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DVD
Sept 24, 2011 0:22:49 GMT
Post by gaucho on Sept 24, 2011 0:22:49 GMT
I got my copy in the US from here: www.tribotone.com/musical_instruction.html It came quickly and I'm enjoying it very much (and learning from it too!). Just be aware that they are PAL and won't play in many USA DVD players, but work fine on the computer. I knew this going in.
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Post by gaucho on Sept 18, 2011 17:08:04 GMT
I've always loved the tone Ron Wood coaxes out of the vintage Dobro (good shot of it at .56 seconds) in this great clip...
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Post by gaucho on Sept 15, 2011 18:49:21 GMT
One thing I've always noticed was that his slide is very slanted when he plays....
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Post by gaucho on Sept 4, 2011 23:46:58 GMT
I've seen Johnny many times in concert over the years. Always loved his acoustic slide playing the most. Last time I went to on of his shows he looked very frail and was moving and playing quite slowly (still great playing though). I went home and googled him and read that he had been dealing with a number of health problems related to albino-ism and that he had out-lived the average life expectancy for people with his condition. That was a couple years ago and he's still going strong and touring constantly. Definitely worth seeing if he comes to your town!
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Post by gaucho on Aug 31, 2011 21:48:53 GMT
It's mostly a matter of technique. Try a product called Fast Fret on your strings. A super smooth slide makes a difference too. The quietest ones I have tried are Diamond Bottleneck's Blue Diamond and highly polished steel or brass slides. I haven't heard anything good about coated strings for slide playing.
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Post by gaucho on Aug 30, 2011 15:24:03 GMT
Michael, I'm glad you mentioned that. I did feel like the coverplate was domed up a bit higher that others I had seen and that would totally explain my problem. I'm very glad that I opened her up tho, I would never have known that tone killing shim was in there! The cone didn't have any big dents or anything, but it was pushed down a bit. A little massaging brought the action right up where it needs to be, even with out that shim in there. Is it OK to put a new bridge insert into the original biscuit (and is that even possible)? The original is almost gone and if the action creeps downward again, I'd like to be able to try that before resorting to a new Hot Rod cone.
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Post by gaucho on Aug 29, 2011 18:30:43 GMT
Hey Mark, forgive me if you felt my post was calling you out for giving me bad info. Not at all! I realize that we are all hugely privileged to have access to the vast amount of knowledge you, Michael and others on here posses and share freely. After digging into this thing, I am feeling like I really scored on it. I has happy with it before, but now that I have found out it's all original 1930's era National (except for the neck and tuners) I'm super stoked on it! I turned the tuners over, reshaped the nut to be lower, pulled out the wooden shim under the cone and removed all the glue from it, massaged the collapsed cone back into shape and put it all back together with a new set of 15-56 strings. The action is now right where I like it and the strings clear the coverplate by a good margin. And the tone is better now that I removed that wooden shim between the cone and soundwell (what were they thinking?!). It's louder and it barks now! That shim had to be a major tone killer....
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Post by gaucho on Aug 29, 2011 15:17:33 GMT
I know those words make a lot of folks cringe, but it's not all original (non-original neck and tuners) and it had a few issues. I've worked on some other resos before, so I feel confident. Here's what I found... The serial # is S1731. Mark M had said that makes it a '31 or so and it should have a hook on coverplate. There was no evidence of the hooks inside tho and the Pat #'s on the coverplate are the same as I have seen on other 30's Style 0's (it's stamped PAT NO 1762617, PAT NO 1741453, MADE IN U.S.A.). So is that an original 30's (although maybe not original to a '31 Style O?) National coverlate? It was super clean inside and the neck stick goes all the way thru and looks well done. There are 4 mushroom braces (2 on the body and 2 on the neck stick. One potential problem I noticed immediately is that there is a newish looking wooden shim all the way around the sound well that the cone sits on. Shouldn't the cone sit directly on the soundwell, metal to metal? The cone and biscuit are apparently original but I'm afraid I'll need a new Hot Rod and biscuit. The cone appears to be collapsed a bit and the bisciut bridge insert is pretty much all cut down. This seems to explain the problem (the only one really) with the strings sitting right on top of the coverplate at the bridge, almost touching it. Plus, if I remove the wooden shim, it will be touching. Please have a look at the photos and I welcome any comments and/or advise. Thanks in advance! Here is the guitar as purchased: This shot shows the only real playability issue with it, low strings over the cover: Here's the cone and biscuit: Here's the inside, notice the soundwell shim:
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Post by gaucho on Aug 26, 2011 16:32:01 GMT
I'm shaping a lower nut out of bone now. I don't think it'll have any effect on the string height at the cover plate tho. I think it's a neck angle problem. I don't want to replace the saddle if it's original and I'm pretty sure it is. The action now is playable (even with some fretting), but the string height at the bridge is too low to play right on top of it. It's fine if you play at the seam where the cover plate joins the body.
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Post by gaucho on Aug 26, 2011 15:20:02 GMT
Here's a couple photos. Any rough ideas of what a neck reset costs and a good place on the east coast (Florida) of the US to have it done?
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Post by gaucho on Aug 26, 2011 15:09:53 GMT
I picked it up yesterday for $650 US. Seems like a good price, even if it needs some work. As it is, it plays and sounds pretty good. The only issue for me it that the strings are really low (almost touching the cover plate right by the bridge). It seems like the break angle is pretty shallow as well. I like to play right on top of the bridge sometimes (to get that Fred McDowell kinda sound) and you can't really do that now. Plays fine further up the strings tho. There's plenty of room under the cover strap for the biscuit to be higher, but that would raise the action too much. The strings are very level all along the fret board, so I don't think the neck is lifted or warped, just not well set up. Any suggestions? Think it needs a neck re-set? I'll try to get a shot of the strings in front of the bridge and the break angle. I really love this thing!
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Post by gaucho on Aug 18, 2011 20:04:10 GMT
Checked it out out today. The body looks super clean, almost like it's been polished. The sandblasted/etched scene is so faint, you really don't even see it unless you look hard. Can't really feel it either, it's pretty smooth The cone, from what I could see, had spirals, but it was pretty clean and shiny. Looks pretty new to me. The action is weird, not as high as a normal square neck, but not really fret-able either. And where it comes off the bridge, the strings are really close to the non-original coverplate. I don't think you could lower the action because of this. I could play it pretty well, spanish style (with-out any fretting). The round neck is really stout and fat feeling. I think if I was to buy it, I'd eventually want to send it to NRP and get a different neck installed, something more fitting to the style 0. Anyone know approx what that costs? I made an offer on it, but they didn't like it too much. I don't really feel like it's worht much more than I offered, so we shall see...
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Post by gaucho on Aug 17, 2011 11:51:10 GMT
It's local and I'll go look at it tomorrow. I like lapstyle, plus the action and round neck look like it could be played spanish style (with no fretting) as well. It seems from the photos, that the action is not as high as a square neck. They are asking a bit much for it, so we'll see how it goes.
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Post by gaucho on Aug 15, 2011 11:19:29 GMT
I don't see a truss rod in these photos. Shouldn't a new round neck have one?
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Post by gaucho on Aug 14, 2011 18:33:07 GMT
How hard would it be to set it up to play Spanish style? Just lowering the action or would the tuners need to be replaced. I'm not totally opposed to playing lapstyle either. Is there a way to tell if the cone is original with out taking it apart?
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