Details
This National Style 3 Squareneck Tricone was built in Southern California in 1931, and it’s one of the cleanest vintage National guitars we have ever offered. It’s in excellent structural condition and the German silver body has no major dents or edge seam separation. It has a bound ebony fingerboard with pearl diamond inlays. The headstock overlay is pearlescent celluloid with an engraved National shield logo. The lily-of-the-valley engraving pattern is very well executed. The name "Ellen Goodart" is engraved on the bass side of the neck for the player who originally ordered it.
To our eyes, the National’s Style 3 Tricone is one the most beautiful guitars ever made. The Tricone-style resonator guitar was designed in the mid-1920s by John Dopyera, who wanted to build a louder guitar in those pre-amplified days that retained the warmth and clarity of a wooden acoustic guitar. His groundbreaking design settled on three resonating cones which projected the guitar’s sound so it could be over the sound of dancers and cut through a band or orchestra. National’s early ads proclaimed the Tricone as “The Greatest Musical Sensation of the Age” with a tone that “flowed like a river.” National Tricones were immediately popular with Hawiian steel guitarists but they also found a home with blues musicians like Tampa Red and jazzers like Oscar Aleman, who played a roundneck version in the 1930s.
Specs
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Back sides
German Silver
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Binding
Ivoroid
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Fingerboard
Ebony
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Frets to body
11
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Neck material
German Silver
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Neck shape
Square
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Nut width
2"
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Scale length
25"
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Top material
German Silver
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Tuners
Original
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Year
1931
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Case type
Original Hardshell
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Serial number
2396
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SKU
NATSTYLE3-2396
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UPC
142354
