12 or 14 fret National?

[Earl49]

FWIW, when I first got into slide playing it was hard to find a 14-fret resonator guitar, which I am seriously imprinted upon. (Twelve frets confuse me at first but I can adapt). I have never owned a National, as that was above my budget for that particular playing niche. Slide in open tunings gets you up to the 12th fret a lot to reach the octave, and I found it useful to have some room above without running into the body. I play with the slide on my pinky finger, if that makes a difference to your style. With the slide on the ring finger I would think that a 14-fret version would almost be mandatory.

Aesthetically I like the pewter finish. I have cutaways on most of my guitars, but for slide work on a resonator a 14-fret body join would be good enough, while still paying homage to the traditional look. You asked.....

[blue]

Originally Posted by anton

I'm really having trouble deciding on a configuration for this National NRP.

I have 3 National Resophonic acoustic nationals, 2 electric (reso-tone and reso-lectric revolver), and one '32 squareneck (they only started building modern squarenecks a few years ago).

Of the modern ones all were bought used. The Syle N for $850 5 or so years ago.

I will share my approach with you. Have the cash ready. Identify 3 (at least) models you would be happy with. Then search the used market everyday until you find one of the ones you want.

If I only went after new I could afford maybe two of the acoustics over the same time-span I acquired my collection over. If I had insisted on a style O over my style N (the only difference is the sandblasted Palm and Surfer scene) It would have been twice as much used.

One of them is my holy-grail. I was looking for a deal on a Style 1 tricone, and found a used German Silver Style 1 for only about $200 more. I also had found a Baritone style 1 with custom neck binding and headstock overlay for even less during that same search. They were 4 months apart and I was able to get both. My cost for both was at least $1,500 less than the price for one of them new. That's the benefit of having a broader search.

So yeah. If you can narrow it down to one, by all means go for it. If not, have a "shopping list" and look at the used market. In my experience, Nationals are consistently "closet queens". People buy them and don't play them. Used is a very safe gamble. Not really a gamble at all.