The Steel Guitar Forum

Here's a couple of pictures of an old New Yorker I've had for quite some time that I thought some of you National fans might enjoy. Please forgive the dust--it didn't look that bad until I saw it via flash photography! Time to put away the guitars and get some housework done this morning...

Dave

Beautiful. They have got to be the most beautifully designed LS ever. (I have one on the way as I write!)

Very cool...although the bottom picture did make me feel like sneezing!

Makes YOU feel like sneezing??? Seriously, we did some sheetrock work around the house recently, and that danged dust just keeps hanging around....

Dave
ahhchoo

i had one just like that...traded it away many years ago because the strings were so low at the pickup end i couldn't play it without the thumbpick bottoming out. wish i had it back now though.

What a beauty David! I think I have only seen one before with that cool "Electric" flash.

Fred

Wow just noticed that it has no blade pickup at the bridge position! So this must have all hidden pickups, not a "normal" bridge pickup plus two hidden neck pickups like the other 3-pickup 1930s New Yorkers! How does it sound?

Here are my 1937 New Yorkers with a blade bridge pickup and two hidden pickups.



Fred

It's a concensus, David, we all love your New Yorker. That said you're talking to an easy crowd in that department.

Question - is four control nobs more than the usual complement? I don't remember having seen that before.

ciao,
LP

This one is the only one I've seen with 4 knobs--they all seem to be original equipment (the controls that is, not the knobs themselves since two are obviously replacements). I don't know whether it has two or three hidden pickups, though I imagine it has three--I've never had it apart, but it sounds nice. The pickups aren't particularly strong, but they sound good.

I really love the old Nationals...

Dave

Fred,

Those are nice looking Nationals! I really wonder if mine originally had a similar cover over the bridge or not. There are a couple of screws that look like they could have held a cover at one time, but there isn't any sign that a cover was ever there. I've always liked the those early hidden pickup guitars.

Dave

David Ball wrote:Here's a couple of pictures of an old New Yorker I've had for quite some time that I thought some of you National fans might enjoy.

Fred posted a reference to this at our notecannons.com site, and Mark Makin replied with a description of no less than 15 variations on the New Yorker that he has documented!

Please take a look at the thread at:
http://michaelmesser.proboards.com/inde ... hread=2958 for Mark's full description of them all. And, if you have a New Yorker and can identify it from Marc's description, please post a picture with comment as to which variation you think you have, and I will add a page to notecannons.

Mahalo,

Hi Colin,

What a reply from Mark!

Here are variants 6 and 11:

(1937 variant 6)

(1947 variant 11, with the plain brass fretboard)

Let me know if you want higher resolution pics or I could take new ones if you want from another angle.

Cheers,

Fred

Thanks Fred! I'm going to dig out the couple that I have and see which # they conform to, one is a 7 string which I notice that Mark hasn't distinguished as a variation.

Let's see how many versions are owned here, and then I can put out a call to all the owners for pics.

Colin

Here's another of mine--this one is "Variant 12" the best I can tell...

Dave
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hello Dave,
Yes you're right - variation 12. Yours has the wide blue National logo plate not the smaller black and red shield that was around at this time in 1948. Your logo was more usually found on National amps of the time. I think Valco were quite happy to vary the usage of things like that as it suited them!

Thanks for the pictures! I have started a page at http://notecannons.com scroll down the left menu to Electrics, select "New Yorker Lap steels" and have taken the liberty of using some of these pictures. I have credited the poster by name, and have emailed bob the moderator to say that I am doing this and asking him to confirm that using pictures from this forum is OK with him.

At the bottom of my page I am starting list of forums here which mention the New Yorkers, if I am missing any I'd appreciate a heads up here.

Fred, yes I'd appreciate a few larger jpegs (640 by 480) if possible.

Mahalo!

They sure made a lot of changes in those over the years, and it would be interesting to know how many were produced, in total. I still have a '50 I bought new.

The 1936/37 National sales brochure shows a New Yorker with what seems to be a chrome like finish to the body, and not the usual black/white that most generations of New Yorker had. I have never seen one, I wonder if it was just a sales mock up, or did they actually exist? Have you seen one? Can anyone supply a picture?

I'm interested in the "special chamber to accommodate steels and picks." I don't think I've ever seen that on a New Yorker--at least none of mine have had one. Any pictures of that feature?

Dave

Hi David,

That phrase interested me too, and no, I've never seen one.. For some years I've doubted that this instrument actually existed as anything more than an artists rendition in a sales brochure. That's why I'm now hoping to find someone who has encountered it in the real world..

Mine seems to be the 14th version. The serial number is V26457. When I bought this it appeared to have had some repair on the plexiglass fingerboard. Perhaps it warped and was cut in two to relieve it. Where it was cut a metal fret has been inserted. The screws are staggered across at this point. Also, the pair of screws at the octave are on the 13th fret. Nevertheless, the frets are precisely located.

Btw, the tone selector is a pot. It is marked Hawaiin, Chimes and Harp with Chimes being the brightest.

Getting this guitar was a first for me because I like things to be new and pristine. While there were a couple of other NY'ers in the shop that day only this guitar called to me when I picked it up. And I didn't even know how to play it at the time! Lately I've been playing it a lot. Wonderful tone. I just love this axe!

Joe