Topic: string height on my new tri-cone

[bloozinay]

Hi all, I just bought a new National Polychrome Tricone from a shop in California, and had it shipped here to Connecticut. It sounds great but the action is kind of high. At the 12th fret, 6th string, my height is .170 in. with med. ga. strings.  It has me worried about neck angle. Last month I sold a Mossman 12 string with just about the same string height. My luthier told me that the neck angle wasn't quite where it should've been....so It has me wondering about this guitar.
Any Ideas?
Bloozinay

[waxwing]

First, I'm gonna move this over to the gear thread.

Now, any new guitar is gonna need to be set up to your personal specifications. Unfortunately, when you purchase a guitar from a distant dealer they can't do that for you for free, like a reputable shop will when you purchase in their shop. I have found that National Reso-Phonic tends to set up their guitars a little on the high side because, well, I guess most folks call them "slide guitars" and that's about all they wanna do with them. And it's a heck of a lot easier to lower the action on a reso than it is to raise it.

You're gonna have to find a good reso shop in your area and pay to have them set up the guitar the way you want. And be aware that they might be a little miffed if you coulda bought the guitar from them but opted for a cheaper online price.

I wouldn't worry about the neck angle yet. I think N/R-P is pretty reputable and it is very unlikely that they would let a guitar go out with a bad neck angle.

All for now.
John C.

[Richard]

I think Waxy is right in that with a decent guitar you have to expect it to get it set up as you want it and the tricone is just set up to an average setting straight from the factory.

ps squareneck tricones rule 

[bloozinay]

Thanks for your responses guys. There arent any National dealers in my state, and very few in New England, and they don't stock much! I e-mailed National and asked them what it would take to be a dealer...I could stock 7-10 guitars, but they blew me off.
I'll take the guitar to my local guy George Youngblood at acoustic music.org.
George prefers wood instruments, but he'll do this for me.
regards,
bloozinay

[rpg51]

There is an excellent detailed description of the process to set up a National over at the Acoustic Player forum.  It is a recent post and I think its still on the first page.  The author is Doug Jones aka Little Brother. Really quite informative.

[Richard]

Eeerrrrrr... this couild get political talking about new "Nationals"... but, uummmm...  we all have our opions,  no I had better not air mine!!!

[rpg51]

Eeerrrrrr... this couild get political talking about new "Nationals"... but, uummmm...  we all have our opions,  no I had better not air mine!!!

I don't get it.

You mean immigraton policy?  Yea, your right - not really on topic here, eh?