A few years back I thought National had an all-metal hollow neck Hawaiian tricone on the horizon. I haven't checked in at the site in the post-Young era, but now I see no mention of such a thing, nor any photos in their vast picture gallery.
Is the Hawaiian tricone dead for lack of interest? Too bad, that was their masterwork, imho.
What has happened to National squarenecks?
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John Morton
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- Location: Washington, USA
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Former Member
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The info is still there..
On their website go to "about" then "specs",
and then arrow down to the bottom of the page, and the last three listings are for the hollow-neck.
I spoke to Shannon about 2 months ago, and she told me they will still make 'hollow's until the sheet metal they have cut for them runs out.
I've got a lefty brass one. The best!
There's a pic of a hollowneck being built somewhere in the gallery, it's just too long to re-find.
I miss stopping by when I worked in SLO-town! And Don was always a fun welcoming guy!
On their website go to "about" then "specs",
and then arrow down to the bottom of the page, and the last three listings are for the hollow-neck.
I spoke to Shannon about 2 months ago, and she told me they will still make 'hollow's until the sheet metal they have cut for them runs out.
I've got a lefty brass one. The best!
There's a pic of a hollowneck being built somewhere in the gallery, it's just too long to re-find.
I miss stopping by when I worked in SLO-town! And Don was always a fun welcoming guy!
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John Morton
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- Location: Washington, USA
Thanks, I didn't pick up on that "hollow neck" term. So they are available ($5000 and up) for the time being, but then they'll go away. No photos, no demand for these historic orphans.
getting off topic:
I stopped at NRP a few times with Al Dodge to visit with Don on the way to NAMM. He would treat us to lunch and share stories. I was amused to learn that Don and Al shared an interest in firearms. Don was proud of his business, always trying to optimize the place to make the best environment and work conditions, and not let it grow too much. Now it looks like it's gone well past Don's preferred size of 15-20 employees.
getting off topic:
I stopped at NRP a few times with Al Dodge to visit with Don on the way to NAMM. He would treat us to lunch and share stories. I was amused to learn that Don and Al shared an interest in firearms. Don was proud of his business, always trying to optimize the place to make the best environment and work conditions, and not let it grow too much. Now it looks like it's gone well past Don's preferred size of 15-20 employees.
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Lee Holliday
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Mark Eaton
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- Location: Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Eric Smith is I believe the sole owner now. He has been there for many years and bought out MacGregor Gaines a number of years back, and I'm guessing owns the whole thing since Don's retirement and his subsequent sad passing. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
I haven't met Eric in person but I have had a number of email exchanges with him and he strikes me as a good guy and is very earnest about the business. He has invited me to "stop by" but I haven't been on any road trips to Southern California in the past few years where I would be passing through San Luis Obispo, and it's a 5-6 hour drive from my place here in North Coast wine country, so it just hasn't been in the cards. Though I would love to vist the shop.
Unless Eric has gone on a recent hiring spree, from one of the emails going back two years or so he wrote that he has about 20 employees. So apparently it hasn't gone much beyond that.
The metal body tricones can all be ordered with squarenecks, albeit wooden as opposed to hollow metal. I'd like to to do an A/B comparison between one of these handful of contemporary hollow necks vs. a tricone with a wooden squareneck. I wonder in a blindfold test how much difference a listener might perceive between the two?
As far as lap style resonators, the bread and butter at National these days are the Scheerhorns they have been building in the past few years since taking over production from the one man shop of Tim Scheerhorn. They seem to have done pretty well with these guitars, and as far as lap style resonators and what pays the bills - spider bridge wood body guitars appear to be what most people want. It's still a relatively small shop at National, and I find it unlikely that Eric Smith is laughing all the way to the bank at the end of each week with piles of money stuffed into his pockets. He seems to be very good about building customs and special orders, but as far as production guitars going out to most of his dealers, you gotta build what the people want.
I haven't met Eric in person but I have had a number of email exchanges with him and he strikes me as a good guy and is very earnest about the business. He has invited me to "stop by" but I haven't been on any road trips to Southern California in the past few years where I would be passing through San Luis Obispo, and it's a 5-6 hour drive from my place here in North Coast wine country, so it just hasn't been in the cards. Though I would love to vist the shop.
Unless Eric has gone on a recent hiring spree, from one of the emails going back two years or so he wrote that he has about 20 employees. So apparently it hasn't gone much beyond that.
The metal body tricones can all be ordered with squarenecks, albeit wooden as opposed to hollow metal. I'd like to to do an A/B comparison between one of these handful of contemporary hollow necks vs. a tricone with a wooden squareneck. I wonder in a blindfold test how much difference a listener might perceive between the two?
As far as lap style resonators, the bread and butter at National these days are the Scheerhorns they have been building in the past few years since taking over production from the one man shop of Tim Scheerhorn. They seem to have done pretty well with these guitars, and as far as lap style resonators and what pays the bills - spider bridge wood body guitars appear to be what most people want. It's still a relatively small shop at National, and I find it unlikely that Eric Smith is laughing all the way to the bank at the end of each week with piles of money stuffed into his pockets. He seems to be very good about building customs and special orders, but as far as production guitars going out to most of his dealers, you gotta build what the people want.
Last edited by Mark Eaton on 21 Apr 2017 5:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mark
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John Morton
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That A/B test would be very interesting to me too. I have built metal hollownecks, in fact hollow and tapering all the way to the nut. I always thought this made sense, and I wouldn't make a solid neck just to make the test.
The best test would be with early tricones, Spanish vs Hawaiian. The best modern hapa haole players with Nationals use the squarenecks, at least the ones I know about. But that could be partly because they're cheaper on the vintage market. I mention the hapa haole because of those fabulous early recordings that show the power of the tricone.
The best test would be with early tricones, Spanish vs Hawaiian. The best modern hapa haole players with Nationals use the squarenecks, at least the ones I know about. But that could be partly because they're cheaper on the vintage market. I mention the hapa haole because of those fabulous early recordings that show the power of the tricone.