The National Guitar Page I have been fascinated with National guitars since I first saw one in the late 1980s. The strange blend of wood and shiny metal, the speaker-like round cone, the sand-blasted Hawaiian scenes or floral engraving - above all the strangeness of the era before electric amplification - when a metal bodied guitar with an aluminium diaphragm was the loudest guitar on the planet. Over the years I fell in love with the sound of resonator guitars - a kind of metallic, bell-like, slightly nasal, almost electric guitar tone but undeniably still an acoustic instrument. This particular tone suits certain styles of music better than others - it also encourages musicians to play in a particular style. Although initially popular with, and marketed to, Hawaiian musicians, the National guitar really found it's enduring home with blues musicians - the single cone National guitars have become become synonymous with the blues - on album covers, movies, advertisements - nothing says 'blues' like a single cone National guitar. As a lover of early acoustic blues I was drawn to the resonator guitar and have spent the last 16 years playing them - I love the sound, the unique feel (the strings are much closer to the body than a regular acoustic and the cover strap necessitates a particular right-hand position different to other acoustic guitars) and of course they look fantastic. Also the extra volume of a resonator guitar is still useful today - even with microphones and PA systems. I don't like the sound of electric pickups in my guitars so I always use a microphone. With a normal acoustic guitar, you can never get enough volume without feedback - a National guitar's extra volume allows this - 89 years after it was invented it's still a useful tool. National Guitar makers of fine reso-phonic guitars, hand crafted in California. National/Valco Map Shaped Electric Guitars. National Vintage Serial Numbers. National/Valco serial. On single cone steel body models, the number is stamped. The success of the National guitar was due to brilliant engineering, a brilliantly designed aesthetic and above all, the timing of it's introduction. Enforcer impaq owner's manual. In 1912, Hawaiian music was introduced to the U.S. In a Broadway show called 'The Bird Of Paradise' and in 1915, 17 million Americans visited the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco seeing exhibitions of Hawaiian music and dance. In 1916, Hawaiian music outsold all other styles of recorded music in the U.S. The mid 1920s was also the peak of the 'Jazz Age', when bands were getting bigger and music was getting louder. Both these styles of music were in need of a louder guitar and Hawaiian slide guitarists particularly wanted a guitar with a longer sustain and a clear tone. At this exact moment in history the National guitar was invented by John Dopyera (around 1925). The large Dopyera family emigrated to California from Slovakia in 1908 and set up a cabinet maker's shop where they also built violins and banjos they branded 'National'. There is some debate about the origins of the resonator guitar but the generally accepted story is that George Beauchamp, a vaudeville entertainer came into the Dopyera's shop and ordered a custom made guitar featuring a Gramophone style horn to increase it's volume. The idea derived from the English-made Stroh violin - indeed it was perhaps an exact copy of the Stroh violin principle applied to a guitar. John Stroh patented his idea in 1900 - essentially the bridge of the violin sits on a mica diaphragm which vibrates and is amplified by a conical horn - exactly the way a gramophone works. Unfortunately his patent (for violins and other string instruments) only covered the U.K. And John Dopyera was able to apply it to a guitar in the U.S. George Beuchamp used this Stroh-like guitar on stage but the tone was reportedly not great. Also it could only be played Hawaiian style on a stand.
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