Post by snakehips on Jul 22, 2022 12:02:23 GMT
Hi there !
I recently found this guitar going cheap on ebay (I've been looking for one for years !).
It's a super-rare (circa) 1941 National Princess archtop electric guitar.
In the past, I've had a National New Yorker from about the same year, that had the same pickup.
Anyway the guitar I just got needs some work done to it - and I'm wondering who might be the best person available, to send it to.
The guitar has a laminated top (so I expect the back & sides will be too (I don't know really !).
There is a bit of the laminate top layers coming apart by the treble-side F-hole - and I'm not sure if that's all, or if it could be happening elsewhere.
There are thin wooden dowels between the guitar top & back - possibly an anti-feedback design, or just because National thought it was needed for structural strength ?
I just wonder if the guitar body needs taken apart & rebuilt. There is at least once short strip of kerfing loose inside the guitar.
It needs a neck reset (I think) and might need the neck straightened too.
I don't think it's anywhere near a basket-case - but who might be interested in restoring such a guitar back to playable condition ?
The pickup is barely working - so I'm sending it to Kent Armstrong to work on - as they have done excellent work on some other weird & wonderful vintage pickups for me in the past.
If you are wondering WHY I'd be interested in such a guitar, well, it is a National (of course !!), AND one of these guitars was supposedly owned by Elmore James.
A falling-to-bits example of this guitar was handed into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio, by Elmore James last record producer (Bobby Robinson) years back, on the occasion of him inducting Elmore into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, claiming the guitar belonged to Elmore. This guitar is on display at the R&R Hall of Fame.
There are no known photos of Elmore playing this guitar though. The serial number for that guitar is unknown, and other than the ONE single guitar that Mark Makin does have a serial for (that one has had it's pickup replaced for a humbucker, and has a replacment pickguard), my latest guitar is the only other guitar of that model now known about.
NB. The US ebay seller wanted $275 for shipping fees - and wouldn't sell it to me otherwise.
The shipping box USPS documents show he only paid $105 to actually ship the guitar to me.
Ebay reckon they can claim the difference back for me ($170 !!) but the seller is so far refusing, claiming it's more hassle to ship abroad (not $170 more hassle !!!).
Box it up, take it to a post office and perhaps the form to fill in is a little different BUT what else is different or a hassle ???
Pictures below
I recently found this guitar going cheap on ebay (I've been looking for one for years !).
It's a super-rare (circa) 1941 National Princess archtop electric guitar.
In the past, I've had a National New Yorker from about the same year, that had the same pickup.
Anyway the guitar I just got needs some work done to it - and I'm wondering who might be the best person available, to send it to.
The guitar has a laminated top (so I expect the back & sides will be too (I don't know really !).
There is a bit of the laminate top layers coming apart by the treble-side F-hole - and I'm not sure if that's all, or if it could be happening elsewhere.
There are thin wooden dowels between the guitar top & back - possibly an anti-feedback design, or just because National thought it was needed for structural strength ?
I just wonder if the guitar body needs taken apart & rebuilt. There is at least once short strip of kerfing loose inside the guitar.
It needs a neck reset (I think) and might need the neck straightened too.
I don't think it's anywhere near a basket-case - but who might be interested in restoring such a guitar back to playable condition ?
The pickup is barely working - so I'm sending it to Kent Armstrong to work on - as they have done excellent work on some other weird & wonderful vintage pickups for me in the past.
If you are wondering WHY I'd be interested in such a guitar, well, it is a National (of course !!), AND one of these guitars was supposedly owned by Elmore James.
A falling-to-bits example of this guitar was handed into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio, by Elmore James last record producer (Bobby Robinson) years back, on the occasion of him inducting Elmore into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, claiming the guitar belonged to Elmore. This guitar is on display at the R&R Hall of Fame.
There are no known photos of Elmore playing this guitar though. The serial number for that guitar is unknown, and other than the ONE single guitar that Mark Makin does have a serial for (that one has had it's pickup replaced for a humbucker, and has a replacment pickguard), my latest guitar is the only other guitar of that model now known about.
NB. The US ebay seller wanted $275 for shipping fees - and wouldn't sell it to me otherwise.
The shipping box USPS documents show he only paid $105 to actually ship the guitar to me.
Ebay reckon they can claim the difference back for me ($170 !!) but the seller is so far refusing, claiming it's more hassle to ship abroad (not $170 more hassle !!!).
Box it up, take it to a post office and perhaps the form to fill in is a little different BUT what else is different or a hassle ???
Pictures below
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