tricone
Serious MM Forum Member
Posts: 33
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Post by tricone on Mar 14, 2024 22:53:52 GMT
What do you think a early Continental style 4 tricone is worth ?
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Post by bonzo on Mar 14, 2024 23:23:19 GMT
Whatever someone will pay for it.
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tricone
Serious MM Forum Member
Posts: 33
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Post by tricone on Mar 14, 2024 23:58:54 GMT
Thanks but not the answer I'm looking for. Just wondering what a fair price would be.
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Post by chrisburnuk on Mar 15, 2024 6:36:28 GMT
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Post by bonzo on Mar 15, 2024 7:03:59 GMT
Hi tricone, this is a particularly fancy guitar so a premium is attached. My earlier reply was not meant to be flippant but there doesn't seem to be a reference point for these instruments. I've just bought a early tricone marked axl which is pretty much a Continental in everything but name. It has been discussed at length on the forum and it's known I paid £500 for it. If you are interested I think all you can do is make an offer and prepare for some negotiation! Good luck, and remember as already mentioned there are other guitar offers out there. (But I know wot it's like to get gas for a particular guitar)! Edit. You can find the discussion on this part of the forum under the heading 'axl tricone but built in Germany' which is quite interesting reading. 👍🎸
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Post by blueshome1 on Mar 15, 2024 10:55:18 GMT
If it is truly an early Continental then it would be German silver not brass. This would set it apart from AXL etc. so check out.
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Mar 15, 2024 11:49:23 GMT
...and if you're in the UK and you're buying from abroad don't forget to add duty and VAT on to the total including postage (~26% if IIRC)
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tricone
Serious MM Forum Member
Posts: 33
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Post by tricone on Mar 15, 2024 23:02:12 GMT
Saw the one listed that why I asked. I've had a few AXLs a few newer NRPs and 5 different 1920s Nationals and 1993 Continental style 1. Still have a wonderful 1928 style 2.5 round neck and a 1941 national M3 wooden square neck and a plectrum. Always wanted a old Nationalbut style 4 round neck but can't afford it. The Continental looks good but seems like top dollar price wise.
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tricone
Serious MM Forum Member
Posts: 33
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Post by tricone on Mar 16, 2024 0:32:16 GMT
They came down on price and no tax so I bought it. Should be here next week. It is German Silver. The Continental style 1 I had was the closest thing to a prewar National.
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 16, 2024 0:56:00 GMT
Those early Continental tricone bodies were made from a tracing of my National tricone. Long time ago!
Shine On Michael
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tricone
Serious MM Forum Member
Posts: 33
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Post by tricone on Mar 16, 2024 19:55:43 GMT
That's great. I think the early Continentsls are the closest thing to a prewar National. And this is a style 4 !
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Post by vastopol on Mar 19, 2024 10:18:52 GMT
The engraving job is stunning, that's a beauty congratulations ! (I don't want to tore down your hapyness in any way, but it seems that too much false infos spreading around those old Continentals; I may be wrong but they don't made german silver bodies in this time period; if I'm wrong you should easily give us some light on this subject when you got the guitar in hand, it should be apreciated). Anyway she's superb.
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Post by leeophonic on Mar 19, 2024 18:50:24 GMT
That's great. I think the early Continentsls are the closest thing to a prewar National. And this is a style 4 ! Or the closest thing to an early Continental !!! I quite like them with the laminated three/four piece neck but have replacd cones with NRP hot rods to give more something as they were not strident in volume/tone. The prices being discussed are ambitious but who knows. Everything else is on the rise. Regards Lee
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Post by vastopol on Mar 21, 2024 11:55:54 GMT
I suppose you have a more recent one Lee, with the maple neck and center stripe ?
In fact the early ones had a one piece mahogany neck with ebony board, and that make them closer to the old Nationals, the mesh used in the coverplate openings is different too, visualy closer to the old ones. Few other details have changed over time; I'd like to see both of them, early and more recent in hand, sometimes the shape of the body is a bit different too.
Very early ones from 92/93 (with screw on the back) are difficult to deal with a decent neck angle because of a weird curved and too soft neck-stick. That doesn't mean they can be cheaper, it could even be the opposite, because many dealers claimed that they are made in "german silver" but they're not. Perhaps a crooked translation between the "german made" and "silvered body" ?
But its just Brass all the way.
The majority of the adverts you can find on the web talk about "german silver", I don't know who began to built this false reputation on the web but it spread around too widely. Perhaps simply because It's good for the buysness.
I've seen an advert, ( from a well renowned shop) showing pictures of a body clearly showing the yellow brass. Because of a too heavy polishing donne to the factory, the polishing weel is prone to cut trough the plating on straight lines and angles around the large grills area. Even a kid can see that; the shop may just find false infos on the web without knowing much about resonators.
I always wonder why they stretched the neck jonction area and built them slightly larger than on the drawing send by Michael ?
This is interesting because it became the main shape for all the other brands build on chinese parts basis.
I like them because they are the poor man triplate, without these I probably earn my life doing a less funny job.
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 21, 2024 13:12:52 GMT
Vastopol, I can answer one of your questions easily. It was all a very long time ago, more than 30 years. The reason the body shape is wrong was because they asked me for a square-neck Triplate tracing and later told me they could make both types from that. So the round-neck bodies were tracings of my square-neck Triplate. When we spoke on the phone all those years ago, I remember Hans telling me that he had never actually seen and held a National Triplate, so they were working from calculated guess-work, which is both naive and extraordinary.
I never had anything to do with the shape of the necks, only the bodies from the tracing I sent them.
It was those moulds that went to Shanghai and have been used by the body factory there ever since then. This is the reason we all call Shanghai-made cones "Continental" and this, I believe, is also where all later Continentals were manufactured. So that shape was because of my square-neck Triplate, and for that reason I like it!
The National guitar scene was a very small world back then and many aspects of what happens today goes back to a very small handful of people.
Shine On Michael
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