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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2013 22:29:05 GMT
Forum member Bob Jones has one. I played it a few weeks ago. The neck was uncomfortable to play IMO, and it sounded OK, but it wouldn't be on 'the list'. TT
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Post by amccj7 on Aug 31, 2013 12:15:23 GMT
Mark Those pics of the French Reso are they from "The Country Heritage" Mag by Bev King?
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Post by Colin McCubbin on Sept 3, 2013 1:26:19 GMT
Aloha Mark, Many thanks for the translated Cyril article, I'd been hoping to see that for 20+ YEARS!! I was searching an old Pc (must one day go through and get all my Nat related stuff on my current pc) for pictures of a Sq Neck National tricone with the fingerboard removed for another forum member, and I found this email reply which you kindly sent to me some years ago, when I asked about the Beuscher guitar I had found. I hope you will not mind me posting it here for forum members to read. It doesn't add much to your previous post, but adds another view. "This guitar is a SIMATONE BEUSCHER. (SB on the machine head covers) Paul Beuscher in Paris discovered that he had a large market for metal guitars in West Africa (supposedly because of the deleterious climate!) and in 1953, he commissioned Theo Ruiz to build a Duolian copy but made of brass and nickel plated. Around 400 were made up till around late 1969. As you said earlier, most went to Africa but at least 100 remained in Paris and a large part of these ended up in the UK. Quite a few players here have come across these over the years - they were always a good choice, if you couldn't find a National in the 60s. They are surprisingly good instruments. They have a feel not dissimilar to a 30s style 0 although the finish of the necks could have been better. The great African singer Koyate Sory Kandia was always seen with a Beuscher resonator.
In 1963, Theo Ruiz added some 4 string tenor guitars and two runs of 40 'Jazz models'. These were single cutaway guitars with a similar cutaway shape to the Selmer/Macaferri gypsy guitars (NB the tailpiece is also from the Selmer/Macaferri stable). There were a few other guitars made until late 1970 when production of the cones ceased. This problem seems to have accounted for the closure of the entire guitar project as well!.
In 1989, my friend Mike Lewis of Fine Resophonics in Paris, accidentally stumbled across a dozen of these guitars still packed in cardboard boxes in the cellar of a recently out-of-business music store in Paris. They had consecutive serial numbers scratched in the guitar back inside under the cone from 57 to 69. All of them were missing cones - so they were probably the last set to be made and so never quite made it on to the streets. Mike and I fitted them with US cones that Don Young sent us (probably some of his very first used in the Jazz Blues instruments!!!). They were then sold around the UK. Interestingly, the earlier guitars (like the one you picture) have MOULDED backs while the later ones around 1969 have FLAT backs.
Incidentally most of this information is courtesy of research done by Cyril LeFebvre - Frances's great multi-instrumentalist. Hope it clears up a few points.
I do have a picture from the 1969 Beuscher catalogue showing the two guitars 'Spanish and Jazz' but I can't seem to upload it (even using photobucket) I could always PM it to you.
Also, in 1979, Bev King did an article in her 'Resophonic Echoes' magazine out of Madill, OK. There is a bit more info in there than I have given you but not much - a few more photos though!"As always, Mahalo nui loa! Colin
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Post by pascal on Sept 3, 2013 9:42:18 GMT
Cyril LeFebvre playing his own "Beuscher" resophonic guitar for the "chorus" TV show, Nov. 26, 1978 Note the palmtree inlay on the headstock of the guitar... (neck was changed he once told me)
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Post by pascal on Sept 3, 2013 11:33:31 GMT
... And the cover of his 1st. album "Musique française et américaine de la même époque et d'il y a longtemps" 1977, again with his Beuscher resophonic before he acquired a National Duolian which remain the guitar throughout his life.
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Post by resonatorman on Sept 4, 2013 16:58:29 GMT
Done! And this is one great guitar. Sounds totally open, loud and sings like a bird with lots of sustain, almost dobro-ish. Perfect for slide. Is absolutely on par with my 1930 Style 0 which is killer. Different tone of course, but just as good. WELL DONE FRENCHMEN!!
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Post by pascal on Sept 4, 2013 18:34:48 GMT
Things are: THEY ARE VERY SCARCE ! Thousand of National against 400 Beuscher...
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Post by resonatorman on Sept 4, 2013 18:57:54 GMT
10.000 Nationals against 100 Beuschers! Serial numbers indicate there were more than ten thousand Nationals made, and of the 400 Beuschers 300 went to the dark continent - I bet they mostly ended as cooking pots and the like. Only around 100 Beuschers in Europe anyway! I wish I could keep it...
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Post by resonatorman on Sept 5, 2013 18:29:03 GMT
BTW neck seems to be rosewood - not sure though. Is this possible? Neckstick is some kind of maple. If anyone wants to take the neck off for a reset: beware, there is one invisible screw that goes in the heel from the INSIDE of the body! At least in mine. Tailpiece is the Selmer/Beuscher variety and made for gypsy jazz strings - quite a problem to put normal strings on!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2013 19:38:26 GMT
"neck was changed he once told me". I wonder, Pascal, do you think he changed the neck because it was a bit uncomfortable, or because it was damaged? TT
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Post by resonatorman on Sept 6, 2013 4:14:08 GMT
The most uncomfortable thing with the neck is the string spacing at the nut - it's too narrow. I'll have to make a new one...
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Post by pascal on Sept 6, 2013 21:14:02 GMT
"neck was changed he once told me". I wonder, Pascal, do you think he changed the neck because it was a bit uncomfortable, or because it was damaged? TT TT I really don't know, guess he didn't like the feel of it, or the neck of the guitar could be twisted, but my friend and mentor Cyril died about a year and a half, can't ask him. BEWARE: (just because I have seen the inside of many of them at Mike's workbench) More seriously something I am sure: When Beuscher asked for a Duolian reissue late in the 50's, they provided a true Triolian 30' but with a bakelite neck, so David Anesa surprisingly build a real replica of the bakelite junction body / neck, which is completely different from a standart National neck stick. (Ask in this forum to the bakelite Triolians owner, BTW I can't remember the name of this Polish guy who saved a bakelite one) So The replacement to a standart "neck stick" can be tricky for a luthier...
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Post by resonatorman on Sept 6, 2013 21:30:05 GMT
Now it's clear why the body of the Beuscher looks like that of a bakelite neck Trio! I haven't made a picture, but it has the big slot just like the Triolian here (brass sheet has been put there by National Resophonic)
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Post by resonatorman on Sept 6, 2013 21:46:48 GMT
And here is a bakelite neck. The big chunk in the middle with the 2 holes where the neckstick was attached is the reason for that slot in the body (normally there is none). The problem with those necks is also clearly visible: the hairline crack at the 1st screwhole where the bakelite couldn't withstand the string pull. The Beuscher neck simply mimics this with a block of wood that is put between the fretboard extension and the neckstick, it's fastened with 3 pretty big screws right through the fretboard.
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Post by Colin McCubbin on Sept 6, 2013 21:56:50 GMT
Straying slightly from the thread's subject, for which I apologise here are some pictures of my Bakelite neck Triolian when I had it in bits many years ago.. The tapped bolt holes into the Bakelite weakened the neck to the point where they frequently snapped at the hole nearest the heel. Please visit the site of Jędrzej Kubiak to see pictures of this and his repair to his guitar. He also shows clearly the steel rod cast into the neck. I remember Steve Evans (Beltona) telling me that he had once tried to bandsaw the fingerboard area off a bakelite neck to mount it on a replacement wooden neck for someone in the UK, and his saw with wood blade had definitely said ouch when it hit the metal rod.
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