NRGD National Resolectric

SG John

SG John

Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
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New Resonator Guitar Day. Last week at my old bass player's memorial, I was chatting with a mutual friend after the service. As usual, we were talking about projects, gear, and other stuff. He said he was starting to sell off some of his guitars because he was more into keyboards and electronica these days. We might actually collaborate on something in the future which would be a ton of fun, as he is incredibly talented and a nice person to hang out with. As we were talking about stuff he was selling, he mentioned a '98 National Reso-Phonic Resolectric. We texted back and forth, and since he lives not to far from where I'm working this week, we made arrangements to get together.

Tonight I went to his house with my homemade Tweed Princeton (because he no longer has any guitar amps) and gave the National a test drive. What a fun guitar! It has either an Armstrong or Duncan P-90 in the neck position and a Highlander Piezo and pre-amp for the biscuit in the resonator cone. The three controls are master volume, neck volume, and cone volume. You can play with either pickup by themselves or with the middle position on the toggle switch blend the pick up volumes. You can have more resonator sound with P-90 oomph, or P-90 up front with resonator sounds in the background. This is a wicked fun guitar. I can't wait to get home Friday to give it a god cleaning and spiffing up.

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Never seen a resonator type guitar like that before. Very cool and congrats… :cheers:

What’s the weight of it? What type of woods is it built with?
 
syscokid said:
Never seen a resonator type guitar like that before. Very cool and congrats… :cheers:

What’s the weight of it? What type of woods is it built with?
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Thanks everyone. I've seen them over the years because I'm on a resonator guitar page on the book of face. Hadn't really thought of buying one until Chris mentioned he wanted to sell his because he hasn't touched it in ten years.

National's website listed specs for newer models, and this one seems a bit different. The top is figured maple, and the neck seems to be maple. Their newer models have ebony fingerboards, but this one definitely looks like rosewood of some sort. The body is most likely some species of mahogany. It's a featherweight and much lighter than my SGs. They're still making guitars in San Louis Obispo, CA, so it's made in the U.S. I guess the Highlander piezo and preamp are sought after these days as the best sounding of this model. I wish their website gave some more information on older models. I've been going by FB posts and Reverb listings to get information.
 
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