Tricone mandolin #143

[mendax]

Here's one for Mark! I got this from Dave Flood 45 years ago. It still has its original cloth wool herringbone "case", but years ago Bob Page at Traditional Music found a worn but original hard case for it.
I was amazed at its condition considering what it had been kept in all those years. You'll notice the metal National logo tag: about a month ago I was flipping channels on the TV and as I passed "MATLOCK" I quickly yelled and turned back as Andy was holding his tricone uke. I don't know if he had been playing it earlier, but as of course he was now talking and in the process of putting it away. As he held it up, the light caught the logo and it appeared if it had the same metal tag as my mandolin. I can't say I want to start watching the series in order to confirm this, but I definitely saw a glint from the head stock. I've
been looking for a still photo of his ukulele's head stock, but haven't found one anywhere yet.















As you would expect, the tone is quite different from a single cone mandolin--not nearly as loud and brash. I also have #444 silver Style 1 mandolin which I obtained from Noah Miller last year. You can see much better pictures of it that I could possibly take on his OLD FRETS site.

[Michael Messer]

Mendax, this is beautiful. I will respond properly when I have time in a couple of days. It's a bit of a hectic weekend for me!

Shine On
Michael

[Mark Makin]

Hi Mendax,
really good to catch up with you at last and thanks so much for the additional numbers information and pictures. It is always very special when we add to this early National information.
The metal badge logo is really interesting. I only know of one of these which is one of the early ukulele banjos made by John and Rudy around 1925 (see pictures) As you can see they initially used it on the back of the headstock. As you probably know, including yours, we have records of a total of 7 silver tricone mandolins and most are Style 2s. All of these seem to have standard production type decals. Yours is also, so far, the highest number recorded yet it has one of these early badges. Because of the Dave Flood/John Dopyera connection do you think it was maybe just a left over example they found in a drawer?
'
Ive also added a picture of Andy Griffiths uke. As you can see, it has a National 'blue' early decal on it.
Very best wishes Mark

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[pete1951]

I think it odd that National never made (or at least non have been found so far) any guitars with an A (or it could be a Y with a cross )bridge arrangement rather than the T bridge on all guitars.
An ‘A’ bridge could be used to move the bridge up the instrument and allow the use of a 14fret neck.
As 14 fret guitars were in demand (most say they don’t sound quite as good as a 12fret, but plenty were made just the same) why not a 14 fret tricone?
Pete

[mendax]

Hello, Mark. Around that time Dave was selling some things for Rudy--I never asked, but the mandolin may have been his. As to the badge, having never seen another tricone mandolin or ukulele until Brozman's book, I had thought it was the normal logo for them. I thought it odd there was no example of it in his book. Thus, I had never seen another metal logo until that photo posted by Michael a little while back. Dave had also had around a year later a pear shape tenor with a palm pedal that Rudy had invented--another style 1. Not playing tenor at the time I at first tried to be "practical" and thought about it. When I came to my senses
2 weeks later of course it was gone! Dave still has Rudy's prototype aluminum Dobro round neck. Not exactly a fiddle edge, it has metal binding glued on with white glue! It has a much deeper body than normal, and is the loudest, best sounding Dobro I have ever played. It doesn't have the wooden "canoe" (as Rik Besser calls it) inside that one finds in the production M46-47 guitars. It even has some funky neck with a crack in the headstock--as Rudy just grabbed something out of a bin when he made it. Dave of course could make a better neck for it, but because this was the way Rudy assembled it, he wasn't going to change anything.
So, my guess is that if Rudy didn't put the badge on the mandolin at some point, it still may have been done originally at the factory simply because it was handy at the time.

[snakehips]

Hi there !

Has the neck been refinished ?
I didn't think they were doing sunburst finishes on the neck, WAY back when they were making mandolins, let alone Tricone mandolins !

[mendax]

As far as I can tell it's the original finish...maybe as it was one of the last tricones they were experimenting. As I believe it may have been owned by Rudy, maybe it was something he did. It certainly dresses up a Style 1!

[joephoto]

I watch Matlock a lot and have seen that instrument often. I'm far from an expert but I think it's a ukulele. I don't think I've seen it played for more than one minute. I've got a few photos of him with it. They aren't great. There's a piece on YouTube of him playing with Randy Travis but it's just a not so clear photo with not so good audio of the sound. I notice things in the background on TV shows. What I'm wondering is on Perry Mason there is usually a guitar case by the door in his office. Just wondering what's in there.

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[joephoto]

I was looking for more photos and/or info just now and found a site that points to Michael's site. They have a lot of nice photos but I need a nap so I'll check it better later.


www.notecannons.com/index.html

[Michael Messer]

Jun 28, 2019 19:51:31 GMT joephoto said:

I was looking for more photos and/or info just now and found a site that points to Michael's site. They have a lot of nice photos but I need a nap so I'll check it better later.


www.notecannons.com/index.html

This was the Notecannons collection owned by Colin McCubbin in Canada. I catalogued the collection and built the website in 2000. The photography was done by my brother and renowned photographer, Alan Messer.

Shine On
Michael.