What years did Duolians have Bakelite necks?

[gaucho]

Are they to be avoided? Can you tell the Bakelite necks and phoelic (sp?) fretboards by looking at them?

[Deleted]

Part if the answer may be in here,
home.provide.net/~cfh/national.html
but I can't find it. Triolians had them 1929-30 I believe. I'm done.
TT

[Mark Makin]

The bakelite neck on early Triolians is easy to spot. Its headstock shape is different and it has two impressed holes in the back of the headstock. The serial number is impressed across the back of the headstock. IT WILL ALWAYS BE AN "A" SERIES NUMBER!
Usually the bakelite is of the mottled type (Black and reddish brown fragments).
They do not normally appear on Duolians although you can't rule it out. The National Company tried this (unsuccessful) experiment in 'new' materials from February 1929 to around August 1930 and there are/were some 1800 made although nearly all of them are bent and have had to be replaced. Don Young at NRP has re-necked a lot of these Triolians.

It is virtually impossible to straighten these bakelite necks out and is not really worth the effort unless you are REALLY dedicated. I do recall one or two people in Europe trying this with a modicum of success but it is not for the faint hearted!

Here are two pics of bakelite necked Triolians. As you can see, you shouldn't have much difficulty spotting one.





The bakelite fingerboard is not so easy to spot. A lot of Duolians around this same time had 'various' composite boards. Some were maple that was dyed black, some are actually true ebony and some are a type of bakelite that is made of layered paper and resin (rather like filo pastry). Usually these only come to light when they start to break up and the edges start to 'flake' revealing the paper layers.

So in answer to your question gaucho - yes avoid them both!

[Matt]

Somewhat jumping from another thread, but here's a gem alluding to bakelite necks:

"This particular model is a very early model before they changed to a stronger neck which made this model prone to warping. Most all of these early models were destroyed because of it. What they did not know then is that the combination of headstock and steel body matured into the a distinctive sound. "

Sigh.

[Michael Messer]

There is some truth is that statement. Steel bodied Nationals with Bakelite necks do have a fantastic tone, the problem is playing a guitar with a banana-shaped neck!

20 years ago I had a beautiful Triolian with a warped Bakelite neck and Steve Evans (Beltona) replaced it with a superb copy - headstock and fretboard shape...etc. It was very well done, but within a few months of having the new neck built I sold it because it had lost all of its beautiful rich tone. I wish I had kept it as a Bakelite neck and used it as a lap steel guitar.

Shine On
Michael.