National Islander

[SH]

Hi,

As regards to 1990's National Islander with Hula girl and Surfer scene paint, can these paints be easily rubbed off by the frequent use ?

If I find one I will be tempted, but I imagine that I will keep off playing to stay it clean.

Have anyone had such experience ?

Satoru

[snakehips]

Hi there !

I think perhaps you should check out www.vintagenationals.com to see if there is anything to tickle your fancy !

[Michael Messer]

Hi Satoru,

The paint on an Islander should stay on for many years. It was done by National Reso-Phonic Guitars and they intended it to stay on the guitars. Original 1928 National Triolians, if looked after, still have there paint and hula girl decals.

Shine On,
Michael.

[SH]

Hi snakehips,

Thank you for info !!

Michael,

Thank you for your great advice !!

Satoru

[Michael Messer]

I have no experience of dealing with 'Vintage Nationals.com' . There is no doubt they carry a very good selection of instruments and they know how to sell them. But the area that worries me is that I feel there is too much talk on their site about what they have done in their workshop to get this guitar ready to sell. I have talked about this before, but really these guitars, vintage Nationals & Dobros, should not be opened or touched by the dealer. You would never get Christie's or Gruhn's touching an instrument - they are 'sold as seen'. We don't wan't the dust-balls removed, or the cone cleaned...mended....replaced...etc. The whole website and approach is a little too 'in your face' for my taste. Apart from that, the Vintage Nationals website looks great!

I would like to read some posts by folks who have bought guitars from them.

Shine On,
Michael.

[SH]

Hi Michael,

Actually, I have dealt with Vintage Nationals for my 1930's Tricone and Style O.
I don't like to buy a guitar from internet basecally, but for resonators, it is very scarce in Japan, so I pulled the trigger.

I'm happy with those deals, both guitars are very nice and playable.

Buying a guitar from internet is risky, so I feel very safe if blow-by-blow descriptions are given.

Satoru

[Michael Messer]

Thanks Satoru, It is good hear about your dealings with Vintage Nationals.com

Shine On,
Michael.

[Bill Stig]

Hi Michael,

I bought my 1928 tricone from vintage nationals and had good service. They don't charge silly prices but aren't cheap either. I must admit that I was seduced by their web site saying that any problems are sorted with the instrument before they sell it, which would seem like a good thing. After I'd bought it you mentioned your concerns on this forum regarding them having taken the cones out, but to be fair, their may have been a problem with the guitar that they have sorted out.
I kind of agree with you about if it ain't broke don't fix it, but it isn't buying "sold as seen" as the guitar is on the other side of the world, the only way to see it is through photographs. I'd rather buy from a company like vintage nationals, who I was able to do some research on, than through ebay - just look at the state of the 1930s national triolian that just went for over £2000 on ebay.

Your experience is much greater than mine, so I would like to know what bad experiences you've had with resos being taken apart to sell.

Incidentally, I've just had to order some new tuners for my tricone.

cheers,
Bill

[SH]

Hi Bill,

Nice to know that you also had a deal with them !

Coming back to National Islander, has anyone compared the sound with old Naitionals, such as wood Triolian or
El Trovador ?

Any thoughts on this?

Corey Harris CD is the only source for me to listen to Islander sound so far.

Advice appreciated !!

Satoru

[Michael Messer]

Hi Satoru,

The Islanders sound great, but they are quite different to 1920s & 30s wood bodied Nationals.

Shine On
Michael

[SH]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your note !

Are there any players who recorded with vintage wood Nationals which I can listen to ?

Thank you !

Satoru

[Michael Messer]

Hi Satoru,

I have recorded with a wood bodied Triolian , but I will have to check back through some tracks to be able to give you the correct information. KIng Bennie Nawahi recorded with a wood bodied Triolian on most of his output between 1928 and 1931. I am sure Bob Brozman has recorded with one, but I have no idea which album or tracks.

Shine On,
Michael.

[SH]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your kind information !!

Satoru

[Deleted]

Hello Michael and friends!

Lenny from Vintage Nationals here. A friend sent me this link so I thought I'd say hi and mention a few things. First off, hello Satoru and Big Stig, I appreciate your business and am glad you're happy.

As for the Islander in question, it is here if people are interested in seeing it....

www.vintagenationals.com/IsleDlx%20national%20guitar%20temp.htm

More importantly, I'd like to address the idea of leaving alone old Nationals.
I can understand wanting to leave things as found, but you'd hate to be playing
them. To give you an idea, I've sold over 110 Nationals in the last 12 mos.
That means I must have bought somewhere around that many. I've had most every model
known come thru my shop. I can say without a doubt I've YET to get a vintage National in that was all original and DIDN'T need work! You think you want dirty cones and big mouse sized dust balls, 1/4 inch action at the twelfth fret, and frets that's cut you to ribbons, but you really don't. Most every steel and wood bodied vintage National need their necks reset at a minimum. I've personally reset the necks on just about every National that I've sold. I did this because it was necessary to get them playable up the neck. The typical old Duolian will need a neck reset, often a new fingerboard as many or just disintegrating in place, especially the died maple ones found on many duos. Cones are hit and miss, but probably 50% are in good shape, 20% in decent shape, and 30% shot. By shot, I mean cracks that you can see thru, big dents, overall compression. I've seen some amazingly creative repairs, such as 4 biscuits glued together upon a crushed cone to get the action up to normal. Bought a real nice style N recently, but played like crap and buzzed and rattled like crazy. When I opened it up, the cone was crushed in on theh left side of the biscuit, screwing up the bridge angle. The great part was, when I took the cone out, someone had taken 6 inches off a metal mini blind, shaped it round, and put it under the cone to keep it from compressing downward. Gee, now I know why it rattles like crazy.

These are just small examples. Bottom line, old Nationals are now 70 plus years old. Many have been stored away w their strings under tension. This calls for doing some neck straightening, adding truss rods in many cases. As for my doing the work, everything I know I learned sitting next to Don Young at National Resophonic learning first hand how to do these correctly. I do everything in the same manner as it would be done at the National Factory.
I never mess w original paint and finishes, only light cleaning and polishing and such. There were some weak points to the original design that leave these guitars prone to needing the same type of work. To compare it to an auto restoration of a 70 yr old car, you pretty much expect have to do certain things to get it back to it's original functioning glory.
Same w Nationals, a few hours of work fine tuning and they're ready for another 70 yrs.
Buying one on ebay or wherever that just came out of a barn or closet, you pretty much have to expect to have it worked on. I'm doing the same but taking care of the updating so its ready to play and play like it did when new. That's my mission.

Lastly, it's all fun for me. I love being involved w Nationals, they've always been my favorite guitar. IT was a hobby that turned serious collection then a fun business. I'm trying to keep it all fun anyways. Hope that fleshes out why I do what I do. I'm currently sending probably 1/4 of my guitars to Europe and UK. I guarantee every piece and offer full money back. To date in 3 yrs. I've only taken back 2 guitars. I have many many great buyers that keep in touch, send me Youtubes, and basically have become great friends. (Hip Snake, how goes it? New Wife sell any of your guitars yet?)

Thanks much, have a great day all, appreciate the podium. And Michael, love your strings, I bought a bunch up at National and use em regularly. Say hi to Colin at Notecannons for me, we've emailed back a forth a few times.
Best, Len
Proprietor
www.vintagenationals.com

[Alan]

Out of interest, how do you package your guitars for post?