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Featuring Square-neck and Hollow-Neck National guitars played in contemporary Bluegrass tuning. Every time we get a late 1920′s National Tricone Hollowneck coming in the door the entire shop grinds to a halt while we drool over this incredible rare and historic guitar. Squareneck players are fascinated by these historic National guitars. Originally built for the [...]

In Part 1 of the Hollowneck Report, we took an overview of our project comparing five squareneck National ResoPhonic guitars as bluegrass instruments. In Part 2 we’ll start into the recordings so you can see and hear what they’re really like. First up is the M-1 Mahogany Tri-Cone Squareneck. Here are Burke Carroll and Chris [...]

Welcome to Part 4 of National ResoPhonic: The Hollowneck Report! So far, we’ve seen the M1-Mahogany body model and the Style 1 Brass with nickel finish. Moving right along, we’ll take a look at the NRP Single cone Squareneck Model, Steel-body with a Brushed-steel finish. Next up in Part 5 is the Style 1 Hollowneck [...]

And here’s Part 5 of National ResoPhonic: The Hollowneck Report. So far, we’ve looked at an M-1 Mahogany Squareneck Tricone, a Style 1 Brass Squareneck Tricone, an NRP Single-cone Squareneck. Now we’re finally into the Hollownecks! First up we’ve got a Style 1 Tricone Hollowneck with Brass body and Nickel Plate. Burke Carroll and Chris [...]

Welcome to Part 6, the final installment of The Hollowneck Report! Having looked at three squarenecks – an M1 Mahogany, a Style 1 tricone, and an NRP Single cone – we’ve moved to the hollownecks. In part 5, we saw the Style 1 Brass body with nickel finish. Here, we’ll see the Style 1 with [...]

National Reso-Phonic Instruments is proud to announce the production release of the Hollow-Neck Tri-Cone! We’re preparing a set of feature posts with recordings and videos of these wonderful instruments. For more details or to purchase this instrument contact us here You can preview the videos now on Our YouTube Channel!

THE penultimate guitar for Leadbelly style music. Every year I scout the January LA NAMM show for interesting developments. Most of my time is spent in the boutique guitar makers booths. Every year I make the National ResoPhonic booth my second stop of Day-One. My first stop is the nearby espresso bar. This year I [...]

  In the late 1920s the Style 1 Tricone was the considered ultimate Hawaiian guitar. The three small cones powered by the Aluminum three footed bridge produce a very different quality of tone than the Single Cone Style 0 guitars Though not as loud as the standard single cone, the Brass body Style 1 Tricone [...]

Today we are featuring a beautiful new National 1.5 Tricone. This particular guitar has been special ordered to include the Highlander resophonic pickup system. We don’t normally order this guitar with electonics, but we wanted to show that it is an available option. Here’s a quote from our original feature of the standard National 1.5 [...]

The Gold Tone Banjo Company of Florida has been fabricating and assembling banjos for some time now. They have earned a reputation for making everything from entry level to professional grade instruments. The Gold Tone instrument pictured above is one of the only Reso-phonic 5-string banjo’s I have ever had the opportunity to play. As [...]

We are constantly on the prowl for interesting new instruments and once in a while we find a real gem, Republic guitars is definitely one of those gems !! Specializing in Resophonic guitars, Republic builds several models of metal body resophonic guitars. None of these are “replicas” but rather built in the spirit or style [...]

Master Luthiers Mark Thibeault and Jason Friesen have done it again with another of their magnificent Weissenborn-style beauties ! Spectacular AAA Koa wood throughout, huge tone and sustain and feather light construction. Every time I pick this up I am amazed at how light weight these Rayco guitars are. When played, the guitar feels alive. [...]

The National Tricone is patterned after the original instrument made in 1927 with its 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 [...]

This single cone guitar is patterned after the famous El Trovador that was made only in 1932 and 1933. The body is constructed entirely of mahogany – front, back and sides. The body is artistically bound with multiple layer binding and the mahogany neck features an ebony finerboard bound in ivoroid. The headstock has a [...]

The National Hot Plate was designed by National Reso-Phonic & guitarist Mike Dowling to address the issues of amplifying resophonic guitars. It is a self contained unit that simply replaces the coverplate on your existing instrument … just take the strings off, grab your trusty screwdriver and in 15 minutes you’re ready to plug in. [...]