Brand: National String Instrument Corporation
Instrument Categories: Acoustic Steel String, Guitars, Resophonic Guitars, SOLD
Here is a rarity – a National Style 97 Square neck Tricone with the Surfer Girl motif on a sandblasted and enameled nickel plated brass body. These were built in small numbers from 1936 to 1940. By 1941, the materiel demands for the burgeoning war brought production of resophonic guitars to a halt. The ‘B’ prefix in the serial of this guitar is said to first appear in 1938.
This National Style 97 likely dates to 1938. This rare model uses a 12-fret square neck on nickel plated brass body, treated with sandblasting to create various scenes, mostly based on Hawaiian imagery. On this guitar, the scene is of woman surfing with a palm tree in the mid field and volcano in the distance. Unlike many other sandblasted designs, this also has airbrushed enamel to emphasize details in the design. The neck on the square neck model is Maple (round neck versions were Mahogany) and the head plate and fingerboard are ‘Ebonite’, with pearloid for the position markers and National shield logo.
This guitar is in overall good and largely original condition – two tuner buttons had broken and have been replaced. The cones are original and because it’s a square neck built for Hawaiian styles played with a steel, action height and fret condition are not relevant.
This rare and wonderful instrument is sold without case.
- Model: Style 97 'Surfer Girl'
- Year: 1938 | Approximate year
- Finish Nickel Plate, Sandblast and Enamel
- Class: Vintage
- Serial Number: B-1971
- Country of Origin: USA
- Condition: Good
- Date Posted: 08/06/2020
- This instrument is on hold
- This instrument has been sold
- Consignment Item
- Instrument Weight: 8.27lbs 3.76kg
- Scale Length: 25in 635mm
- Nut Width: 1.87in 47.58mm
