Hi All,
(LOTS of pix)
Over the last few years, I have purchased 2 tenor guitars built by National Resophonic. Both pre-WWII, both in varying degrees of roughness, and needing varying degrees of work.
Both of these guitars are players, not closet queens.
Brass tenor, guitar shape. 17 frets to the body.
This critter NEEDED a neck reset, and there was some stuff rolling around the inside, so I sent it away, and it came back fixed up.
This is the head stock, original planetary tuners, like on a Ukulele. I have no idea what the hole is for.
Front. The finish is messed up. It was kind of bubbling up, pitted. Per advice, I took some car chrome polish & put some elbow grease into it. It's much smoother now. Looks the same, though.
Back. Looks like somebody dropped this critter, at some point. It does not impact playability, so I am not going to have it "fixed."
Close up of the back, bottom.
Steel tenor, pear shaped. 19 frets to the body.
Back of the head stock, steel pear shaped tenor. Not the original tuners. These are off of a 1940 something Martin.
After dinner, and some monkeying around, I got the front of the guitar to show up.
The front of the steel pear shaped tenor guitar. Per the SN database, this critter was built in 1929, making it 88 years old, as of 2017.
In terms of work done on this guy: Neck reset. Replaced the first 5 or so frets. They had grooves worn in them, almost down to the fretboard. Some new binding on the neck, glued down other pieces. New tuners. Cleaned out the interior. New nut. New NatReso sticker from NatReso.
Back of the steel tenor. Per the SN, this should have been nickel of steel. But this color seems to be something that the folks at NatReso used on occasion. I can find no evidence of nickel on this thing. So maybe it was stripped?
Front of the headstock. Near as I can tell, the fretboard is ebonized maple. The marks in the fretboard are honest wear. Lots of it.
(LOTS of pix)
Over the last few years, I have purchased 2 tenor guitars built by National Resophonic. Both pre-WWII, both in varying degrees of roughness, and needing varying degrees of work.
Both of these guitars are players, not closet queens.
Brass tenor, guitar shape. 17 frets to the body.
This critter NEEDED a neck reset, and there was some stuff rolling around the inside, so I sent it away, and it came back fixed up.
This is the head stock, original planetary tuners, like on a Ukulele. I have no idea what the hole is for.
Front. The finish is messed up. It was kind of bubbling up, pitted. Per advice, I took some car chrome polish & put some elbow grease into it. It's much smoother now. Looks the same, though.
Back. Looks like somebody dropped this critter, at some point. It does not impact playability, so I am not going to have it "fixed."
Close up of the back, bottom.
Steel tenor, pear shaped. 19 frets to the body.
Back of the head stock, steel pear shaped tenor. Not the original tuners. These are off of a 1940 something Martin.
After dinner, and some monkeying around, I got the front of the guitar to show up.
The front of the steel pear shaped tenor guitar. Per the SN database, this critter was built in 1929, making it 88 years old, as of 2017.
In terms of work done on this guy: Neck reset. Replaced the first 5 or so frets. They had grooves worn in them, almost down to the fretboard. Some new binding on the neck, glued down other pieces. New tuners. Cleaned out the interior. New nut. New NatReso sticker from NatReso.
Back of the steel tenor. Per the SN, this should have been nickel of steel. But this color seems to be something that the folks at NatReso used on occasion. I can find no evidence of nickel on this thing. So maybe it was stripped?
Front of the headstock. Near as I can tell, the fretboard is ebonized maple. The marks in the fretboard are honest wear. Lots of it.
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thanks for posting
Thanks for posting this truly distressed bass -
