Topic: National Tricone wood body

[Rivers]

Has anyone played one of the new model National M1 wood body tricones? What were your impressions?

Link here: http://www.nationalguitar.com/national-reso-phonic/Wood-M-1-Tricone

[Prof Scratchy]

My pal Snakehips has one. I must say it's the nicest new National I've heard with nice growly basses to temper the echoey trebles. It's also lighter than other tricones I've tried, so that you don't necessarily have to sit the lower bout in your lap to prevent the whole thing falling on the floor when you lift your hand from the neck to play slide. Also, it seems to have a bit of the 'punch' of a single cone. Loud too!

[Rivers]

Thanks Scratch. I really want a wood body reso, Steve James' fault, went to see him last night at the Whip-Inn in Austin (thanks for the tip Cody, and nice to meet you). Steve will be there each Saturday in September starting at 9PM if anyone in Austin is reading this. 

Anyway, I woke up thinking about a wood reso. Steve was playing a wood body National with a cutaway, tricone-style lattice grills and a single cone with electrics built into it. I think he said it's heavily mod'd.

Looking at youtubes Mike Dowling does an A-B with the M1 tricone and an El Trovador. I think I liked the ET a little better, hard to tell from a lo-res audio but the low end on the tricone seemed just a little boxy, unsaturated, to me. I like the tricone sustain and complexity though, will just have to find one and play it.

[unezrider]

hey rivers,
i've played one, too. very nicely built instrument. but i think i can say that about all the newer nrp's i've played. it doesn't have the cut or volume of a steel bodied tri cone. i wish i would have had some finger picks with me when i played it too. (played her with bare fingers) if i did i think i could have really gotten more volume & dynamics out of her. kind of subdued without them. but overall a very nice sounding guitar. neck felt great. finish looked nice. but most of my attention that day went to the new nrp duolian style single cone. couldn't put that one down 
big difference between single & tri cones though, as you mention. & along with the M1 & el trov, they have wood body versions of the nrp & triolian, too. might be worth a look see. haven't come across any of those to play, though.
best of luck!
chris

[Rivers]

Thanks for that. I can see I'll need to play a few different models before deciding. I'll post impressions here if I can get my hands on some instruments.

[Coyote Slim]

I played one at Gryphon's in Palo Alto and it sounded great and felt good in my hands too.  Light, responsive.  The neck is fairly big, but I liked it.  It was tuned to open d when I picked it up; the slide sound sounded wonderful.  I tuned it up to standard and it sounded wonderful.  Eventually I had to put it down and tell it that while I was in love, I could never support it (not at $2500 -- can you knock a zero off, National?) and I hoped that after it married the rich man who would come along and take it away that I would still be its friend.

[Coyote Slim]

If you're looking to add another tonal color to your palate, then that guitar is a good choice. 

This sentence should include the clause, "AND you have lots of money to burn."

[GavinG]

Here's a vid from Len for Wood body tricone.