop you are about to come and buy FOUR or FIVE Nationals to play in standard tuning...get them to have the whole range in standard tuning ready for you. Mr Popularity with wallet, for a minute..... Otherwise you may just turn up, play a very ugly E chord in Open Z, start retuning, break some strings...Mr Popularity! Or it seems at this stage you want a light wood body National for standard tuning blues and rags, so ring them and ask them what they recommend and do they have that? My guess is either a wood body Resorocket light single cone (I want ) or the M1 wood with three heavy cones? Ask them to retune those for you at a nominated time. Otherwise BK777 could re-tune it to Open V.. Also keep in mind that we have all gone off with coins rattling in our pocket for X and came home with Z. BluesKing777.
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#37
02-01-2020, 08:09 PM
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#38
02-01-2020, 08:22 PM
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Oh BTW here's a link to what they carry: https://www.12fret.com/brands/national/
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#39
02-01-2020, 10:38 PM
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You sure are going to need your horse blinkers on going past some of their wares to get to the Nationals out back! The 1953 Gibson J50 springs to mind..... Anyway, National, what National err, what was I saying? Get the J50 and the Nationals are everywhere, no, sorry, National, Natinal, Nati, Nat....>>>>> (Robbie Robot running out of gas...Warning Warning warn..ing). Oh yeah, do you want 12 frets with that? My M14 is 14 frets and set lower for a hybrid setting. But you know, since I got the used cherry burst Dove, I’m thinking for myself to get a bit wilder and get something bright blue or yellow like an old Collegian Nat. And if I had my time over in bands, I would have one of those Nat Replicon electrics in black rust instead of a silly Tele! Wow, straight off the steampunk spaceship! BluesKing777.
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#40
02-01-2020, 11:15 PM
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#41
02-02-2020, 10:59 AM
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#42
02-02-2020, 12:58 PM
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The 12th Fret is a great place, definitely go there!
I spent an hour or two in there a couple of years ago trying out a bunch of resonators. I'd like to to go back there one day and do it again. Don't think Nationals ship with strings heavier than 13 on the top E, could be wrong but I don't think so, so tuning to standard is fine. I actually bought a Michael Messer steel body resonator that day, it spoke to me and still does today, it's a joy to play both with slide and with fingers.
__________________
Country Blues recordings : https://joepaulblues.bandcamp.com
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#44
02-02-2020, 05:49 PM
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A quick trip to California with the wife, Doug? .......or a leap of faith with the M14 like mine or the Estralita? Both will do your job wonderfully! BluesKing777.
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#45
02-03-2020, 08:36 AM
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