Hi again !
Quite bizarre timing for me really, considering the discussion here.
I was getting my gear together at the weekend, choosing what guitar would best suit a TV gig I have this Friday.
I opened up the guitar case on one of my vintage Nationals, to find the strings completely slack.
It took me about 30 seconds before I realised what was wrong - the tailpiece had snapped, at the right angle bend.
This is an 1930 all-steel National Style O, that I got about 7yrs ago on ebay.
The guitar had a cheapo chrome-plated replacement tailpiece - that sticks out like a sore thumb on a nickel-plated guitar.
I sent it off to Dave King for a neck reset etc. and ordered a National Resophonic tailpiece - nickel-plated brass one, with a "rubbed" finish - as the steel-bodied Style O plated finish is not as perfect as on a brass-bodied one. Turns out, the NRP rubbed finish tailpiece looked great on my old National.
I usually keep this guitar in Open G tuning (ie. lower tension than regular E tuning).
I hadn't played the guitar in about a month at least, and it had stayed in it's NRP hard case, upright against a wall (well, at a slight tilt onto the wall).
I have no idea when the NRP tailpiece snapped.
I have owned 7 NRP guitars since 1996, not all from new, and have never seen this happen before on a NRP guitar, nor heard of it happening on a NRP guitar either.
My NRP tailpiece was around 6yrs old and never abused.
I sent Jason Workman at NRP an email with pictures of the broken tailpiece on Saturday night, and he must have replied during the night, to say he would be sending me a free replacement.
I am a good customer. Besides the 7 NRP guitars, I have bought many replacement cones, and guitar tuners too. I also praise them once in a while.
If you are a good guy to them, they will be a good guy to you, sort of thing !
This is not a whole guitar that has failed, just an individual part. I don't need to send them anything and they don't have to do expensive, time-consuming repairs.
Shipping fees for a new tailpiece won't cost them much.
They could have used the 2yr guarantee thing on me - but didn't.
In fact, Jason called it a Warranty replacement.
I believe by that he believes this is a part that should not have failed structurally (even though it is known to happen in vintage National guitars).
ie. it was a very generous offer. I didn't go in, with all guns blazing, with an email complaint.
I would have been happy to pay for a new one as brass tailpieces are NOT bomb-proof. They are just metal - and metal can fail over time.