Ryan Bocook

National Guitar Duolian

What I Have Learned:

  • The idea of the resonator was born from frustrated guitarists that couldn’t compete with the banjo volume cutting through everything (this was pre amplified instruments) and the fascination of making the guitar louder
  • John Dopyera founded National Guitars in LA in 1927 with George Beauchamp
  • John Dopyera used a spun speaker cone inverted and connected at the bridge for the passive volume and patented multiple resonator designs
  • National Guitars were the first to design and produce a resonator guitar
  • The original guitars produced were tricone (three smaller cones connected at the bridge) and later the single cone (simpler, easier/cheaper to make, louder BUT frequency response was different)
  • John preferred the tricone sound over the later, simpler single cones found in the Iconic Duolian
  • Dobro was formed by John and his brothers in 1928 with a competing guitar where they inverted the cone and connected it to the bridge with a spider web metal structure
  • Richenbacher had a tool and die shop that made the metal bodies and resonator cones for the early Nationals
  • in 1932 Dopyera controlled both National and Dobro and merged them, and ceased production in 1941 heading in to World War II as raw materials and metal became harder to come by
  • In the late 1980’s National Reso-Phonic Guitars formed to focus on reproducing the feel and sound of the originals and have succeeded in creating such a beautiful instrument, the vintage market for the originals dipped
  • The bodies are generally made of brass with a soldered on top and then plated
  • The Body materials could be: German Silver, Brass, Steel or Wood
  • They are either three cone or single cone
  • Hawaiian (square neck) or Spanish (round) neck
  • Slotted headstock (1927-1935) or Solid (1936-1941)
  • The Style “O” was and is the brands flagship – plated in nickel with etched palm trees of the Aloha Isles
  • I did a basic search of patents and found a ton of great designs (see bottom of this post)

About This Guitar:

The guitar I picked up was built in the early 1930’s but dating it is hard due to the fact that the neck appears to have been replaced at some point in it’s life (also a rather old neck, no truss rod, set like the original). The neck shape is also unlike anything I have played – a deep V shaped, very thick neck, made of multiple pieces of wood laminated together. Also at some point in it’s life, somebody had installed a pickup and has since removed it (several holes remain in the body as a witness). This guitar has been played and used for nearly a century.

This guitar has a deep natural dark reverb sound. While sounds ghostly and amazing, it does have some intonation issues when fretting notes so it makes a better slide guitar (currently tuned to open G). The patina is actually quite nice with no major pitting, but clearly aged with some surface oxidation all around and definitely used but not abused. There are a few minor dings/dents but nothing major. The solder joint has some voids which I find interesting as I wonder if they were visible under the plating and it just wore down or these defects were always present. I applied a nice wax coating with my favorite wax after cleaning out all of the dust bunnies to help preserve it’s current look.

I picked up this guitar at a local shop in Maryville TN where the owner would take it down to the Rocky Branch Mountain Music each Friday. He also gave me an original medicine bottle glass slide and the leather belt strap. This guitar sounds amazing and is a lot of fun to play and look at and think about how many people owned it, cherished it and played it over the past century.

References:

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