National solid body

[Chase Brady]

Is anyone familiar with this model? Wondering how they sound.
https://reverb.com/item/70381560-1950-s ... es-machine

[David Ball]

I've had a couple. They sound OK--thin sounding but not unpleasant. They're still pretty loud, but you're hearing nothing but the cone--the body doesn't really do anything to affect the tone.

Pretty cool instruments in their own special way!

Dave

[Bill Sinclair]

I had one of the cutaway/fretable versions that I tried using as a lap steel with a nut riser but wasn't terribly impressed by the sound. Mine had an aftermarket piezo bridge pickup so you could tweak a decent sound out of it with an amp, but not good enough for me to drag it to a gig. Pretty neat novelty living room guitar though. While the seller is sort of correct about the front and back reso covers making it louder than you would expect, that effect is mostly negated when it's placed on your lap or against your body. Another thing is that it is short scale (23" I think) so that might be off-putting if you're accustomed to a longer scale dobro. I wound up selling mine to someone who was nostalgic about re-acquiring a guitar similar to one he used to own. The lap version that you are looking at would probably have a narrower market than the cutaway, slide guitar version.

[Noah Miller]

They look far cooler than they sound. I used mine for an album cover but I'd never even play it as a practice instrument.

[Brad Bechtel]

For some reason they seem to be somewhat popular in the UK, at least on the Michael Messer forum.

I've been unimpressed with the volume and tone of the ones I've played.

[Glenn Wilde]

I like them, but never bought one when they were $400.00, not buying one now. For the price of that, less even, I got a Republic Tricone that kills.

[Russ Young]

Did you pull the trigger and buy it?

I have one — painted wood, not MOTS — and while it’s extremely cool to look at, I don’t get much joy from playing it. (Someone described the tone as “Sounding just like a National … played over a telephone line.”)

Ben Harper took advantage of that uhhh … unique … tone in this video, though: https://youtu.be/8f-D7Xx89r4

[Chase Brady]

No, I didn't buy it. For now, I've decided my square neck flattop and my spider bridge dobro are enough.

[Steven Pearce]

Not so good: this resophonic
Really good: Interrupter Jones.
Thanks Noah.