The Steel Guitar Forum

Due to the encouragement of the good people on the board I went ahead and made the purchase. I note that thankfully I can always count on purchase encouragement from the good group here - never discourage a purchase. See pics below of my new baby - Great tone - lots of output and soooo much mojo. As best as I can tell it is all original except for the tuners. I thought I would be on a quest to replace them with something close to original but the replacement job filling holes looks really good - thoughts? The serial number is N189 anyone know how I can determine date of manufacture? Any other tidbits about this one appreciated.

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Don't lose that knob!

These are great sounding instruments, and yours was one of the first years they were made. Later on they added a tone control on the opposite side of the volume control. I'd agree with Michael - don't worry about finding vintage tuners, but be happy you have tuners that work.
Enjoy it - I'm sure there's lots of good music in there somewhere!

Thanks guys - on the tuners I think that is good advice - function is better than originals in this case. I can imagine the knobs are hard to find - I am having a heck of a time finding a knob for my GA-9 and there were Tons of those made. I keep trolling the vintage radio knob sections - someday I'll snag one. There is some good music in this steel - I do hope I can find it. Thanks again.

I agree. Vintage tuners are for museum instruments. However, the case is unique to that model and deserves to be restored.

That looks like a nice one. Made of cast zinc if I remember correctly.
You may experience keeping it in tune, from what I've heard about them, but some bakelites and frypans have the same situation, like don't play in the sun if you tuned it in the shade

Hi David
These instruments were made by a process called "slush casting" (sand moulded aluminum casts)from 1935 through to about early 1937. The earliest of them (like yours) have the shorter 19 fret fingerboards. Below about N250 - they were made in the last half of 1935. The first ones also have NO pickup blade adjuster knobs. After the first few months of 1936, the fingerboard was extended to 26 frets and they were now fitted with both volume and tone knobs. They came in various colours - gold/silver, black/gold and black/orange. The pickup is the same blade unit designed by Art Stimson and used on early Dobro electrics.

Dobro and Supro also had branded versions of 'cast' lap steels - the earliest of the three types was the Supro made in early 1935.

The N series serial numbers run from the end of 1934 for a couple of years. The earliest N series instruments (N003 etc) are used on National Estralita Spanish instruments. By far the majority of N numbers are on National cast steels. Any help?

I agree, when I opened up my "new" 1936 long neck National a few months ago you could feel the mojo. I knew it had been played a lot and then hidden away in an attic for maybe the last forty years. New strings is all it needed to come back to life. Sounds great. If you can, have a look at the huge horseshoe magnet up against the two pickup metal bars, very neat. Just don't touch any of the spider web wires. Funny they started with N for the serial #, mine is A---- and two years later. Now I am waiting for delivery of my "new" A22 Ricky frypan, I hope it has had the same history.

Enjoy - Ray

Thanks for all the great information and comments. That information on serial numbers is great Mark - so depending on how many of these they made my N189 is late '34 to early 1935.

I love that it is not a museum piece I can only imagine where its been and with who and the music they made. This one seems to hold tune well (maybe due to the newer tuners) but then again I haven't taken her outside in the sun - yet.

Can't wait to see pics of that frypan Raymond.

Hello Ray
By the middle of 1936, more and more Nationals were being issued NOT with their own specific Serial number groupings - like the N series - but with the common A,B,or C Chicago numbers. These are more or less sequential - B follows A, C follows B up until 1939ish. I think it was easier for the company to stick the next available number on whatever instrument came off the assembly line - so your cast lap steel - A1865 say - might be followed by a National New Yorker Spanish guitar (A1866). Because of this it makes it difficult to work out production totals of the later instruments.

thanks Mark.

What a beauty. It's mojo-riffic. I hope you'll be able to post a sound file of it sometime. Have fun!

I can even visualize the mojo swelling up out of the box when you opened it

Just nothing like getting a nice vintage guitar

Nice new baby.