The National Style 1.5 Tricone Resophonic guitar is patterned after the original instrument made in 1927 with a functional Art Deco industrial design. It is made of brass, highly polished and plated with either bright nickel plating or a custom Antique Brass treatment! The round, mahogany neck has an ivoroid bound ebony fingerboard. The headstock has the National logo inlayed in mother-of-pearl and vintage-style tuners! To create the National Style 1.5 Tricone, a touch of elegance is added to the Style 1, with hand-engraved double-cut lines encasing a wiggle stroke around the front, side, and back edges of the nickel-plated brass body!
The Twelfth Fret
Here’s a wonderful rarity and a natural blonde, a Guild GSR x180 archtop electric with a Spruce laminate top, dating to 2013. GSR stands for Guild Special Run, and this example is number 11 of 20 built. Originally, acoustic archtop guitars used solid, carved Spruce tops paired with solid, Maple for the sides and hand carved back. However, once pickups and amplifiers became more available and standard equipment, it was discovered that the tonal subtleties of the solid Spruce top could be overwhelmed by feedback.
This instrument has sold
MORE →The Eastman MD605 represents great value in a quality A-Style mandolin, built with solid woods and wrapped in a gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Introduced in 1905 and based on Orville Gibson’s patent merging violin family techniques with guitar and mandolin construction, the A-Style mandolin has a distinctive teardrop shape and a carved top and back, with either F holes or an oval hole; the F hole provides somewhat more top end. Compared to the F style often seen in bluegrass bands, the A Style body shape has more pronounced midrange and fundamental, and a less percussive attack.
The Collings MT2 A Style is one of the finest production mandolins available, using top shelf materials and very high level build quality. Built using traditional mixtures of a Red (Adirondack) Spruce top, Eastern Flame Maple back, sides and neck, with Ebony for the fingerboard and bridge, the Collings MT2 A Style is wrapped in an impeccable nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Collings does some of the best finishing around. The body of this example is bound with faux-tortoise plastic – Ivoroid is used on some versions – with black/white side and top purfling.
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MORE →Here’s a Gibson 1958 Les Paul Junior Double Cut Historic Reissue in TV White, built during 2004 at the Nashville Custom Shop. Introduced in 1954 as a simplified, entry level Les Paul model, the Les Paul Junior featured two woods – Honduran Mahogany for the slab body and neck, and Rosewood for the fingerboard – which until the end of the Junior’s production in 1963 meant Brazilian Rosewood.
This instrument has sold
MORE →The Beard Road-O-Phonic lap steel first appeared around 2006 and is designed and built in Hagerstown, Maryland at Paul Beard’s shop. The Road-O-Phonic has evolved over several versions and the second version seen here features a Maple body and neck with Flame Maple veneer for the top and back; the fingerboard is Ebony with a 23 inch scale length. The current version 3 uses a 25 inch scale length.
This instrument has sold
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