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Post by Noah Miller on Aug 28, 2019 11:29:51 GMT
I just acquired this. The serial dates to 1934. The pickup/bridge plate looks identical to the one on tenor N419, but it was crudely painted silver and the pickup is a single-coil. Everything inside and out looks original save for those "lovely" tuners. The guitar came set up with a nut extender, and I think it spent its whole life as a lap steel because the frets and board are nearly perfect. However, the neck is straight and the angle is good. The pickup is pretty hot and much brighter than I expected based on my experience with the cast-aluminum lap steels. It looks like the cover plate was nickel-plated after the pickup cutout was made; I don't see any raw brass on the edges.
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Post by hmemerson on Aug 28, 2019 15:03:31 GMT
Hi Noah, Wow, what a great find!
Love that detail shot of the horseshoe magnet pickup!
It sure looks like someone knew what they were doing!
Enjoy it!
Howard
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Post by Noah Miller on Aug 28, 2019 16:04:31 GMT
Yeah, someone put a lot of effort into this. I've seen a number of National-Dobro electric one-offs or prototypes from this era, and it's impressive how many have cast aluminum parts. This plate was used in at least one other guitar but never made it into mass-production. I saw an electric Style 1 square neck recently with a specially-cast bridge/brace/pickup-holder that was probably a one-off part. Between making the pattern and the actual casting, that must have been a laborious and expensive process for just a handful of instruments.
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Post by mendax on Aug 28, 2019 16:09:57 GMT
The pickup on N419 is indeed very bright, although it is of course a dual coil. It's almost like having a tenor Telecaster guitar...
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Post by Noah Miller on Aug 28, 2019 16:15:29 GMT
Yes - a Tele would be the guitar I'd compare it to. I'm just surprised because I've played a number of the cast Electric Hawaiians and they're all pretty warm and mellow.
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Post by mendax on Aug 28, 2019 16:34:01 GMT
I agree--the tenor pickup does sound different from the ones on my cast aluminum Dobros, but when I play it through my early pre-Webster Dobro amp, it sounds much warmer. The amp and tenor even have identical knobs...since getting the tenor I've felt like they're at last like that Peaches & Herb song... … Reunited, and it feels so good!
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Post by Mark Makin on Aug 29, 2019 1:35:29 GMT
I’m afraid I’m much more amazed by the “chicken feet” coverplate. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen with 18 “ feet” patterns. Every one I’ve seen only has 16 !!!!
In order to do this, obviously the individual patterns have to be reduced slightly- this would push the ring of holes further to the edge of the coverplate thus leaving a bit more space for the blade pickup slot (maybe?). They’ve spent more time considering this thing than you imagine.
I’d be grateful to know it’s number Noah!
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Post by bonzo on Aug 29, 2019 7:45:58 GMT
Well spotted Mark, you're probably the only person in the world who would have noticed! Amazing guitar!
Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by Noah Miller on Aug 29, 2019 10:00:57 GMT
Huh - I certainly didn't notice that! The serial is S5558.
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Post by Mark Makin on Aug 29, 2019 11:38:00 GMT
Hey thanks so much Noah - I was guessing it would be S5xxx or somewhere close
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Post by bonzo on Aug 29, 2019 11:56:27 GMT
I refer you to my earlier post!
Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by lacerta on Sept 3, 2019 19:14:12 GMT
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Post by Michael Messer on Sept 3, 2019 19:57:22 GMT
Yes, this has been floating around for a while and has been added to Mark Makin's updates to his book.
It is an interesting piece and it is is a factory fitted pickup, but it is only a collectors' piece.
I have just realised that all the links to the images in Mark's updates section on this forum, have gone! Darn.... well have to redo that whole section in a different way.
Shine On Michael
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Post by Noah Miller on Sept 3, 2019 20:23:39 GMT
I emailed back & forth a bunch of times regarding that "tricone", but they wouldn't come down to a reasonable price. A very cool instrument though, especially that cover plate.
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Post by twintwo on May 6, 2020 10:26:59 GMT
I was checking out this electric tricone the other day on reverb, mainly for interest. I was also on notecannons.com and noticed they only have the one photo of an electric tricone. Perhaps it can be updated with a picture of this tricone. I've really enjoyed perusing through the website the last few days.
Noah, the price of that tricone has been dropped 40%. (NB I don't know when it was dropped so perhaps it was already dropped from 8.4 to 5k.) They might be more willing to budge on price since it hasn't shifted in almost a year.
p.s. apologies for resurrecting a dead thread, I just noticed the interesting electric tricone, did a search and this thread seemed better than creating a new one.
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