While at National, Don oversaw the rehabilitation of three '20s Nationals of mine--1927 squareneck Tricone (handmade by John and Rudy Dopyera--looks new post tune-up); round neck Tricone and an early wood-body Triolian. I brought the Triolian to him hoping he could correct its slightly gnarly action but after hearing him play it Hawaiian style, I realized I would have to bend to the guitar, because any action relief strategy--e.g., heat-pressing the neck, would disturb its original full-body and -neck "clown painting." And under Don's masterful touch, the Triolian sounded ethereal as it was.
Rewind: In 1986, I was trying to identify a curious Dobro-like object with lightning-bolt f-holes. Don at the time was at Dobro/OMI and after a brief phone conversation, invited me down to Huntington Beach to compare mine with an identical one of his.
(These seem to be one of several variations of Kay-made bodies with Schireson-like cone-bridge assemblies.) He patiently let me meander goggle-eyed around the factory floor. On my way out, I spotted a discarded Duolian neck (the stick runs all the way under the resonator) in a trash can with the fretboard mostly scratched off and which Don kindly allowed me to appropriate. I instantly knew its (eventual) destiny: old-guy walking stick. It took thirty years, but this vision came to fruition at this year's NAMM Show, as i was trying to take it easy on a bum right foot.
Hail and farewell (far too early, you're only 44 days older than I am) Don--the world is a far less resonant place without you.
