National tricones hollow neck old vs new

Joe Burke · Post by **Joe Burke** » 8 Nov 2017 7:34 pm

Does anyone have an opinion here? Iâ€™d like to get one.

Peter Garellick · Post by **Peter Garellick** » 8 Nov 2017 9:00 pm

Hi Joe,

I have a 2 vintage square neck style 1 tricones with the hollow necks, and a new wood-body National M-3 tricone with a solid neck. They are all wonderful instruments.

The vintage ones have a little more output from the grill area, which I assume includes the sound from the hollow neck.

The new one has more sound from the cones.

Given that the price of the vintage ones can be less than the new ones, I would try to get one of those!

Let me know if you have further questions...

Peter

Lee Holliday · Post by **Lee Holliday** » 8 Nov 2017 10:31 pm

My 36 Hollowneck is currently in the workshop with it,s fingerboard off, I am having the seams re soldered as there is a dry joint which needs TLC.

Anyway to the point the neck is full of wood up to about the 12th fret.I understand the modern ones were re-engineered and it was hollow.

Here are some photos showing the process of removing the fingerboard and what lurks below

Lee

Former Member · Post by **Former Member** » 9 Nov 2017 5:26 am

Yeah, the vintage Nats are not really hollow.
I have a NRP hollowneck, and it has something like â€œstrutsâ€ going perpendicular to the neck. I feel it has a slightly different tone, more full, more acoustic resonance, sounds better to me in C6th, and I donâ€™t blast away on the strings. I love the guitar!

Joe Burke · Post by **Joe Burke** » 10 Nov 2017 6:12 am

Thanks for the info.

I have a recent National tricone with a wook neck. It sounds amazing, but I also really like the hollow neck. Iâ€™ll continue to keep my eye out for one.

Steve Lipsey · Post by **Steve Lipsey** » 11 Nov 2017 1:15 pm

I had a long talk with Marc Schoenberger, the recognized guy for this stuff - repairs Nationals, says he worked with Don Young at National in the design of the new hollow necks, his shop is next door to National....

He says that the old ones were mostly filled with scrap wood and only a little hollow, but that the new ones have a different neck structure and can support a real hollow neck. BUT he also says that, unlike a Weissenborn, where the neck is a big part of the space, a National has so much air in the body that a little more in the neck has no real impact on the sound...

These guys hear a difference between hollow and not hollow square necks, but didn't contrast old vs. new...
http://www.12fret.com/2011/05/18/nation ... rt-part-1/

I've owned a 1932 style 3 and currently have a 1928 Style 1, and they both sound great...but both were set up fairly recently by experts.

Marc has a real preference for the new ones, mostly because he says that the old ones usually have deteriorated with age, and need work to sound right...I think he mainly was referring to wooden neck instruments, which need neck resets a lot, but maybe other stuff also.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 11 Nov 2017 5:12 pm

In a previous life, National tricones meant the world to me. It's been so long that I've had and played one, but they still resonate for me.

Steve Lipsey · Post by **Steve Lipsey** » 11 Nov 2017 10:19 pm

I'm a recent convert...never played one till recently, and now I've sold everything else and only have National tricones...as John Dopyera said, music from tricones flows like water...he tried every number of cones from 1 to 4 and then built only tricones until economics forced them to offer a single cone instrument...mine is from 1928, when he still ran the factory...and a couple of newer ones...

Former Member · Post by **Former Member** » 13 Nov 2017 3:10 pm

I agree with the article, which must've been written a few years ago.
Strike a note, and I can hear it go down the hallway...
there is more echo-ish decay than a vintage Nat.
If you want one better get on the phone and order before they decide to not to make any more. As of last year they were only going to build out the stamped metal they had on hand. (for that shape).
--Ever check out Fine resophonics "hollowneck"?
not totally sure if it's completely hollow!!

Has a real nice tone to it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgY_--15_jE

--god how time flies!
Here's my ol' buddy demo-ing the very first one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bposHEYmCG0

Lee Holliday · Post by **Lee Holliday** » 13 Nov 2017 10:44 pm

Yes since Don Passed and left NRP the Hollowneck has been off the Radar, try and find it on there current web pages.

I never knew that they had tooled up and stamped them out I thought they were hand made (Hammer & Forming sheet)

Fine Resophonic however are as enthusiastic regarding the Tricone as Don ever was.

So an Englishman in Paris paying homage to an American built Czech invented Guitar is the way foreword for a new Tricone!!!

I am biased of course but I have had a go on the fine resophonics and have met Pascal and Mike when they venture into the UK at the guitar shows.

Aloha Lee