Guitar Review – In Another Lifetime… Country Blues & Retirement in the Quotidian World…

September 23, 2023December 6, 2023

The Immaculate Santa Cruz H-13… My favorite all time guitar?

Introduction

I’ve written on this blog before that I lose patience with a guitar that no longer calls to me and as a result will consider it trade worthy for an instrument that I’d put to greater use. There’s too much financial value and physical space being occupied by an unused guitar. If you follow this blog, you may remember that I owned a National Reso-Lectric, and enjoyed it for several years, but then I subsequently acquired a National M-1, which is, in my judgement, the ultimate resonator and found afterwards that I had to force myself to pull the Reso-Lectric from it’s case!

At the time this story takes place, I was still residing in Iowa and was about a 2.5 hour drive from one of the largest guitar stores in the Midwest, Dave’s Guitars. An interesting thing about Dave’s is that they facilitate guitar trades through internet communication. Fill out an online form, send some photos and they’ll give you a trade value in very short order. I like this trade approach much more so than the tire kicking, frowning, hair pulling , hemming and hawing that can happen at a smaller Mom and Pop shop. So, I sent Dave’s the scoop on my Reso-Lectric and they got back to me with a reasonable price the same day.

Shortly thereafter on a gray December morning back in 2022, I loaded the Reso-Lectric into my vehicle and headed out to Dave’s to see what was what. I was not in the market for an electric guitar, as the one I had was all I think I would ever want or need. In fact, the differing tonal voices of electric guitars were not of interest to me, but that was not true about acoustic guitars. Varying shapes, body depths, wood compositions, bracing techniques, 12 vs 14 frets, glues, and finishes all, in my experience, contributed to the magical tonality of acoustic guitars. So, when I took off for Dave’s, it was acoustic guitars I was going to look at.

I think because the national economy was slowing down a bit, Dave’s acoustic guitar inventory was actually accumulating for a change. The past few years there was a Covid related feeding frenzy in guitar stores. Collings guitars, for example, flew off the hooks at Dave’s making it near impossible to test out their very popular OM model. I knew as I was driving over to Wisconsin that Dave’s actually had a couple of Collings OM’s in stock and they even had a solitary Santa Cruz acoustic in stock too!

I’d been aware of Santa Cruz guitars for decades since I first saw an advertisement in a guitar mag with Tony Rice playing a Santa Cruz knock-off (even with the odd oversized sound hole) of his famous Martin D-28. I’d also sat next to Catfish Keith in his home and listened to him play his Santa Cruz signature small bodied guitar with the Catfish logo inlaid on the headstock. Keith’s guitar was awesome sounding, so I was very interested in test driving a Santa Cruz acoustic.

When I got to the store, the acoustic guitar sales manager, JR set me up with a downstairs audition room to try out both a Collings OM and the Santa Cruz which was an H-13 model. Since the acoustic guitar sales room can be very busy and noisy, it was great to be able to quietly sit and contemplate the playability and tonality of the two guitars side by side. I switched back and forth between the two several times and stayed down there for quite some time. Both guitars were similar in that they were smaller Mahogany bodies with Spruce tops, but the similarities ended there. They looked completely different and, in the details, built differently. More on that later.

Guitar shopping at Dave’s is a double-edged sword. As a customer, you are pretty much on your own. The guys working there are so busy that they really do not have time to chase you around to cajole you into a sale. Internet sales are the preponderance of their business so they are often preoccupied with moving product out the door. Unlike a Mom and Pop store, it’s difficult to establish much of a personal relationship with the folks in that store. I’d purchased several guitars in the store and Dave, the owner, barely acknowledged me because his customer base is so large and his attention spread so thin. This was a far different atmosphere from the very personalized Casino Guitars where I recently purchased a Lowden F-50. Nevertheless, I managed on my own to come to a conclusion as to which guitar I liked most and whether or not I would make a purchase.

Both the Collings OM and the Santa Cruz were exceptionally playable, but the H-13 was a beast by comparison with greater depth and breadth of tone, possessing an expansive bottom in the bass range and some serious headroom with sparkling treble highs. It was a full spectrum cannon! The H-13’s sonic advantage during my audition may have been the combination of body depth being 3/4 of an inch deeper than the OM, Adirondack Spruce vs Sitka Spruce bracings under a European Spruce vs Sitka Spruce sound board and the 13 fret vs 14 fret neck to body join allowing ideal placement of the bridge on the body for the H-13. Both guitars were built with hot hide glue, so no advantage there. The H-13 is the lightest guitar I’ve ever held, which I think contributed to its far greater resonance as a stringed instrument. I was sold by the Santa Cruz H-13 and decided to complete its purchase with the trade of the Reso-Lectric.

Finally, I may have been recognized as a good customer during this visit to Dave’s Guitars, because JR threw in an installed K&K Mini pickup for no additional charge. After installation of the pickup, I headed back home to Iowa.

I Review the Santa Cruz H-13

General Observations

The Santa Cruz H-13, a medium sized premium guitar, was described recently by an acquaintance as a “museum piece.” This was from an accomplished musician with a long professional history, including back up and recording work with Chris Smither. Nevertheless, despite its elegant beauty, it is a simple looking instrument with just a few embellishments, including a slot head with ivoroid tuners, a sunburst finish, and an S29 top purfling, The real beauty of this guitar is how it sounds and handles.

Design Inspiration

There are small scale guitar manufacturers like Santa Cruz and Collings who specialize in precision made instruments that often take their inspiration from guitars manufactured during the early to mid part of the 20th century. The old vintage Martins and Gibsons that people pay enormous sums for serve as a design jumping off point, from which boutique manufacturers copy design features but also implement modern techniques, design enhancements and small scale builder advantages with a good deal of old world handwork. Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz has made an incredibly successful run as a thoughtful and exceptionally skillful small scale guitar manufacturer, roundly regarded as one of the best in the industry. His vision is to bring the traditions of the ancient violin masters to the steel string guitar. Below you can see a video in which Hoover discusses his approach to guitar making:

Now, as I understand it, the H-13 is inspired by the 1930’s era Gibson Nick Lucas Special. The initial impetus for Santa Cruz’s decision to create the H-13, as we know today, is credited to the late, well known luthier, Paul Hostetter. The original Special was actually made in a variety of styles and shapes; some with trapeze and others with pin bridges, 12, 13 or 14 frets, and varying tone woods. It was Gibson’s first artist endorsed guitar and what made it special was its extra body depth, which Nick Lucas wanted for a more robust bass tone. I believe Santa Cruz, at the behest of Paul Hostetter, decided to use the Gibson L-00 shape with 13 frets and the deeper body as the basis for their design, which I think is also the version that Bob Dylan made so notable early in his career.

During the height of the Covid pandemic lock-down, accomplished musician, Steve Earle did a series of Youtube videos about his vast guitar collection, which serves as an excellent history of highly valued vintage Martin and Gibson guitars. In the video below, Earle gives some historic background about the Nick Lucas Special:

Here’s an actual film of Nick Lucas playing his signature Gibson:

Finally, in this clip from D.A. Pennebaker’s film Don’t Look Back, ultra badass, Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan plays his Special in England where he pretty much schools Donovan during that gathering… Dylan is like a wound spring watching Donovan sing one of his ditties, and he’s waiting to explode outwards with a far more sophisticated tune than Donovan could ever imagine playing. After Dylan basically rips his guitar from Donovan’s hands and starts to play, you can see Donovan sink into himself in a defensive posture… Game over man…

Notable Elements of the Santa Cruz H-13

Starting at the top end of the guitar, the H-13 is built with a slotted headstock topping off a “standard Mahogany” neck. Hoover uses the term “standard Mahogany” to note that Santa Cruz’s mahogany is responsibly harvested from a former British plantation. This he speaks to in the video I embedded above. Based on my research, standard Mahogany is Swietenia macrophylla, commonly referred to as Honduran or Big Leaf Mahogany. The face of the headstock is elegantly simple with no binding, but enhanced with an ebony veneer and a Santa Cruz script logo inlaid with ivoroid on the top front. Santa Cruz offers multiple logo types in varying locations when purchased as a custom made guitar. If you refer to the Santa Cruz website for the H-13, there are multiple features that can be chosen when ordering the guitar from scratch, which I obviously did not do having bought this item “off the rack” at Dave’s..

Slotted headstocks are often used with guitars built with less than 14 frets as an aesthetic identifier, but also to alter tonality by creating a steeper break angle at the nut causing the string to exert more downward pressure, consequently driving more energy into the guitar when the string is plucked. I like how slotted headstocks look, but they are more tedious to restring.

To the right you can see a side/rear view of the headstock. You’ll note the “open back” or “open gear” Waverly nickel tuners with white ivoroid buttons, which are design consistent with the vintage guitar from which the H-13 takes its inspiration. The Waverly’s work just fine, but they are not near as buttery as the closed back Gotoh’s on my Lowden F-50, which are built onto a paddle-style headstock. What makes the closed back Gotoh’s so good is their high turning ratio, thus tuning is more smooth and precise. Gotoh does produce a slotted headstock “opened back” tuner but having never played with them, I am not sure that they are any better than the Waverly’s.

To the left, you can see a lower section of the neck and the upper bout of the body to where it is attached. The preponderance of steel string guitars are either 12 or 14 frets, but in the case of the H-13, it is 13 frets. According to the Santa Cruz website, the 13 fret neck, combined with the bridge location allows a longer string length which, combined with a deeper body, creates a very powerful small bodied guitar. I can attest to that!

The neck is a solid piece of mahogany, serving as a platform for an ivoroid bound ebony fingerboard. The V-shaped neck, attached precisely to the body with a traditional dovetail join, feels full in hand and is exceptionally comfortable to play. Finally, you’ll note the fretboard is unadorned with inlay keeping to the elegantly simplicity of the H-13.

There was a time in my life when I thought that owning a fancy guitar with inlays and other adornments was a sign of musical accomplishment. I’ve since traded off my fancy guitars for those made with old school sensibilities where the emphasis is on tonality as well as playability, and for the most part they are much simpler in appearance with fewer adornments like wood bindings and inlaid Abalone. I have a fondness for old school ivoroid bindings which adorn many boutique guitars inspired by vintage instruments.

The top of the H-13 is lovely; however, it boasts no unnecessary adornments, with the possible exception of the S29 purfling, “a pattern best described as a herringbone split with line of colored-wood marquetry.” The ivoroid rosette, the tortoise pick guard and the ebony pyramid bridge are all old school simplicity. Nevertheless, the high gloss nitrocellulose finish overlaying the sunburst top makes the H-13 a glory to behold.

A good bit of the tonal magic of the H-13 lies with the soundboard itself. In the case of my H-13, the standard Sitka Spruce is substituted out with European Spruce, originating from the Italian/Swiss border. Often used to build classical guitars, European Spruce is also frequently selected by boutique builders of steel guitars. “It has a sound rich in overtones, while it offers some of the headroom of Adirondack and a quicker response than Sitka, but with a warmer, thicker tone.” All in all it is a tonality that appeals to finger style players like me.

As I understand it, the sound board is tap toned at Santa Cruz to fine tune how it’s braced. In the case of my H-13, the bracings are Adirondack spruce. Theoretically, Adirondack provides greater strength and stiffness with less weight than Sitka. It generally allows for a lighter-braced top, which makes it more responsive.

Below Tommy Sands elaborates on the nuances of European Spruce:

The back and sides of H-13 are standard Mahogany. At first glance, the use of Mahogany for the back and sides of a premium guitar may seem a poorly conceived choice. Remember, Mr. Martin used Rosewood on his top-of-the-line D-28 and reserved Mahogany for the somewhat “less than” D-18. That preconception of Mahogany being a second rate tone wood still exists today. A local luthier Rob Sharer dismisses that prejudice writing that “Where (Mahogany) really shines, though, is when it is used for the back and sides of a steel-string acoustic guitar. Less dense than the rosewood species, its medium weight and open grain produce both warmth and punch, de-emphasizing the bass register while accentuating the crucial midrange, which, after all, is the guitar’s home turf in the tonal spectrum… For the player who values a dry, crunchy, punchy sound, mahogany gets the nod over rosewood’s rum-jug bass and metallic overtones.”

In sum

The Santa Cruz H-13, built to exacting standards with first rate woods and components, is still more than the sum of its parts. The guitar is feather light, but has a huge warm voice. As expected for Mahogany back and sides, it’s punchy in the mid-tones; however, the deep body and the very responsive European Spruce top offers the player surprisingly resonant bass tones and sparkling highs for a mid-sized guitar. This guitar is an absolute delight to hold and play. It is a finger style player’s delight. During the week, I try to cycle through my guitar collection on a daily basis and always look forward to H-13 day!

If you want to dig deeper into Richard Hoover’s guitar building philosophy, where he brings to bear the skills of the ancient violin makers onto steel string guitars, here’s an inside look at Santa Cruz’s shop providing intimate detail on guitar construction philosophy. After watching this, I consider it a true blessing to own one of these marvelous instruments.

Santa Cruz H-13 Tone Samples

Elizabeth Cotton – Freight Train

Drop D Fishin’ Blues

Carl Miner of the North American Guitar rocking out on an H-13 spec’d out like mine…

September 17, 2023February 7, 2024

An Irish Guitar Joins the Stable – I Review My Lowden F-50

Introduction

It was a confluence of events and cognitions that lead me down the path to purchase a different new guitar. First, I was becoming increasingly disaffected with my Collings 0002H. It was an excellent instrument that sounded great and it was my first Collings, which made it special; however, the guitar was, from the very moment I started playing it at home, difficult to play.

There are things about the playability of a guitar that sometimes elude me in the store when excitement overrides critical assessment. Or, perhaps it’s the change in ambient environment when the guitar arrives at home that causes the guitar neck to shift around and alter the instruments action. At any rate, It was just hard on my hands and more of a challenge to play when compared to my other guitars, including my Martin D-28 Authentic, the Collings C10-35, and my recently purchased Santa Cruz H-13. The playability issues continued despite having a shop luthier at Dave’s Guitars do a full set-up some weeks later. In sum, I was not playing it very much, so I knew in my heart of hearts that it had to eventually go.

Further, the 0002H was constructed with a Sitka spruce top and East Indian Rosewood back and sides which is fine; however, my Martin ’37 Authentic is composed of an Adirondack spruce top and Madagascar Rosewood back and sides which is arguably a more choice version of the Spruce and Rosewood combination. While it’s worth repeating that the 0002H was a marvelous sounding guitar, it did not compare to the incredible sounding Martin on the level of playability and wood quality (splitting hair here), so it became an ever so slightly “less than” and redundant guitar in my stable, leaving it in the category of high trade potential.

My thinking was that If I were to trade the 0002H it would be for a guitar with a wood combination and body shape that I did not already possess. One of the guitar manufacturers that I was particularly interested in was the Irish company Lowden. Many years ago I had owned an all Koa Lowden guitar that was quite beautiful, but I traded it off because the neck was a bit narrow for finger-style guitar which I’d recently adopted. Over the years I regretted parting with it.

Lowden manufactures guitars in a small shop in Northern Ireland with great individual care. George Lowden was in the same mid-century generation of successful guitar builders who started from the ground up decades ago with their own idiosyncratic approach to constructing the instruments. This would include builders like Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz, Bill Collings, and Bob Taylor.

There were no Lowden sellers in Iowa where I was residing and I was not interested in purchasing one online without trying it out. Further, I was totally unsure of which particular Lowden I was interested in. I wanted to visit a location where I could try a variety of them. I knew, for example, that Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, North Carolina was a major dealer in Lowden Guitars. I was familiar with Casino Guitars because the owner, Baxter Clement, was a highly visible Youtube personality uploading several videos every week about different aspects regarding guitars and the associated industry. Baxter was an advocate for Lowden instruments and offered a healthy variety of them in stock. Below you can watch one of Baxter’s videos about his commitment to Lowden guitars.

Baxter Clement in his store, Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, NC

While my thoughts about guitars in general, Lowden’s in particular, and trading the 0002H were percolating somewhere in the back of my mind, my wife Annette and I decided to move from Iowa to North Carolina. The state of North Carolina has a strong pull on my life. It’s where I came of age decades ago, having graduated from High School in Durham and then subsequently completed undergraduate degrees at both the University of North Carolina and NC State. We were both retired and thought it was the right time for a change of venue. We had multiple children and grandchildren who lived in NC and we were both worn down by the long and brutal Iowa winters. So, we purchased a new home outside Chapel Hill, NC, sold our Iowa home, packed up and settled into NC in early June of 2023.

Casino Guitars

I think it was as early as the second weekend that we were living in North Carolina that we planned to head to the coast to visit one of my daughters and her family. I decided that we would leave earlier then necessary and take a side trip to Casino Guitars in Southern Pines on the way to Wilmington, NC. While I was not planning on buying a guitar on this particular visit, I packed the 0002H in the event that I wished to make a trade on a guitar that I liked.

An hour away from my home, Casino Guitars is located right in the heart of the Southern Pines historic downtown district. The building itself was, back in the day, a casino, bowling alley, speakeasy and a brothel. Baxter Clement, a Southern Pines native recently renovated the building, built an apartment for his family on the second floor and established his guitar retail space on the main floor. As you can see from the images below, the shop is well stocked with premium electric and acoustic guitars, including PRS, Fender, Gretsch, Martin, Taylor and of course, Lowden. Besides the awesome inventory, the interior space is absolutely stunning. Just a great place to be!

I was lucky to find a parking space reasonably close to the store because Southern Pines was mobbed with visitors there to attend a concert that night. Leaving Annette and our dog Nike at an Ice Cream parlor, I crossed the railroad tracks that cut through the center of town and eventually found the store, which delighted me! When I entered the shop, a fellow I did not recognize from Youtube videos was manning the main desk. I later learned that he was was James Villone. Since the shop was pretty quiet at that moment James was kind enough to quickly show me the way to the Lowden’s.

Initially, James thought the only store inventory was the three Lowden’s in the glass cases. I was a little disappointed at first but thought, “what the hell,” I ‘d give those three a try out. James pulled out all three Lowden’s and brought them to this lovely audition room in the back portion of the shop. While I was playing the first one, James went out, at my request, to find me a music stand so I could play some tunes off of my iPad Pro.

Not long after, just as I looked up from my music, Baxter Clement burst into the audition room! I was delighted to finally meet him after seeing him with my morning coffee for several years. He was every bit as fun, affable and accessible as he seemed on his Youtube videos and like magic, he filled the room with Lowden guitars that he produced from his inventory hidden somewhere in the shop. He walked me through the different Lowden styles and produced various wood combinations for me to give a go. I was particularly interested in playing a guitar with a Cedar top because I’d owned a Taylor years ago with a Cedar top and I liked its warm sound; however, the Cedar topped Lowden’s on that particular morning did not work for me enough to get seriously interested in a purchase.

Undaunted, Baxter kept showing me additional Lowden’s of various wood combinations and sizes; however, after playing numerous guitars, I was about to give up, collect my wife and dog and head to Wilmington. Then finally, he dropped a Lowden constructed with Cocobolo back and sides and a Lutz Spruce top into my lap and it was magic to my ears as compared to all the others I’d played. It was a style F-50, which I would learn later meant the guitar was made from all master grade tone woods, which are the best of the best tone woods available anywhere, chosen for their exceptional tonal and visual properties!

I played the F-50 for quite a while, including some tunes with Baxter accompanying me, which delighted me to no end. Later, I met his wife, Taylor, and one of his sons. At Taylor’s behest, Annette and Nike were even invited into the shop. The whole experience was quite marvelous. Sometime thereafter we made a deal, which included a trade on the 0002H. Baxter even carried and then packed the Lowden F-50 into my car, and after farewells we headed out for a weekend in Wilmington.

I Review My Lowden F-50 Cocobolo and Lutz Spruce

My First Impressions

Much to my regret, my earliest experiences with the newly purchased F-50 were somewhat dismal. It began when I arrived in Wilmington to visit my daughter, Sally. Having just purchased the Lowden, I travelled cross state with the guitar from Southern Pines. After settling in at Sally’s, I disappeared upstairs to the guest bedroom and pulled the F-50 from its case and right away, despite the guitar still sounding great, I noticed the action was far higher than I’d observed during the Casino shop audition. In fact, the guitar was quite difficult to play, particularly in the treble section. Had my enthusiasm in the store again overridden my ability to critically analyze the guitar’s playability? On the other hand, was the Lowden exceptionally sensitive to ambient conditions and did the neck start shifting around? It should be noted that I keep D’Addario moisture packs in the guitar case, so my attempt to control guitar conditioning was functioning during the drive.

When I got back home, I measured the string height distance from the frets and observed that the the guitar was out of specification on the high side across the fretboard, this being based upon data from the Lowden website. I was subsequently welcomed back by Casino Guitars for an adjustment and returned a few days later. Sean Diesfield, Casino’s resident guitar whisperer did some work on the saddles and the neck relief and sent me on my way. At the shop the guitar seemed improved, but when I got home and played the instrument at length it was somewhat better but not good enough.

At this point I was suffering some major buyer’s remorse! Did I trade the Collings 0002H because it was a pain in the ass to play for a different guitar that might, in fact, be a worse pain in the ass to play? At that moment it seemed so.

Rather than give up, I decided to find a local skilled luthier who could give me a full set-up and lower the string action to my comfort level. That was easier said than done. Though there were a number of “repair” luthiers in town, they were either booked up for months, non responsive to my request, or occupied with life trauma and unavailable. I finally left the Lowden for over two weeks at my local shop, Twin House Music, where I take lessons and and a couple of luthiers (including the owner) do their magic. Eventually the Lowden was properly cared for. In the end, the neck relief was adjusted and the guitar now plays as well as any other in my collection! In the past, I’ve adjusted the neck relief on many of my guitars, but in the case of the Lowden, the adjustment is very difficult to make and requires a tool that I did not possess. Further, I thought the guitar had more serious problems than neck relief. At any rate, badda bing, badda boom, the guitar is great now!

The Twin House Music owner and luthier, Brian McGee, who tamed the Lowden

In the end, I don’t know how to account for the difficulties I had getting the guitar to a state of acceptable playability. Perhaps Lowden’s are more sensitive to ambient conditions? Was it the long voyage from Northern Ireland to the U.S. that caused the neck to shift? Why did I not notice the guitar’s issues when I tried it out in the store? Did the guitar’s action shift between Southern Pines and Wilmington? On Lowden’s website, they are clear to point out that a new guitar will settle-in during the first months of playing and would probably require adjustment. There is no truer statement than that!

Basic Lowden Observations

Lowden builds three basic guitar shapes with the F being their middle size between the Jumbo O and the smaller S. Originally designed to compete in the flat-picking market, the F guitar is now favored by finger-stylists too, hence my interest. For example, world renowned finger-stylist Pierre Bensusan plays an F shaped signature Lowden.

Lowden builds the F style with a variety of wood combinations. According to Lowden specifications, the 50 designation means that the woods used to construct this F shaped guitar are the best of the best that the company acquires, being selected out for a combination of tonality and appearance. In my case, the guitar body is topped with Lutz, which is a hybrid White and Sitka Spruce, characterized by a light creamy color with a very tight grain. On the other hand, Cocobolo is used for the back and sides with a showy reddish color and swirly grain lines.

According to one leading U.S. guitar manufacturer, “in terms of acoustic response, Lutz blends the positive characteristics of Sitka and White spruce and its close cousin, Engelmann. Lutz tends to exhibit characteristics of Adirondack spruce. The result is powerful sonic horsepower that translates into strong volume, projection and tonal richness.”

The back and sides of the body are composed of Cocobolo, a member of the Dalbergia species, which includes other various Rosewoods. According to the aforementioned U.S. manufacturer, “Cocobolo is a dense, stiff tropical hardwood from Mexico, which produces a fairly bright overall tone emphasized by sparkling treble notes. The tone is fast, responsive, and articulate.” Cocobolo is a substantial, heavy and oily wood that requires skill and competence to draw out its potential as a guitar tone wood; however, when it is properly deployed Cocobolo has been described as “Brazilian on steroids!”

Cocobolo backside of the F-50, note the characteristic blond sapwood section down the back’s center

Below is a video in which a luthier interacts with a sample of Cocobolo tone wood:

Below, George Lowden discusses various types of tone woods that he’s used for guitar building. While he briefly describes Cocobolo, he seems more enthusiastic with back and side woods like Walnut, Honduran Rosewood and especially African Blackwood:

Perhaps a more uplifting analysis of Cocobolo is given by the incomparable Lindsay Straw for the North American Guitar:

In the end, George Lowden says play the guitar and choose the one that speaks best to you, which is what I did when I chose Cocobolo from the crowd of Lowden’s at Casino Guitars.

To me, my F-50 is an example of high craft and understated physical beauty. The ratio of upper and lower bout sizes combined with the curvy narrow waist and sloped shoulders speak to classical Greek proportions. The satin matte finish, the understated wood bindings, the lack of decor on the fretboard and the dark veneered headstock create a sense of elegance without the gaudiness that some high end guitars self-consciously display. The figured koa/abalone rosette is a tasteful embellishment, but also holds back visually enough to avoid seeming overdone.

Other Aesthetic and Structural Features of the F-50

The Lowden paddle-type headstock has a handsome dark Ebony veneer on the face and backstrap with the brand logo inlaid top front. The tuners are the most excellent Gotoh Gold 510’s with Ebony buttons. I’ve owned several guitars in the past that were equipped with Gotoh’s. My current other acoustics are inspired by vintage Martin and Gibson guitars so they’re equipped with Waverly tuners, which are nice, but not near as supple as the Gotoh’s. I am delighted to have a guitar again with Gotoh’s. They tune like butter. As far as the nut goes, it was unclear to me based on the paucity of specs available on the Lowden website what it’s made of; however, Lowden’s website has a nice chat function and their tech rep, Simon, confirmed that bone is used, which is not surprising given the general excellence of the F-50.

I own 5 other guitars with varying neck profiles, and I am not that particular about the neck shapes other than by using it, it must not stress my old hands. Lowden is not forthcoming in their specs about their neck shape; however, I find it full-in-hand, and comfortable to play as it’s not too clubby or too thin. The neck is a five piece composite of Mahogany and Rosewood while the necks on my other axes are all solid wood, so the Lowden by comparison is somewhat exotic looking. Further, the five piece neck is theoretically more stable and less likely to twist over time. I had a Taylor solid body at one time with a twisted neck and it was ugly; fortunately, Taylor generously replaced the neck, but that’s another story. Finally, unlike the satin matte finish on the body of the Lowden, the neck has a glossier surface making it quite easy to move up and down while playing.

You can see the aesthetically pleasing “hockey stick” sweep of the Rosewood section embedded in the mahogany at the base of the neck. Again, it is hard to find out all the construction details on the Lowden website, but I am pretty sure that the neck is attached to the body with a traditional dovetail join. Also visible in the associated image is the contrast of the glossy neck versus the satin matte finish on the body, the figured Koa binding and backstrip, the beautiful wood grain striations in the Cocobolo, and finally the section of blonde sapwood running up the center back of the guitar.

To the right, you can see a section of the Ebony fingerboard with its Maple bindings. No blond streaks on the F-50’s fingerboard, with Lowden choosing only the most select all black Ebony wood for their Mastergrade model. The fingerboard extends into the sound hole to catch the highest possible treble notes, a place that I will probably never travel with my fingers. Nevertheless it is an aesthetically pleasing visual design feature. You can also see the unique and stunning sound hole rosette which is figured Koa and Abalone.

Unlike my other acoustic guitars which all have pinned bridges and one piece saddles, the F-50 and all other Lowdens are built with pinless bridges and compensated two-piece saddles. Put several guitarists in a room and they’ll debate the merits of pin vs pinless bridges. In my experience both approaches work fine. The pinless bridge makes for an attractive surface element on the guitar and certainly simplifies restringing although care should be taken to avoid having the string ball end slapping down onto the soundboard and dinging it during insertion through the bridge. Because the slap-down is almost inevitable, Lowden supplies a nifty little cardboard insert to slide beneath the bridge to protect the soundboard during stringing.

Finally the bottom of the lower bout can be seen on the right. Again, the wonderful Cocobolo grain patterns can be seen as well as a strip of figured Koa where the two side pieces meet. You’ll note a K&K Pure Mini jack installed at my request by the kind folks at Casino Guitars. I use this pickup on all my acoustics as it’s neat, simple and the amplified guitar sounds natural to my ears. If you’re interested in my tech for amplification you can click here.

To Sum it Up

Despite my initial buyer’s remorse before the F-50 was given a pro set up, this guitar is a real keeper! It is beautifully constructed, quite comfortable to handle and play, and the sonic palette available from this instrument is, as I had hoped, distinctly different from my other acoustic guitars. The body woods of Cocobolo and Lutz Spruce combined with Lowden’s exacting construction methods (of which they are quite mysterious) creates clean punchy bass tones, bell-chime like trebles with underlying warm overtones with tonal sustain that exceeds the eternal.

After I wrote this piece, Peach Guitars released a video in which some nice Lowden construction details are considered, particularly how the soundboard is manufactured:

For someone primarily used to Sitka Spruce combinations with Mahogany or the more accessible Rosewoods (but not unobtainium like Brazilian), a body of Cocobolo and Lutz is a nice stretch to something significantly different, but without being too exotic like Macassar Ebony or African Blackwood.

Tone Examples

I’ve reviewed several guitars on this website, but have never had the availability of linking to a Youtube video of my guitar being demonstrated; however, in this case Casino Guitars recorded a gentleman playing my F-50, which I show below:

I will also include a clip of me playing the F-50 also. What would be more appropriate than playing a selection of Piedmont Finger-Style Blues since I now reside in the Piedmont of North Carolina. This tune is credited to one of the most recognized and highly regarded Piedmont Blues players, Etta Baker entitled Carolina Breakdown!

Etta Baker’s Piedmont Blues: Carolina Breakdown

May 28, 2022June 25, 2022

One ring to rule them all… a Martin Authentic 1937 moves into place…

Introduction

When I completed the purchase of my second Collings, a lovely guitar inspired by Gibson’s 1930’s era L-00, I thought I was pretty much done acquiring guitars. My six guitar collection included two resonators (one being electric), two electrics (one being a hybrid acoustic/electric, and two acoustics. But I wasn’t really done. There were two remaining issues affecting my sense of guitar balance and purpose:

First, my hybrid, semi-hollow bodied Taylor T5z, was going for long periods without being played, and that’s a red flag warning that it may be time to go. In the end it’s a niche instrument best for switching back and forth between acoustic or electric tonalities depending upon the tune being played. It’s most suitable for a gig where you only want to bring one guitar, which is not a dilemma I ever find myself in. The truth was, if I wanted to play electric, I had a far better instrument (Collings I-35) to do the job, and there was no way the T5z could match the sonic performance of the Collings acoustics in my stable.

Secondly, I’ve found myself playing a number multiple tunings on my acoustic guitars, including standard, Drop D, and Skip James’s Cross Tuning. Further, there was a Chris Smithers Open D tune that I wanted to take a run at. My experience is that guitars like to settle into a specific tuning so it’s best not to be frequently changing the tunings on a single guitar. For this reason, I began thinking that it might be nice to have a third acoustic guitar at my disposal!

Consequently for the two aforementioned reasons, I decided to eventually trade the T5Z one day in the future. In preparation, via their online process, Dave’s Guitars give me a trade-in value so I knew what I had to work with. Not surprisingly, I was going to take a haircut on a trade, but that’s the guitar business. At first I thought I might swap the T5z out for an American Professional Stratocaster at my local shop, but I was reminded during that Strat’s audition that I was not, at some fundamental level, a Strat player and my Collings Electric really met all my needs, so dumping off the T5z was put onto the back burner for a while.

A Rare Martin Guitar Finds Me

I take lessons weekly at my local guitar shop and it’s not unusual for the former store owner Bob, now store consultant, to greet me and show me some new guitar arrival that might be of curiosity. Most of the time the guitars, usually recent trade-ins, do not arouse my interest. But a couple of weeks ago, Bob dropped a dreadnought into my lap and explained that it was a pre-owned “Martin Authentic” built to the exacting specifications of a vintage 1937 Martin from the golden age of dreadnoughts. The guitar was in immaculate condition too and had been owned by a collector who’d passed away. His son traded the Martin in for a Taylor 814ce. So much about guitar acquisition is driven by idiosyncratic personal taste.

Me and the Authentic at the Bob’s Guitars

Initially, the guitar Bob placed in my hands was not of interest to me. For years, I’d been playing smaller bodied guitars, not a Howitzer sized dreadnought. Yes, my first two guitars, in a former lifetime, were dreads, but when I gave up on bluegrass flat picking and took up finger-style I moved to 000’s, OM’s and other smaller sized instruments. Further, I’d never been that enamored by Martin’s tonality, fit/finish and general appearance for the cost involved. But this guitar was different, sounding and feeling unusually interesting to me! Perhaps this guitar’s tone appealed to my ears because it was seven years old and had “opened up,” or maybe because the vintage “hand-built” construction techniques employed by Martin’s exclusive Custom Shop appealed to my sense of design aesthetics. Finally, the combination of rare tone woods, specifically an Adirondack spruce top with Madagascar rosewood back and sides produced a tone I’d never experienced before. It was in contrast to the Martins I’d played in the past that required really digging-in to the strings to get a decent sound. As a finger style player, my touch was generally too light to elicit magic from a Martin dreadnought. I noodled around with the guitar for a while and then went to my lesson. Afterwards, on the way out, I glanced at the Martin again hanging on the wall and thought that it might be a nice complement to the Collings acoustics I already owned, particularly for the alternate tunings I like to use.

The next day, I went back to the shop and played the Authentic again for quite a while and found it even more appealing especially since Bob replaced the existing strings with some new ones. At some point, I played the guitar into a Shure SM-57 mic plugged into a Genzler Amp to better hear it and then went home to think about it some more. Finally, the next day which was a quiet rainy Saturday, I went back to the shop with my T5z, made the trade, and purchased the Authentic. The combination of the trade along with a considerable reduction from new because the guitar was pre-owned brought the price down to something reasonable. Current new versions of the Authentic are far more pricey than I’d be willing to spend, so I feel fortunate.

Overview of the Martin 1937 Authentic D-28

To the right, you can see the Authentic. It is a formidably large guitar. Both the size and depth of the body were designed to produce a large sound. In short, the Martin Company designed the guitar to meet the needs of a popular Hawaiian slack key player (open tunings) in the early part of the 20th century. It was some time later in the 1930’s, that the Martin Company decided to begin regularly producing this large guitar and named it the “Dreadnought.”

By the time of the Second Folk Revival in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the Dreadnought guitar became the “go to” size for acoustic players. The Martin brand was one of the most prized among those large guitars, especially, the mahogany (back and sided) D-18 and the rosewood D-28.

For more background on Martin Dreadnoughts, you may enjoy the following wonderful film:

https://vimeo.com/594705036?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=133332214

In the case of my guitar, the D-28, it has over the years, for a variety of reasons, been modified in terms of woods, bracings, and neck designs, still maintaining its general specifications. Because of a combination of rare aged woods and design features such as the hot hide glues used in the olden days, wood thicknesses, and placement of bracings, the 1937 era D-28 is considered a “high-water” mark in Martin Guitar design, and people will pay hefty sums for that vintage. Given that an original ’37 Martin D-28 is far beyond the price range of most guitar players, Martin, in the recent past, responded by producing a Custom Shop rendition of the ’37 that comes as close as possible to the original instrument. I’ve read that they took their museum specimen of the ’37 to the Smithsonian for detailed medical-technology imaging and analysis to generate the specs to manufacture an exact replica. Other than the substitution of Madagascar Rosewood for the practically unobtainable Brazilian variety, the guitar comes as close to the original ’37 as is technically feasible, hence the moniker, the “Authentic.”

Though I was certainly familiar with the value wealthy players placed on rare vintage guitars, up until the time Bob dropped the Authentic into my lap, I was unaware of Martin’s production of a more affordable “authentic/vintage” guitar. Below you can see a short YouTube film of Steve Earle speaking about his 1935 Martin D-28, which is also from the golden era of dreadnoughts. He refers to the ’35 as the holy grail of Martins. Earle’s enthusiasm for that guitar speaks to the motivation behind the Martin Company attempting to reproduce authentic versions of the past.

In addition to the singular sounds emanating from this combination of wood and steel, there is a perceived inherent beauty with this guitar connected to its decades long history as one of popular music’s most essential instruments. From the CF Martin & Co. decal on the headstock, down the mahogany neck, to the herringbone purfling surrounding the soundboard, as well as the tortoise colored pick guard, the guitar projects a culturally constructed aesthetic intertwined with the likes of Tony Rice, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan among others.

Still, as an observable object in visual space, the D-28 body is not really proportioned to the dictates of classical aesthetic beauty. A more classically designed guitar would have a narrower waist separating a smaller upper bout from the larger lower one. In many respects the Martin dreadnought is a big box with curved corners attached to a long neck, but its awkwardness relative to classical proportions is today considered an essential part of its beauty.

The Headstock

Authentic Headstock with “traditional” decal…

Before I got annoyed with their heavy-handed marketing and later became disenchanted with their tone, I was the owner of several higher end Taylor guitars. I bring this up because In comparison to typical Martin D-18’s and D-28’s, my similarly priced Taylor’s were appointed way more nicely with wooden bindings and purflings, as well as abalone inlays in the rosette, fretboard and headstock. I was completely put off by the “prosaic” C.F. Martin decal on the headstock, wondering why Martin would not use an inlay in the headstock on their flagship (and expensive) guitars.

My opinion about superficial guitar “surface” bling changed after acquiring two incredible sounding and rather simply appointed Collings guitars. I finally realized that the nice features Taylor offered were all well and good, but the guitar’s tone was by far the controlling factor for the instrument’s worth and value to me. I came to appreciate simplicity in appearance when accompanied by superior tonal output!

Headstock rear showing Waverly tuners and carved volute.

Given my new frame of reference, I am delighted with the Authentic’s headstock. Although I myself would not recognize the subtle differences between other more modern D-28’s, the headstock of the Authentic is shaped in thickness and taper as the ’37 was originally made, in this case with a Madagascar rosewood veneer instead of Brazilian, and embellished with a stylish volute carved into the back. Topping it off on the face of the headstock is the traditional C.F. Martin and Co. decal.

The paddle style headstock is equipped with vintage-style Waverly open back tuners and nickel butterbean knobs. In the past, I became very partial to Gotoh tuners and had them on three different Taylor guitars, two of which I “after-market” installed. The Gotoh high gear ratio tuners make precision tuning very easy. By comparison, I think the Waverly’s do an equivalently nice job and work well on my two Collings’s as well as the Authentic. They look very cool too!

The Neck

The 1937 D-28 was one of the earlier models that was built with fourteen frets between the body and the nut. Despite the fact that the guitar was at least 7 years old, the frets were in mint shape with no visible wear. Eschewing modern CNC milling, the neck is hand carved in the Martin custom shop to the shape of the original ’37 out of a mahogany block. This, in part, accounts for the high cost of this guitar.

I’ve got six total guitars made by National, Collings and this Martin. The necks all vary in shape and I happily play them all. The Authentic has a “1937” shape which is actually kind of meaningless to me; however, I will state it is a pleasure to play.

The 1 3/4 inch nut is bone and wide enough for comfortable fingerstyle playing. The fretboard is a solid black ebony which is somewhat difficult to acquire nowadays. Due to ebony wood scarcity and preservation, most fretboards of that material today have blond streaks randomly running through them. The fretboard inlaid markers are subtle but handsome 1937 diamond and square shapes.

Dovetail neck join. Note the rich red color of the mahogany neck and the Madagascar rosewood sides of the guitar.

The neck has a reinforced T-Bar to give it stability and it is attached to the body using C.F. Martin’s traditional dovetail joint. Unlike modern guitars (like my other 5), consistent with the design of that era, the Authentic has no adjustable truss rod. Since I tweak my guitar neck with the truss rod on occasion, I find this a bit unnerving; however, from everything I’ve read the Authentic’s neck is supposedly very stable. Right now the string to neck play is quite good up and down the neck. I imagine controlling the moisture content of this guitar is fairly critical to maintain neck stability!

The Body

The Authentic soundboard. Note the Adirondack’s wide grain.

The Authentic’s body is constructed with an Adirondack spruce soundboard and Madagascar rosewood back and sides. Every other acoustic guitar I’ve ever owned was built with a Sitka spruce soundboard, as is 80 percent of all other quality acoustic guitars. In the early years of the D-28’s construction all the tops was made with Adirondack (Red) Spruce; however, due to scarcity of the heavily logged Red Spruce trees, the guitar industry transitioned to the more plentiful Sitka Spruce. Sitka is a pretty tight grained wood that yields a warm response when played, whereas Adirondack, a wider grained wood, is harder and more glasslike as compared to Sitka, giving it a sharper more more immediate response. Adirondack is prized by Bluegrass flat pickers and strummers because of the way the top responds to those styles of play, but I think too that the boutique crowd also values Adirondack because it is a relatively rare, high status wood. I do not have the ear to detect the subtleties of Sitka vs Adirondack, but I do, very much, like the guitar’s overall tonality (for a very articulate discussion of the Authentic’s tone as it relates to Madagascar versus Brazilian back and side wood, I suggest you read this blog article).

The D-28 Authentic 1937 was first introduced at a 2013 NAMM show and records show that my instrument was ordered by Dave’s Guitar Shop for delivery to its previous owner in 2014. The initial production models of the ’37 did not utilize the Vintage Tone System (VTS), a torrefication heat treatment of the Adirondack soundboard to enhance the tone via “premature” aging. I think all subsequent production from 2015 on are torrified. I am agnostic about that type of wood treatment, but pleased the guitar has been played-in for 7-8 years in a natural manner. As I said before, it sounds quite lovely.

For a hefty monetary charge, C.F. Martin also offers an aging process in the custom shop to relic the instrument. I am not particularly enthusiastic about “relic” technique and am delighted this process was not applied to my Authentic. In fact, other than a barely visible crease-like ding in the soundboard, a small ding on the bottom, and some marking on the pickguard, this guitar was immaculate even though having been played for 7-8 years. The previous owner took great care of this guitar and makes me wonder if it ever left his home. Me, on the other hand, as much as I try to care of my guitars, I end up inadvertently beating the shit out of them because I play them and use them in and out of my home. Guitars are awkward shaped objects as they move through three dimensional space, and with me guiding them, they can attract wear marks, dings, and finish checking, so in the end I unwittingly relic them the old-fashioned way.

Unlike my Taylor 914ce, which was an exercise in excess, with abalone appointments galore, as well as wood bindings and purflings. The Authentic is more scaled down, but beautiful in its own right. You can see in the image to the left that the sound hole rosette is simple yet tasteful, and the soundboard is appointed with traditional bold herringbone purflings and grained ivoroid bindings. While I play fingerstyle and don’t generally like pickguards, if you are going to have one, the “old school” Delmar faux tortoise type is a nice one to have.

Rounding off the guitar’s top is the authentic ebony Style Belly bridge with long bone saddle. The bridge pins are polymer plastic with black dots. The bridge is located to give a comfortable 25.4 inch scale length.

A photo of the back of the guitar indicates the subtle beauty of Madagascar rosewood. The color of the wood is toward the red end of the spectrum and exhibits some nice but restrained grain. As suggested earlier, Madagascar rosewood has somewhat similar tonality when compared to the essentially unobtainable and certainly unaffordable Brazilian rosewood. A guitar constructed from Brazilian would be many times more expensive. Finally, note the 28 Style Zig-Zag (Authentic) purfling down the center of the back. It’s a very nice touch.

I love my guitars and I love to play them. It is a privilege to own and play National Resonators, as well as Collings electric and acoustic guitars, and now an exceptional Martin Authentic. Nevertheless, I view those guitars as tools and a means to an end, which is to make music. I won’t leave the guitars hiding in their cases preserved from the dings, scratches and bumps of use. They’re tools and I will hammer nails with them as long as I can.

To that end, I perform with my guitars around town, and host a monthly open mic night at a local coffee shop. I own a Genzler Pro Array and a Bose L-1 Pro 32 PA that I plug into when I perform. Consequently, I had a pick-up installed in the Authentic. In the image to the left you can see the jack for a K&K Pure Mini pick-up, an elegantly simple device that utilizes 3 transducers that are glued under the bridge plate. I’ve seen some high end guitar owners fret about adversely impacting the resale value of their guitars by altering them, such as adding a pick-up. I do not worry about such matters, especially with a low impact addition like the K&K.

Because the K&K Pure Mini is so simple, without onboard preamp and tone controls, I’ve built an acoustic guitar pedal board to manage the tone of the Authentic and my two other Collings. For more information about the board, click here.

Summary

The Martin D-28 Authentic 1937 is one of the “Kings” of acoustic guitars. It is made with incredible care and dedication to evoking the golden age of guitars. In my home the Authentic has fierce competition for playing time from a Collings 0002H, a Collings C10-35, and a National M-1 Tricone, yet at this time it rules the roost. It is a magical guitar and rules them all…

Example Sound Clips

Below please find some Vimeo clips I made with the D-28 Authentic. The clips were made on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a Shure MV 88 clip-on Mic. The guitar was played through my pedalboard into a Genzler Pro Array acoustic amp. I added a dash of compression, delay and reverb. The clips was processed on a elderly MacBook Pro with iMovie. The guitars tone would probably be best appreciated with headphones.

The first two clips are the Authentic tuned in Open D:

Following is a clip in standard tuning:

November 25, 2021October 1, 2023

Reviewing the Collings 0002H: Acoustic Guitar as Industrial Art

There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
— The Grateful Dead

Introduction

Playing a Collings at my first official gig…

I’m not getting any younger and this past summer I entered my 7th decade. A couple of years ago when I embarked on retirement, my fund manager/guide offered me sage advice when he bade me not to wait too late to experience what I wished to (within reason).

To those who know me and others who’ve read this weblog, it is patently obvious that as a pensioner, I’ve pretty much devoted my efforts to developing myself as a musician/guitarist. While I’ve made tangible progress in my pursuit, there really is no end to the path I’m on… the guitar is an insatiable instrument with unlimited expectations for its players, and it will carry me to the end…

As a dedicated guitarist, I aspire to play the finest instruments that can be acquired within reason. In the past I’ve found that the best way to keep things within reason is to trade/sell an existing instrument(s) against the acquisition of another better one, which happens to be a common behavior among many guitar players! About a year ago, I traded two Taylor electric guitars for a Collings I-35 electric guitar (reviewed here). When evaluating the I-35, I became enchanted with the founder of the company. He was a singular, creative, precision driven engineer and world class manufacturing leader in the marketplace of guitars. As a result, I developed an interest in eventually adding a Collings acoustic guitar to my stable. Below is a brief video about this man, the late Bill Collings:

You can break down guitar building into two basic categories: factory versus luthier built. That’s not to say that some factories do not employ luthier quality builders, but the term luthier built suggests an individual who designs and assembles a guitar in a private shop from soup to nuts… i.e raw wood to finished product.

Somogyi’s excellent book on guitar design

One of the most highly regarded luthiers in the U.S. is Ervin Somogyi, whose exceptional book on acoustic guitar design I purchased and perused a couple of years ago. Most of Somogyi’s guitars are museum pieces that command staggering sums and are really built for well-financed private customers. Somogyi applies his skills to extract maximum sonic performance from wood and steel, and his embellishments often rise to high art. Somogyi is also a bit dubious about many but not all of the other independent luthiers practicing in the U.S. He pretty much says in his book that just because a person can build a guitar from scratch does not guarantee it will be a high quality instrument. Results will vary widely from builder to builder, so he says be wary of in the luthier marketplace. I simply do not trust that I have the wherewithal to distinguish a high quality luthier produced guitar from a run of the mill one. Consequently I stick with recognized factory built instruments because of their long history of essentially decent performance.

The preponderance of guitars in the U.S. are built in factories of varying sizes with wide ranging production capacities, specifications, price points, manufacturing philosophies and subsequent qualities. In the U.S. Taylor, Martin and Gibson are excellent examples of the larger decent quality guitar producers. It’s hard to go wrong buying a guitar from those manufacturers, though it is important to be aware there is some product to product variability in performance simply because the guitars are built from wood which is a naturally variable material. In other words, these manufactures build, on average, decent instruments; however, within each companies productions some guitars may be better and some not as good.

Purchase choices are often based on taste and/or tradition-based brand loyalty. For example, I’ve owned several Taylor guitars because I liked their playability and voicing, whereas neither Martin nor Gibson ever appealed that much to me. I know other players who would never consider any guitar other than a Martin.

Besides the big companies, there are a host of smaller factory producers, such as Santa Cruz, Breedlove, Bourgeois and Collings who produce limited numbers of instruments mostly because of the care, materials, embellishments and extra labor they apply to perfect their products. Sometimes these smaller companies are referred to as “boutique” manufacturers.

Here’s a brief video that speaks to Collings manufacturing excellence:

Choosing among the small manufacturers is largely a matter of expendable income, taste and knowledge of the company’s specific products. Product accessibility may also be one of the most important variables. In fact, I’ve never actually seen a Santa Cruz, Breedlove or Bourgeois guitar in any of the stores I’ve ever frequented. I suppose I could acquire a boutique guitar online, but I would not want to spend that kind of money without trying the instrument out myself beforehand. I’ve had mixed experiences buying online. Having the ability to trade for the purchase was also a prerequisite for me, and that’s difficult to do online.

Unlike the other small builders, I’ve had some access to Collings acoustic guitars in nearby Wisconsin at Dave’s Guitars. I auditioned several of them a few months ago and thought they were decent, but still reserved judgment until I could A/B compare them to my current Taylor guitars. I still suspected that those guitars when compared to Taylors, Martins and Gibsons were a cut above, with their unique voicing (appealing to me), and build approaching the level of care and individuality claimed by independent luthiers. I intended to give Collings acoustics another visit in the future.

I Get Serious About Collings Acoustic Guitars

Last week, I finally said to myself, “the hell with it, I’m not getting any younger” and decided to see what kind of trade-in offer I could get from Dave’s Guitars for my 5 year old Taylor 812ce. Usually what triggers me is reading about a musician, near my age, who croaks for whatever reason.

I’d special ordered the Taylor 812ce through Bob’s Guitars in my home town. You’ll note in the image on the left, I ordered the guitar without a pick guard since I play finger-style. The Taylor was a good guitar and I enjoyed playing it. A few years ago, when I was changing the strings, I inadvertently knocked a chunk of wood off the bridge. Taylor Guitars was kind enough to replace the bridge under warrantee if I paid for the shipping. After repair the guitar looked the same, but it never sounded quite like it did originally. I don’t think it was my imagination.

in Dave’s parking lot with iconic signage…

Upon inspection of the guitar via photographs, Dave’s Guitars made me a modestly reasonable offer, which they improved upon later when I arrived at the store. One issue that irritated the hell out of me was Dave’s statement that X-braced non V-Class Taylor guitars now have reduced trade-in value. A few years back, Taylor Guitars redesigned their bracing system to a V shape, supported by a massive marketing campaign. I actually think the older guitars sound better, but it’s hard to fight the extraordinary power of Taylor marketing.

So, I loaded up my car with the Taylor 812, my iPad which contains all my music and a mic stand equipped with an iPad holder. It’s a long 2.5 hour trip through the hinterlands of Iowa and Minnesota until you finally traverse the Mississippi and enter the river town of LaCrosse, WI. Dave’s guitars is within spitting distance of the river itself. Below you can see of section of the Acoustic Guitar Room at Dave’s. They have a large showroom…

I arrived early enough to get plenty of time auditioning the Collings acoustics that were available in LaCrosse. I planned to A/B my Taylor with several of the Collings with a focus on 12 fret guitars with slot-heads, since that was what I was what my Taylor was. My other acoustic guitar that I am keeping is a Grand Concert sized, 14 fret, fancy-pants, fully decked out, Taylor 914ce. I wanted to make sure the Collings I selected would be distinctly different from the Taylor 914ce.

The Collings collection at Dave’s Guitars

To the right you can see the Collings section of Dave’s Guitars, which contained three 12 fretted, slot-head guitars. Two of those can be seen on the lower row on the far left and far right. The guitar on the left was a 02H Traditional with a sitka spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides. The one on the right was a 0001 Custom made with all mahogany top and sides with a custom dog hair finish with Pearloid appointments. Not pictured is a 0002H with a sitka top and Indian rosewood back and sides. When I shot this image that guitar was being equipped with a pick-up because I intended to take it home.

When I auditioned the guitars, I sat down at the wall of Collings guitars on a comfortable stool and 90 minutes disappeared. I played all three of the slot head Collings, along with the Taylor 812ce side by side over and over again. It was absorbing and a lot of fun. The acoustic guitar room at Dave’s was quiet that morning, so I was able to give the guitars a nice listen to.

The 0002H was clearly the winner to my ears. The Taylor offered up nice clean and direct notes, but the 0002H played at a different level. Each note in comparison was almost 3 dimensional… in other words the notes bloomed outward. The 0002H presented more bottom, more punch and overtone. No contest… the Taylor was going on the trading block…

I gave the 02H a serious look, but it did not hold up when compared to the 0002H. I suspect there were a couple of variables at play here. First the 0002H as a larger lower bout which will make it louder and deeper sounding. Secondly, the Traditional series, as I understand it, was designed to be physically lighter and engineered to reduce overtones to give more clarity to individual notes. I can attest to the fact that the 02H was significantly lighter than the 0002H, to the point that handling it was a bit unnerving as it felt so insubstantial. In the end, I did not appreciate the individual note clarity. The guitar felt like it needed time to open up as it sounded thin and insubstantial when A/B’d with the 0002H. The 02H was far more expensive too. Move along… nothing to see here…

The all mahogany 0002 custom was quite an amazing looking guitar with it’s white pearloid headstock and pick guard contrasted with the blackened dog hair finish. It would be a crowd pleasing guitar based simply on appearance. It was the most expensive guitar by a long shot that I auditioned that day. I might have stretched for it had it sounded unbelievable, but the solid mahogany body just did not have the presence of the 0002H. Perhaps in time the mahogany would open up, but I did not have the patience to wait several years for that possibility. I kept going back to the 0002H after playing all the guitars several times over and decided to acquire it.

I carried the Taylor and the Collings 0002H to my store guy friend JR and closed the deal. When queried about installing a pickup, JR was emphatic that the K&K Pure Mini, a passive device, was the best choice. The Pure Mini is a simple 3 transducer pickup that mounts on the bridge plate inside the guitar. I went with his advice and was amazed at how natural sounding it was when I finally got a chance to plug in the guitar at home later that day.

JR behind the acoustic guitar desk and Dave’s Guitars closing the deal…

Reviewing In Detail My 0002H

Below is my 0002H resting comfortably in its TKL hard case, which was sourced out by Collings because they do not make their own cases. They dabbled with producing cases at one point in the past, but it was unsustainably expensive, so they quit. The interior of the TKL case is decked out in the interior with form-fitting cushions, covered with a dark green velveteen fabric. The fit is tight and requires a light pushdown by hand to get the guitar properly seated. The case clasps function well, and one is lockable. Inside the case was the key, a Collings micro-fiber wiping cloth, the warrantee registration form (which can alternatively be done online) and a pressure sensitive Collings sticker!

A different view of the 0002H out of its case is on the right. You’ll note that it has an upper bout just shy of 10 inches wide, a narrow waist, and a largish 15 inch lower bout. The body length is just a little over 20 inches. The appearance evokes and older era and should be no surprise because this shape, originated by C.F. Martin is rooted in the very early 1900’s.

The narrow waist allows the guitar to fit in the lap very comfortably while playing in the sitting position, which is what I prefer. The combined upper and lower bout size difference creates a pleasant evenly balanced volume of tones, with plenty of low end to avoid thinness in output.

Again, the guitar is a 12 fret model with a slot head. The top is sitka spruce with back and sides being East Indian rosewood.

Starting at the top of the guitar, you can see below front and rear views of the headstock.

The headstock has a very pleasant “exotic” ebony veneer with a Mother-of-Pearl Collings logo inlay. I always found the excessively shiny veneer on the Taylor 812ce incongruous and not aesthetically in tune with the rest of the guitar. The Collings headstock just looks better. You might note too at the lower portion of the rear of the headstock is an embellishing pyramidal carving referred to as a volute.

The Waverly tuners are excellent and work far better than the Taylor tuners. Their turning action is reminiscent of the excellent Gotoh tuners I have on three other guitars. I am pleased that the Collings tuners are nickel because the Taylor ivoroid tuners can fall apart when using a mechanized winder for string changing.

Proper string wrapping on the Collings Slotted Headstock

When I had the K&K Pure Mini pick-up installed in the 0002H, the shop replaced the Collings spec’d D’Addario EJ-16 (.012″- .053″) strings with Elixirs of the same gauge. I observed two things when I got home with the restrung guitar. First, the string wrap on the peghead was done in a manner such that the lowest strings (the E strings) on both sides were in contact with the headstock wood which will quickly wear away the finish. To avoid this deleterious situation, the E strings should be wound on with one wrap to the outside and the remainder towards the inside. This wind does cause the E strings to take a sharp angle inwards, but they will now avoid contacting the wood. Examination of photos on the Collings website also indicate that all the strings are wound outside-in, which is unlike the winds used by Taylor and National on their slot heads.

The second thing I noticed was that the Elixir strings were far stiffer to play on this guitar than the D’Addarios, making it far less enjoyable to play. I also found the sound of the guitar adversely affected too, so as soon as I could I restrung the guitar with the original spec’d D’Addarios! Perhaps the strings won’t last as long, but now the guitar sounds and plays like the one I auditioned in the store. This was an odd experience for me because I’ve used Elixirs on my Taylor acoustics without any difficulty. Of course, for what its worth, Taylors are spec’d to play with Elixirs

The neck is Honduran Mahogany and the fretboard is stained ebony. There is no binding on the neck and the fingerboard is marked with elegant but simple Abalone short diamond and square designs.

The neck has taken some getting used too because it is a bit chunkier than a Taylor acoustic’s neck and it is the widest necked guitar I ever owned coming in at 1 & 13/16 of an inch. That’s a lot of real estate to cover and requires some readjustment of finger muscle memory. All good for finger style playing though.

Below you can see an image of the the back of the neck where it attaches to the guitar body. The neck has a lovely gloss finish that allows easy mobility of the left hand up and down the fretboard

Also visible on the left is the Ivoroid binding at the seam of the back and sides of the guitar as well as the grained Ivoroid cap on the neck base. The neck is a modified V-shape and compounded in circumference, widening outwards at the 9th fret. As I understand it the neck flattens out towards the body of the guitar which makes playing the higher notes in the region easier.

Collings employs a mortise & tenon hybrid attachment of neck to body. I am assuming this form of bolt on neck makes it easier to repair or replace the guitar’s neck. There’s some belief among guitar aficionados and builders that a dovetail join is the only way to attach a neck to a guitar’s body. In my judgement Taylor guitars proved that assertion wrong a long time ago.

The photo above and to the right show the East Indian Rosewood that comprises the back and sides of the 0002H. Collings builds their reputation on using the choicest tone woods for their instruments. The rosewood is straight-grained and a lovely deep brown with lighter streaking. The color is so deep it almost looks purple depending upon the light. Note too above the “zipper” backstrip that runs down the center of the guitar back. It’s quite striking.

I’ve tried lots of different tone wood combinations; however, I keep coming back to sitka spruce tops with rosewood back and sides as the classic combination that is most appealing to me ears.

The 000 sized Collings come in 3 basic styles, not including the wide variety of custom work they also offer. My 000 has the 2H designation, which basically means that it has some fancier appointments than the style 1, including the nice zipper backstrip, the geometric fretboard inlays, and most importantly the herringbone binding, which is a classic steel string acoustic guitar appointment.

To the right, you can see the sound hole section of the 0002H, with its elegant but not overly fancy rosette, which brings me to a point about the 0002H compared to the Taylor 812ce that I traded-in when I purchased the Collings. To be perfectly frank, the Taylor possessed a fancier level of appointment, including beautiful maple wood bindings, an abalone rosette with an inner sound hole maple border, and a more intricate fretboard inlay, all of it tastefully done and costing far less. But, and this is a big but, the Collings design, tonality, playability, and its visible connection to the past origins of guitar design make it a palpably singular instrument to own and play.

I’m not a big fan of pickguards as I play strictly finger style and I suspect they have some minor tone dampening impact on the guitar’s sound board. Had I the opportunity, I would have acquired the 0002H without a pickguard. Nevertheless, the 0002H I purchased from Dave’s Guitars had a pickguard, and you cannot remove one without the high probability of damaging the finish. I did note that the pickguard was pretty scratched up. I think the guitar had been there for at least a year and tested out by a number of people, including some careless assholes with a picks. My store guy, J.R. said that was no problem because they would buff out the scratches in their shop, which they did. The pickguard looks pristine now. I do not recollect how translucent it was before buffing, but now I notice the sound hole rosette grinning through the guard. After a query on Facebook, some other Collings owners suggested to me that it was always translucent.

In the above image, you may also note the nice, even tight grain on the sitka spruce soundboard. This is what Collings brings to the marketplace: the very best available tone woods.

Beneath the sound hole is the bridge section. The 0002H uses an ebony pyramid bridge, a design that harkens back to the 1800’s and some of the earliest Martin guitars. The bridge pins are unslotted, which some argue is a more robust design. I guess that may also be a vintage appointment. Residing in the bridge is a bone saddle which complements the bone nut back up the neck.

Iconic Collings label inside the sound hole!

To sum it up, I am delighted and it is my great, good fortune that I have the opportunity to play a guitar of such character and build!

Add-ons

I needed a pick-up installed to be able to plug my guitar into my portable PA (Bose L1 Pro 32) and into other sound systems around town. This is because I host Open Mic Night once per month at a Coffee Shop, sometimes play other Open Mic Nights in town and do a rare coffee shop gig on my own.

The best time to install the pick-up was at point of sale because they do not charge for shop labor at Dave’s when a new guitar is sold.

Dave’s had available the L.R. Baggs Anthem and Lyric pick-ups, but as I said earlier, my guitar guy J.R. was emphatic that the simplest, passive pick-up like the K&K Pure Mini would be the best choice to avoid sound balance and feedback issues. I was dubious at first but agreed. It was a quick install because the three transducers shown above simply glue onto the bridge plate within the guitar’s body. When I got home and plugged the guitar into my Fishman Loudbox Artist, the 0002H sounded very natural, so I was please that I followed J.R.’s advice.

Because the K&K Pure Mini is passive, it does not come with a pre-amp built into the installation, which is nice in that there are no added dials or buttons involved. While I like the Taylor Expression system, I was never a big fan of the rubbery dial/buttons protruding from the guitars body. On the other hand, without a pre-amp the ability to tone shape your guitar’s output is absent which could be a problem when interacting with a PA out around town.

To remedy this situation, I acquired an L.R. Baggs Venue DI/Pre-amp/Tuner. It’s a very nice portable device capable of precise tone shaping. I used it during a recent gig along with the Bose L1 Pro 32 PA and it worked just fine. The additional Notch filter for dialing out feedback frequencies is very cool and works great.

If you’d like to learn more about the L.R. Baggs Venue/DI and to listen to sound samples from my 0002H, I suggest you click on the link to another one of my blog articles below. The sound samples are at the bottom of the entry.

On Building a Pedalboard for My Acoustic Guitars

May 15, 2021October 1, 2023

The Refined Resonator: Reviewing National’s M1 Tricone

“The Mississippi Delta Was Shining Like a National Guitar” – Paul Simon, Graceland

Introduction and Background

When I first picked up a guitar, I wanted to be a flat-picking bluegrass player. Sometime thereafter, I concluded that I did not possess the speed or accuracy to play that style, and adopted fingerstyle guitar with Travis picking as my basic playing approach. It was the best decision I ever made regarding the instrument. When I took a quantum leap in focus and interest in guitar playing my pathway to achievement was to learn Acoustic Country Blues, which happens to be huge body of music with many different sub-styles to choose from. The structure of Country Blues was appealing to me because it speaks to my sensibilities as a musician, is distinctly American and it serves as the foundation for a large swath of the music I grew up with in the 1960’s and ’70s.

After one of my ongoing lessons at my local guitar shop some years back, I walked by a Fender resonator guitar hanging on the wall and it occurred to me that a resonator might broaden my Country Blues sound palette. I responded instantly to the distinct sound that a resonator cone makes when the guitar string is plucked and merrily played a couple of Mississippi John Hurt tunes that I’d been working on. The Fender string action was supple and easy to play, sounded good too, but it felt insubstantial in construction. I decided at that moment that I would pursue the acquisition of a resonator, but guitar snob that I am, I wanted to acquire a fine instrument. Of course, what’s “fine” is open to debate and a matter of taste, but with my limited knowledge at the time I referred to Paul Simon’s lyric from “Graceland” and decided to chase after a National guitar.

I found myself on Iowa’s legendary bluesman Catfish Keith’s website whilst doing research on resonators. At that moment, I was a bit overwhelmed by the numerous models and resonator types to select from. In correspondence, Catfish was kind enough to write me a brief dissertation about Nationals and recommended that I consider a single cone guitar for starters. In short, resonators are typically manufactured with a single large, spun aluminum cone, or three similar but smaller cones, referred to as tricones.

Catfish and Penny wintering in Mexico in happier times before the pandemic…

As a side-note, both Catfish and his wife Penny are incredibly gracious and generous people and I had the great, good fortune of taking a private lesson with him at his home in small town Iowa. He taught me the nuances of playing his arrangement of “Police and a Sergeant,” a variation of an old Robert Wilkins tune.

Catfish is a representative/distributor for National guitars and sells them new from his website. At that moment I was ready to take up Catfish’s advice by acquiring a single cone resonator, but I decided to go on the used market to save some money. I’ve written before about the savings that can be made by purchasing used guitars online from Reverb… there’s quite a drop in value when you drive a new guitar off the lot. I’ve subsequently revised my opinion on buying used versus new, as I’ve experienced set-up issues, cracked bodies, sketchy electronics and twisted necks when buying used. In fact, all 6 of my current and varying style guitars were purchased new, because I’ve traded off my pre-owned ones.

Nevertheless, my first National resonator, was a mint conditioned and bargain priced NRP B steel, single coned guitar. I was delighted when the NRP arrived but was astonished at how difficult it was to play, compared to the Fender resonator that I tested in my local guitar store. I subsequently realized that the action was set-up pretty high for slide playing, rather than finger picking, which was not clearly elaborated on the Reverb website. This high action play was initially viewed by myself as a disaster of biblical proportions, but then I decided to make lemonade from lemons and go down the bottle-neck slide rabbit hole and never looked back!

Metal resonators have their own distinct sound and vary somewhat depending upon the type of metal from which they are constructed. My NRP was steel so it had a bold and present sound. To my ear, you could even say it was a bit harsh sounding, which is actually appealing to a lot of blues players. Overtime, I wondered if a wood bodied resonator might be more appealing to my sensibilities and returned to the marketplace for a used wooden body resonator. I subsequently, through Reverb again, found a sweet deal on a wood bodied National Reso Rocket (WB model), which I subsequently equipped with a Hotplate electronic pick-up system so I could run it through an amp. When the WB arrived, I quickly discerned that the guitar was also set up with high action to facilitate slide playing. Even though I would have preferred to have had a resonator that I could easily fingerpick, I was loathe to have my local shop grind away at the nut or biscuit bridge to lower the play, so I resigned to playing slide on both resonators. You’d think by then that I would have learned not to buy resonators, used online…

At a workshop with Mike Dowling… I am holding my WB

I played my wooden body in Open D and the steel body in Open G for a couple of years or so, and then it occurred to me that I was not playing the steel body near as much as the WB, mostly because it was super heavy and I found it unappealing to my ears. It was time to put the steel NRP on the trading block, which I did and the complete story of my acquisition of a National Resolectric can be found here. In my review I don’t think that I mentioned that while testing out the Resolectric I was also interested in auditioning an M1 Tricone; however, the one that had been in the store had sold the day before my arrival. I had seen and heard an M1 Tricone when I attended a guitar workshop taught by Mike Dowling in Minnesota a couple of years earlier. I thought it was an interesting guitar and never forgot about it.

I played a lot of hours with the WB on my lap, but became increasingly frustrated that I could not play the guitar fingerstyle, which was always my original intent when I set out to own a resonator. At Mike Dowling’s suggestion, I investigated the use of the new National Revolution aluminum biscuit to adjust the WB’s play, which I installed but eventually removed. I wrote about that experience here and here. At some point thereafter, the notion of trading the WB for an M1 that would be initially set-up for fingerstyle arose from my subconscious. In fact, I asked Dave’s Guitarshop for a trade quote on the WB when I saw an M1 for sale at the store, I got a very nice trade deal, but the M1 sold before I could arrange an appointment to visit the store. The National M1’s don’t collect dust at Dave’s Guitars, but move very fast out the door. That was February 2021. My contact at the store told me that they had another one on order and that I should check the store’s website for its arrival, which I did almost everyday since February. I also kept the correspondence that documented the trade-in value of my WB.

I Purchase a National M1 Tricone

When I was considering the acquisition of an M1, I did my due diligence and researched the Youtube universe for reviews and tone examples. One of the best videos I found was a direct comparison between three of National’s wooden bodied resonators: The El Trovador, a deep bodied single cone guitar, an M1 Tricone, and finally a Resorocket WB, like I owned. This really excellent comparison was produced by Organic Sounds:

In the video, the El Travador is bold, rich sounding, loud and offers clean highs with great bottom end low frequency tonality, with the mid-range tones taking a back seat. It’s little wonder that recording artist Mike Dowling favors the El Trovador among all the wooden bodied Nationals. I like the El Trovador, but the deep body would be sure to cause me shoulder pain. On the other extreme is the Resorocket, which by comparison, sounds most metallic, more twangy and perhaps even a little pointed/shrill sounding. Furthermore, the Resorocket, which I am intimately familiar with, has some sort of frequently occurring overtone that sounds like a cat yowling. That overtone I do not like and experienced far too often when I played mine. Finally, the M1 sounds refined, sweet, balanced, very clean and musical, with individual notes clearly differentiating from each other. The tonality is also nice and even from high to low end frequencies with the mid ranges well represented.

It is not surprising that the John Dopyera, who created National Guitars with the introduction of tricone technology was reluctant to start producing less expensive, larger single cone variants at the urging of his partner George Beauchamp. He revered the “fine instrument” sound of the tricone. In fact, Dopyera quit National and founded Dobro with his brothers in part because of the tricone vs single cone controversy. Still today, the three smaller cones of the Tricone design are considered by many listeners to be more refined and balanced sounding and I tend to agree with that assessment. While the terms “refined and balanced” are positive sounding terms, the more forward, in your face, perhaps brash sound of the single coned resonators are favored by many, particularly blues musicians.

Here again we can see a different take on the M1 versus the El Trovador as played by Mike Dowling. Dowling has a long connection with National, and I believe he prevailed up them to reintroduce the El Trovador into their product line. Dowling is arguably one of the finest resonator players walking the earth:

By Dowling’s description, the El Trovador is “more pointed” and “dryer” sounding than the M1, while the tricone offers more complex coloration. The differences between the two instruments are a function of cone size, cone number and chamber size caused by the 4 versus 3 inch body width. As I watch Dowling’s body language and commentary closely, I think he prefers his beloved El Trovador, but I like the M1 and decided to chase one down if I could.

For me, the easiest place to acquire an M1 would be Dave’s Guitar shop in LaCrosse, WI. It’s 2.5 hours away from my home by car and they make trade-ins absolutely painless. The challenge is to move quickly when Dave’s gets an M1 in stock because they move out very rapidly. So, for four months, I would routinely check Dave’s website for M1 availability.

Then, Friday night a couple of weeks ago as my wife was calling me for dinner, I did a quick check at Dave’s, which I had not done for a day or so and, low and behold, they had a new delivery of an M1 showing on their website. Knowing the M1’s don’t last long, I grabbed it and paid for it immediately and planned to head over to LaCrosse the next Saturday morning! I invited my wife to come along and we made a fun day of it. It was a beautiful day for a drive and we stopped in the nice Iowa town of Decorah to eat lunch at a bagel bakery, whose owner we knew.

After lunch we headed over to Dave’s in LaCrosse. During these late pandemic days you still need to visit by appointment. I called early that Saturday morning and Dave himself answered and set things up for our visit.

When we arrived, Annette and I were ushered in. I dropped off my Reso-Rocket WB and it was accepted with no fuss whatsoever. Before I could say Jumpin’ Jack Flash they had a new price tag on the WB and by Monday it was advertised online. I think it sold by Wednesday. Wooden bodied Nationals move quickly and that’s why I was given an excellent trade-in value and they subtracted it from the online price that I paid out the night before. No muss, no fuss and that’s why in my experience Dave’s is one of the smoothest operations in the U.S.

Me and my new M1 getting acquainted at Dave’s

The new M1 was sitting by the front desk waiting for me. I popped open the case, pulled it out and looked it over. It was a stunning piece of industrial artwork. As a new guitar should be, it was immaculate. One of the standout features of the M1 is the lack of the silver/chrome hubcap like cover over the resonator cones. Instead there is a metal cover that is painted the color of the mahogany wood that comprises the body. It is a unique appearing resonator unlike any other in the National product line.

I sauntered over to a quiet corner of the store to try the M1 out. I wanted to make sure there were no problems before I walked out of the store. I threw my iPad, which contains my tune charts on an amp, grabbed a stool and tried to play, but the guitar was woefully out of tune because the new factory strings on it had never been stretched, so it took me a few minutes to get the tuning stabilized. I played through a few charts in standard tuning with fingerstyle technique (I never use a plectrum ever) and realized quickly that the set-up was to factory specs, meaning that both slide and fingerstyle play were easily and effectively possible! One of the store techs who visited me to discuss installation of a pickup confirmed my conclusion about the guitar’s set-up.

I stretched the strings again and then re-tuned the guitar to Open D and pulled out my National solid brass Tonedome slide and played a couple of bottleneck tunes too. There was a young fellow wailing away across the store on a Stratocaster which made listening to the M1 a bit challenging; however, sometimes good enough is good enough and I concluded the axe was definitely a keeper.

Me in front of Dave’s Guitars iconic street signage

Annette and I concluded our visit by visiting Dave’s famous and extensive vintage guitar collection where I was delighted to identify Leo Fender’s first electric guitar model, the Broadcaster, a truly historic instrument. Next to it was a “Nocaster” and finally the first Telecaster, which was the Broadcaster renamed because of a trade name dispute with the Gretsch Company.

On the way out, we stopped so Annette could photograph me in front of Dave’s Guitars iconic street sign. As you can see I posed with my new axe. Afterwards, I stowed the guitar in the rear of my hatchback and headed home across the Mississippi River back to Iowa. A good day indeed was had by all…

I Review My New National M1 Tricone Guitar

To the right you can see the National Reso-Phonic M1 that I purchased from Dave’s Guitars and brought home to Iowa. It’s a slot-headed, 12 Fret, bound mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, layered mahogany body, tricone resonator, with grained ivoroid binding. The appearance is unique as compared to other National Reso-Phonic guitars in that it is wooden constructed, but most conspicuously lacks the “hub cap” type cover that is typical with single cone resonators. The fact that the metallic tricone cover is the same color as the body gives the belly of the guitar a more uniform appearance. The design of the sound porous screens that protect the resonator cones, combined with the slanted grid openings in the upper bout of the sound board give the guitar a distinct art deco sensibility. It is a stunningly singular appearing acoustic guitar.

Let’s consider the M1 from the top at the headstock and follow the string line down to the tail piece. Again, you’ll note that the guitar is equipped with a traditional appearing slotted headstock. Unlike the Reso Rocket WB that I traded for the M1, the headstock does not have a pearloid veneer, but is instead stained wood embellished with a traditional product logo decal. This is similar to the Martin guitar approach where for many of their beloved models they stick a decal on the headstock. For the cost of this M1, an inlaid logo would have been a nice and expected adornment. On the other hand, I like the overall look of the guitar, so I’ll stop complaining.

The tuning machines, with exposed gear works, are clustered in groups of three and equipped with attractive ivoroid knobs. All tuner actions are smooth and precise, unlike my old Reso Rocket which had a very stiff and difficult to use D-string (standard tuning) tuner. Finally, you’ll note that the outer strings on the fretboard (E & e) are strung into their respective tuners from the outside to the inside of the headstock, while the remaining strings (A, D, G & B) go from the inside to the outside. This stringing technique which can elude guitar store guys, prevents the outer strings from chafing the headstock wood. Finally, the strings enter the fretboard by passing over a bone nut.

To the right you can see the M1’s fretboard, an ebony strip of wood bound to the mahogany neck. The ebony is black with blond striations, which is the sustainable fashion begun by Bob Taylor several years ago when he bucked tradition and refused to toss aside ebony wood that was not perfectly black. I like the blond hints on today’s ebony fretboards. The comfortably wide neck is bound with grained ivoroid. Finally, the guitar was strung with John Pearse 13’s spec’d for resonator guitars.

The neck attaches to the guitar at the 12th fret. This particular model has no cutaway, which is one of the features I miss when comparing the M1 to the Reso Rocket WB. When playing bottleneck it’s nice not to have to be crowded by the body at the 12th and 13th frets.

To the left you can see the M1’s upper bout, with its rounded shoulders, the art deco sound port grills, and the inlaid Mother of Pearl dots that adorn the fretboard. The soundboard, like the guitar’s sides and back are manufactured from layered mahogany. There are some very rare exceptions when National makes a guitar body from solid wood, with the preponderance being layered. The layered body and its shape serve the role of imparting a woody tonality that colors the sound produced primarily by the three small resonator cones.

The top’s mahogany veneer does a great job of revealing the wood’s grain and reflecting the rich reddish brown stain that gives the wooden Nationals their distinctive appearance.

The M1’s lower bout is where the rubber meets the road. You can see on the right where the triangular-shaped metallic cover sits above the three resonator cones. The metallic cover is cut with art deco shaped openings that allow the resonator tones to escape. A silvered metallic grill protects the cones.

The guitar strings each rest in a groove cut into a wooden saddle that is glued to an aluminum t-shaped bridge, the ends of which each contact a resonator cone. The t-bridge transmits the vibration of the strings to the cones. The metallic cover has a raised t-shaped shield to protect the saddle and bridge. The strings then exit the saddle/bridge area and are bound down to a standard National tailpiece which is held in place by a combo screw/strap button located in the bottom of the guitar.

Examining the t-bridge indicates that the heavier strings are biased towards two of the cones, whereas the lighter strings are handled primarily by one cone, although all the strings in some way affect all three cones. This relationship of string locations, t-bridge and distribution of vibration to the resonator cones is what gives the M1 its balanced and sweet tonality.

Above left you can see the neck join to the body. The neck is held in place by a “stick” that runs the length of the body’s interior. As with most modern, premium guitars the neck is equipped with a truss rod to adjust play variations that might result as response to humidity in the ambient environment. Also visible are the grained ivoroid bindings on the body. The M1 is a neat, precision constructed, manufactured product that benefits from competent highly trained builders along with the use of numerical, computer controlled machine tools.

You will note the absence of a guitar strap button at the base of the neck. I intend to have one placed by my local guitar shop; however, I plan to order a Waverly white ivoroid button and felt washer from Stewmac, because my guitar shop offers only prosaic silver and/or black metal buttons, or high end Schaller strap lock buttons, which I don’t want to use with this guitar.

Also, above right you can see a shot of the M1’s back. The stained veneer of the layered wood back shows off the beautiful straight grain of the mahogany from which it is constructed.

Finally, as with all premium guitars, the instrument is supplied with a custom-made hardshell case. The guitar fits in snuggly and the outer side of the upper lid has the National logo embroidered into it, which is quite stunning. A word of caution about the logo though… it is easy to muss up if it comes into frictional contact with another object like an adjacent guitar case while traveling in the back area of a car.

To close out this review, I am sharing some sound bite examples of the M1. These were recorded with amplification through a Fishman Loudbox Artist with a Shure SM-58 mic. The actual recording was done with an iPhone 11 equipped with a Shure MV-88 and processed through Apple iMovie.

I would prefer to have a pickup on the guitar but that’s been more challenging than I anticipated. The go-to pickup on resonators, in my judgement, is made by Highlander. I had one put into my steel NRP and it worked well, though you had to haul around a battery powered preamp. Sadly, it appears that Highlander is no longer in business. Further, I was not sure I wanted a guitar tech drilling holes in the M1. Now it seems that the go-to pickup are those made by Jason Krivo Flores out in Portland, OR… I have one on order. The tone samples online sound great; however, the pickup is a bit idiosyncratic in that it attaches to the guitar with blue tack. I will probably write a blog entry about the Krivo after I’ve worked with it for a while.

Anyway… below are two bottleneck tunes recorded in Open D followed by a fingerstyle piece in standard tuning…

In conclusion, I feel fortunate to own a National M1 Tricone. The wait time on a new M1 is currently 6 to 8 months and I’m not getting any younger. The instrument itself is a beautiful example of industrial art and with its balanced tonality plays well, as currently set up in either bottleneck or fingerstyle mode. Highly recommended.

October 26, 2020May 9, 2021

My ongoing guitar journey… I review my new Collings I-35 Deluxe Semi-hollow bodied electric…

Bill Collings: “The world is made of stuff that’s OK… just fine… but when something’s made by a group of people that really know what they’re doing, engineering, time and passion are put into it… it doubles it…”

Guitars are back, baby! Or so says the New York Times… For me, they were never gone, but according to several news articles and anecdotal information from guitar stores, the COVID 19 “lock-downs” of 2020, resulted in a sizable upward swing in guitar sales. As a result guitar shops are suffering from some inventory deprivation because the guitar manufacturers are having difficulty keeping up with demand resulting from pandemic depleted work forces. What’s driven guitar sales? To a large extent, it’s probably the quarantine produced time and space available for people to chase new pursuits and guitars apparently fit the bill.

Since I am retired and an avid student of guitar, I did not need the added incentive of quarantine time to focus on the instrument; however, because of limited opportunities to do other things outside my home I am even more obsessed with the guitar now!

To that end, I have a very nice collection of instruments, descriptions of which can be found here… Even though I possess a nice stable of guitars I, not unlike lots of other guitarists, fall into the psychological trap of believing we are always one guitar away from completing our musical dreams… it’s a sad affliction, but also fun to indulge as long as you don’t overtax your personal finances like Johnny Depp‘s done…

What drove me to my latest purchase was the human psychological need for novelty, which is somewhat more exacerbated by the limited stimuli associated with quarantine lock down. Further, I was suffering some doubts regarding two of my Taylor electric guitars. Seen below is the T3 on the right and the Walnut Solidbody on the left… While both are lovely guitars, I decided that their controls were too gimmicky… too many pickup selection opportunities and odd tone controls that I could never quite master to suit my ears…

The truth be known, the Taylor’s are excellent guitars and beautiful in their own right and any difficulty managing them, sound-wise, is really on me. Still… in the back of my mind, for quite a while, I considered trading them off for a different guitar. But, it was not going to be for just any run of the mill electric… For example, I was totally not interested in a Fender Strat or Tele (never liked their necks nor fretboards) or a Les Paul (too awkward and heavy for me) and I had my run with a Gretsch a few years earlier and unceremoniously dumped it. Perhaps the endlessly fascinating Gibson ES-335, but there is so much commentary out there in the guitar universe about sample to sample variability in quality and tone. That said, I just don’t believe I have the acumen to identify, nor access to enough samples to find that perfect one. So, I looked around for several months, not totally convinced I could unload the Taylors for something I would find better… It would have to be a helluva a guitar to move me forward…

Then, one day I was noodling through the Dave’s Guitars website, which I do on occasion, and found a guitar worth considering… way worth considering… It was a Collings semi-hollow bodied electric guitar… At that moment, Dave’s inventory contained four Collings electrics, two of which were semi-hollows. I’ve been aware of Collings since I first picked up a Yamaha guitar in the early 90’s… In guitar magazines of the time, Collings advertised factory produced but immaculate, boutique quality acoustic guitars that successfully replicated the highly sought after pre-war Martin aesthetic. They were top-drawer prestige guitars, reserved for the most committed players. The prices too were astronomical.

I have a brief story, from a few years ago, about my first, in person, interaction with a Collings guitar. When I returned to serious guitar playing about 4 1/2 years ago, I took lessons in Rochester, MN while I was up there for an extended period of time receiving radiation treatment. I found a very nice re-introduction-to-the-instrument teacher at Avalon Music, a local store, which sadly no longer exists. I remember my teacher playing some nondescript beater guitar during lessons, which took place on the second floor of the store.

Downstairs the owner sold guitars, specializing in Taylors, a brand that I regarded very highly, and after several weeks, I traded in an older Taylor 700 series for a drop dead beautiful Taylor 914ce, a top of the line spruce and rosewood grand concert sized guitar… there are arguably not many guitars better than that 914 in both design and quality… The purchase was a statement to myself that I would fight through the radiation treatments and come out the other end… When I showed up at my next lesson with the new axe, my teacher was apoplectic when he saw the guitar… why, I am not totally sure, but perhaps he felt “shown-up” by this lovely instrument residing in a rusty old reentry guitar player’s hands… Well… the next week my teacher returned to the lesson room with a Collings in his hands! I suppose he wanted to show me who ruled… it was an enviable guitar, both in appearance and how it sounded… I made note…

So, back to the future… There it was on Dave’s website… A Collings guitar, but not an acoustic… this one was electric… I’d been vaguely aware of Collings’ electrics for a few years… Primarily because a recent Facebook acquaintance purchased a pre-owned solid body version called the City Limits (inspired by the Gibson Les Paul)… he made quite a public production of his purchase and was way pleased with himself…

After my dalliance with the Taylor Solidbody and some in-shop fiddling around with a Fender Strat, I was done with planks (solid body) guitars… As a dyed-in-the-wool acoustic player, the semi-hollow electric is, in my mind, a perfect complement to my style of playing, which is largely finger-style and bottleneck country blues. A highly regarded, and prototypical semi-hollow bodied guitar is the Gibson ES-335. There are others like the Gretsch Falcon, but the ES-335 has legendary status.

If you are curious as to what a semi-hollow bodied guitar is, I borrowed a few shots off the Collings website below. You can see below that the Collings guitar body is routed out of a solid piece of mahogany where the hollowed chambers on each side of the center are visible. The hollow chamber gives this guitar its characteristic tone, which differs significantly from a plank guitar. According to the Sweetwater website, “These guitars… [offer] the tightness and focus of a solidbody electric guitar but with a hint of that more round, acoustic tone of a hollow guitar.” I would agree with that…

The term, semi-hollow body comes from the practice of inserting a block of wood into the center of the guitar between the hollowed chambers. The carefully designed Collings center block can be seen in the above photo on the top left. The center block reduces the propensity for feedback when the guitar is played at loud volumes. Not all center blocks are equal and can affect the tone of the guitar by how it’s designed and what it’s made out of. Design versus tone of the center block is above my pay grade, but from what I’ve read, the precision of the center block design is one of the reasons a Collings electric commands such respect and stands out with tonality.

As I dug deeper into the Collings aesthetic, I found this wonderful overview of their electric guitar production:

And here, world-class guitar player Charlie Sexton speaks to the design of Collings electrics… He is playing a SoCo, which is one of the Collings designs I was considering… it is a semi-hollow bodied guitar with a single cutaway, as opposed to the I-35, which has a double cutaway, giving it the characteristic “mouse ear” profile similar to the Gibson ES-335… Anyway, below you can hear Charlie wax poetically about Collings electric guitar design…

If you are wondering who Charlie Sexton is, one of his main gigs is lead guitarist for Bob Dylan’s touring band. Below are a couple of shots I took of Dylan and Sexton playing in Cedar Falls, IA ten years ago… a great show!

If you really want to understand what distinguishes Collings guitars from all the rest of production instruments, then you have to understand the singular drive for design and manufacturing excellence that Bill Collings demanded of himself and those who worked with him… sadly Bill Collings succumbed to cancer in 2017… here’s a brief biography of this extraordinary man:

So, after due diligence I concluded that purchase of a Collings guitar could be a real “jewel in the crown” acquisition. There were some Collings electrics available pre-owned on Reverb, but in my case I thought purchasing new would be, perhaps not least expensive, but the best route for me. Now, to those of you who read my blog this decision probably comes across as contradictory. This is because I wrote a whole blog entry on the cost-benefits of buying used; however, I’ve also been burned on used purchases mostly because I do not possess the wherewithal to identify problems with a used instrument, and they do exist, such as I’ve experienced… i.e. poor set-up, cracked lower bouts and twisted necks…

To purchase a new guitar, it made perfect sense to me to shop for a Collings at Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI which is about 2.5 hours by car from my home. Last winter, before the attack of COVID 19, I purchased a National guitar from them and it was, as I wrote on this blog, an excellent experience. Nevertheless, I was still tentative because I had two guitars to trade and there was still the overall sticker price on the Collings guitar which was a bit prohibitive… I proceeded to see what I could work out, and was pleasantly surprised… Overnight, I received two very fair offers for the Taylors and they reduced the new guitar’s price by 15% because it was a 2018 model and had been hanging around the store far longer than Dave wanted it! So it was off to Wisconsin to test the guitar and make a deal!

Because of the pandemic world we live in, Dave’s only took clients in the store by appointment, which I promptly made for the next day. The following morning I got in my car at 7:30 am to make a 10:30 appointment.

My wife was a bit anxious about me making the trip as Wisconsin was a COVID 19 hot zone, and this was my first trip out of town since the pandemic’s onset in mid-March, 2020. Undaunted, I grabbed a mask, stuck a carbon filter in it, and took off. It was good to get out and it was a pleasant drive through the late harvest farm fields and small, backwater towns of Iowa. I had a full tank of gas so I would not have to expose myself to the virus by making any unnecessary stops along the way. Making good time I arrived 30 minutes early and it was especially nice that they took me right in so I would not have to sit in a cold car for 30 minutes! To the left you can see me in the parking lot, with the iconic Dave’s sign over my shoulder.

A pair of Collings semi-hollow bodies… the SoCo in the foreground and the I-35 behind.

There was no time wasted, which suited me… The handful of floor staff are always very pleasant and were all masked up and pretty good about physical spacing. Nevertheless, I decided to get in and out as soon as practical; however, I still wanted to take my time checking out the Collings electrics.

I dragged my two Taylors in for the Sales Manager to look over, and he guided me over to the store section that had a handful of Collings guitars hanging way up high to keep the hoi polloi from pawing over them. I narrowed the choices down to the I-35 Deluxe and a SoCo. Curiously, Bill Collings decided to name his electrics after the roadways in and around Austin, Texas where his factory is located.

Inside Dave’s… dropped the mask momentarily for the photo…

Fortunately, I was able to plug into a Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50 amp like I have at home. I spent most of my time with the I-35, which is the guitar that initially moved me into undertaking this journey… the SoCo was nice but did not call to me. The whole process was a bit stressful… I was not warmed up, nor was I acclimated to the I-35’s fretboard and neck so my playing was not particularly admirable… no one seemed to care, but they could hear me, so I was a little rattled because I can play better than I did in the store.

Eventually, after floundering around for about 30 minutes with the I-35, I decided to acquire it because I was confident, given some more time that I’d be able to play this thing and it was sweet to my sensibilities. I was particularly taken by the capacity to separately control the volume and tone for each pick-up and to blend the two together when played simultaneously, something neither of my Taylor electrics could do… Booyakasha!

While we were closing the deal I had the great good fortune to meet the Dave, who was in an exceptionally good mood because he had just acquired a vintage “transition model” Gibson ES-335 for his extensive, museum quality guitar collection housed on the second floor of the store. They wiped my new Collings down, put fresh strings of my choice on it (NYXL’s), and then threw in a Dave’s Sweatshirt to boot! I was out the door and on the way back home in about one hour… All in all, shopping for premium guitars is a great experience at Dave’s!

Ameritage Case Damage… a Tolex tear on the top of the case

My only criticism of the purchase process was the condition of the guitar case. Collings sources out their cases for electric guitars from the Ameritage company. They are premium solid cases, but frankly, I think both Taylor and National do a better job with their cases in fit, appearance and interior appointment. In a video I recently watched, Bill Collings also expressed some dismay with sourced-out cases and in response built a line of cases for some of his high-end acoustics, but in the end dropped the case business project because it’s too expensive.

Further, and most irritating, the case that came with my guitar was damaged. The Tolex coating was torn about the width of a thumbnail and could be pulled back to expose white fibrous matter beneath. There was also some scuffing on the case too… Besides being ugly, I was concerned the tear would continue to propagate over time. I should have made a point about the damage, because I found out later that they had the ability to repair the case in the shop, but I wanted to get the hell out of there and get into my car away from other people. In the end, in a very nice personal touch, Steve McCreary, General Manager of Collings guided me, via telephone, through the repair process. The case, though not perfect, looks pretty good now. Even so, I decided to acquire a Collings sticker from Red Bubble and laid it over the repair so I wouldn’t be irritated by it anymore…

Now let’s review the guitar… Holistically, it is a stunning example of industrial art. When I’d mentioned to Steve McCreary (see above) that I thought the guitar was an object of fine art, he responded saying that “we [Collings] really appreciate when someone gets what we do here…”

The guitar has a mouse eared profile/shape reminiscent of the Gibson ES-335 from which it is inspired, but Bill Collings, after thorough research, reduced the lower bout width by an inch and designed more angular curvature, making the guitar somewhat smaller and lighter thus enhancing it’s playability. I’m not a big guy, so the smaller profile had greater appeal to me, especially after coping with the larger bodied Taylor T3 and the Gretsch Falcon, which was really a beast. While I was at Dave’s playing the Collings, the sales manager brought over an ES-335 and it looked large and unwieldy by comparison. I said, “please take it away…”

Solid Honduran mahogany lower body and neck

What you pay for when you acquire a Collings is engineering, design, manufacturing precision and all around fussiness. I don’t think there’s a guitar manufacturer who puts more care into high end wood quality than Collings. Only the finest woods are selected for their instruments, considering variables such as appearance/figuring, moisture content, tensile properties, specific gravity, and most importantly acoustical responsiveness. The I-35 is comprised of a carved, solid flamed maple top, the body is routed from a solid piece of Honduran mahogany, with a single piece mahogany neck as well.

In my mind’s eye, I imagined the guitar would be red, but in reality this particular model’s color was referred to as “amber sunburst,” which does a nice job of displaying the soundboard’s flamed Maple striations underneath the multiple layers of polished lacquer. This is my first lacquer finished guitar and it is remarkably shiny and classy looking.

The lower bout, with controls, 3 way switch, F holes, and bridge area visible.

Here it is very important to point out that not all semi-hollow bodied guitars are built the same. As shown in photos earlier in this post, Collings routes out the lower body from a solid piece of mahogany and the top is carved from a single piece of solid maple. Conversely, the Gibson ES-335 is manufactured from laminated maple and poplar layers and constructed similar to an acoustic guitar where the sides, back and top are separately cut or shaped in a press and then combined with glue. The center blocks are also engineered quite differently from each other. To me the solid wood routing of the lower body, the art-carving of the top, and the precision engineering of the center block pushes the Collings I-35 to a completely different aesthetic level in construction and subsequent tonality. During roughly the same time period Gibson produced a similar “tonally carved” solid wood design in limited quantities that they designated the CS-336, which I think is available by special order through their custom shop.

On the image shown above, you can see the four tone/volume control knobs, the body binding, and the pick up rings are all manufactured from grained ivoroid. Ivoroid is a plastic-like substance that is created by dissolving cellulose in the form of short cotton fiber and then restoring it through extrusion into a solid form. The grained version is extruded to give it fine lines to simulate ivory, which was considered a luxury material since ancient times. Obviously grained ivoroid production and its use is far better than killing animals such as elephants to acquire the substance. The ivoroid knobs and pickup rings are custom made at the Collings shop. It’s very satisfying to get up close enough to the ivoroid to see the fine grain lines or to twirl the tactilely pleasing knobs. For an acoustic guitar, I prefer wood binding, but almost all electrics use some sort of manufactured substance for bindings and grained ivoroid is about as cool as you can get.

Tail piece/bridge section… note the section of grained ivoroid pickup ring.

This particular version of the I-35 uses a clean and neat appearing Kluson bridge and tail piece assembly which is fairly common hardware for Gibson semi-hollow bodies. In contrast, my Taylor T3 semi-hollow body deployed a heavy, cluttered Bigsby, which I never really used to purpose, so I don’t miss it, particularly during string changing.

The pickups are where the rubber meets the road for an electric guitar. Bill Collings selected vintage-like Low Wind Lollar Imperial humbuckers for this guitar.

The combination of “throwback” 1950’s wiring, the low wind humbuckers and the vintage pots and caps are the “pixie/fairy dust” that Collings sprinkled into the guitar to create the vintage sound he was searching for. Having never played a vintage ES-335 nor possessing the ear to recognize one, I can only take the I-35’s spec on face value for being “sonically vintage;” however, I can attest that it is a fantastic sounding electric guitar, at least to my ear, my wife’s and my friends who’ve heard it.

As to whether the I-35 Deluxe produces verifiable vintage sound, that may be open to debate. For example, the ES-335 was manufactured with a laminate top, while the I-35 is unusual in that it has a solid top. The solid, non-laminate nature of the top was really appealing to my own aesthetic, so I like it and the “unique” sound it produces… it possesses throaty, round, woody, clean and defined note definition, with excellent sustain.

My guess is some of the fussier former Gibson/Gretsch players did not like the sound palette created by the solid top because their ears were more acclimated to the tonality created by laminated wood. To that end, Collings introduced an LC (laminated top) version of the I-35 and it is very popular. Nice for them, but I’ll take the sold top baby!

In the images directly above you can see some of the reasons why my I-35 is also designated Deluxe. The rosewood fretboard is adorned with parallelogram inlays, the headstock tuners are sourced from Gotoh, and equipped with grained ivoroid knobs, and as I mentioned earlier grained ivoroid appointments grace the instrument throughout.

In one of the Collings marketing videos, Bill Collings describes what elements are key to excellence when manufacturing an electric guitar… He says tone is a given… the guitar must feel right and be eminently playable, and finally it has to have a look… all those elements combine to give the guitar its character… that Collings character…

It’s one thing to read the marketing materials about Collings guitars, but it’s another thing to experience it first hand. They truly are remarkable instruments… As I said earlier the I-35 is a manufactured object of art…

Below I am adding some performance examples for my I-35… you can find other jazz and arty examples for how the guitar plays by accomplished musicians on Youtube, but my sound cuts will be just a regular guy doing the best he can to make some music. My genre is country blues, which I play on acoustic guitars, resonators and also electric guitar… I am no Muddy Waters, but he played the same music on all of those same type instruments… Here goes…

First, here’s a rendering of Cocaine Blues which is a Stef Grossman arrangement of the Rev. Gary Davis tune. I am playing through a Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50 amp on a clean channel (which I almost always do). I am blending both pickups with the neck pickup predominating. All my pedals are disengaged except my Dunlop Echoplex, which is set for a slight slap back:

Second is a rendering of Coffee Blues which is a Happy Traum arrangement of the Mississippi John Hurt tune. Again, I am playing through a Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50 amp on a clean channel and I am blending both pickups with the neck pickup predominating. All my pedals are disengaged except my Dunlop Echoplex, which is set for a slight slap back, and I added my Boss RV-6 Reverb which is set on Hall:

Third is a rendering of Police and a Sergeant which is a Catfish Keith arrangement of the Reverend Robert Wilkins tune. Again, again, I am playing through a Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50 amp on a clean channel and I am blending both pickups with the neck pickup predominating. This time the pedals include my Dunlop Echoplex, which is set for a slight slap back, my Boss RV-6 Reverb which is set on Hall, and some light vibrato through my Boss VB-2w pedal:

Finally, here’s a partial rendering of Long Distance Call which is a Tom Feldmann arrangement of a Muddy Waters tune. This my first bottleneck tune in standard tuning. As with the above tunes, I am playing through a Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50 amp on a clean channel and again I am blending both pickups with the neck pickup predominating. Pedals include a Jangle Box Compressor, a Mesa Boogie Tone Burst Drive, a Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, a Boss TR-2 Tremolo, a Dunlop Echoplex, and my Boss RV-6 Reverb which is set on Hall.

Well… there it is… my review of my new Collings I-35… I’ll sum it up by saying, I think I will keep it and will hand it down to one of my kids one day… it’s a family heirloom now!

If you have any comments please leave them below… and thanks for checking in!

February 4, 2020October 3, 2020

Reviewing My New National Resonator…

Hybrid Acoustic/Electric National Reso-Lectric is a Singular Guitar

A couple of weeks ago I made the trek across Iowa and Minnesota farm land to Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI and purchased a new resonator guitar. I traded in a steel bodied National NRP Black Rust for a National Reso-Lectric.

I’ve played the Reso-Lectric quite a bit during the past two weeks and have conjured up my review of the guitar. There are just a very few reviews of this guitar out there on the web probably because there are not that many Reso-Lectrics out in circulation. The only “celebrity” musician I found by googling around who’s played one publicly is Metallica’s James Hetfield and that was revealed with only a single still image and that’s it. It should be noted too that Hetfield’s Reso-Lectric is the all mahogany version referred to as the Revolver.

I’ve seen suggestions out on the web that this guitar is capable of playing in overdrive/distortion mode but that is NOT my intension. I play finger-style country blues and as far as I am concerned the Reso-Lectric is a pickup enhanced acoustic resonator designed for country blues and bottleneck/slide playing and that’s how I am going to use it.

The Reso-Lectric is not the only National Resonator I own. I also play a Reso-Rocket WB (wood body). It’s a fantastic guitar that is equipped with one of Mike Dowling’s Hot Plates as a pickup. As wonderful as the Reso-Rocket is, it does not offer the sound palette that the Reso-Lectric brings to playing the blues.

Let’s examine the physical nature of the guitar first and then explore what it sounds like in some of its various modes. Let’s follow the string-line from tailpiece to tuning posts and see what the Reso-Lectric is…

On first view, it is a combination of stunning and unusual in appearance… a remarkable and unlikely looking guitar. Enhancing the singular appearance of the guitar is the sunburst treatment of the figured maple top, upon which the polished resonator cover rests, the art deco logo on the kitchen counter plastic cover and the 1950’s era sci fi nuclear reactor pick up control dials. Finally, the headstock is treated with a mother-of-pearl veneer cap, gleaming retro Kluson tuning pegs and capped off with another art deco National logo.

Examination of the back of the guitar indicates a nice solid block of mahogany serving as the guitar’s foundation and mounted to the body is a figured maple neck, which as with the rest of the exposed wood on the guitar has received a satin finish. The necks on all my other guitars are mahogany with a gloss finish, so this neck is taking some getting used to for me. The neck appears to be attached to the body with screws, which makes me a bit anxious. I would feel more comfortable if they were bolts… perhaps they are, but I am not willing to pull one to find out. I did have to gently snug them up as they were not all-the-way tight.

Also on the back, you will note a screwed on battery cover. Six wood screws are required for removal to get into the battery compartment where two 9 volt batteries are housed to power the guitar’s Fishman preamp. My Taylor acoustics and the T5z all require 9 volt batteries but only one. The Reso-Lectric is a power hungry thing. Leaving the guitar plugged into an amp when not in use will drain the batteries, so unplug…

At the base end of the guitar the characteristic National tailpiece is locked into place with a strap mount button. On my other heavier guitars like the Taylor electrics, I have changed out the stock strap buttons for locking Schaller’s. Given the relatively beefy 8 lb (3.6 kg) weight, I think it would be prudent to have strap locks on this guitar at some time in the near future.

The base end of the guitar strings easily fit into the hole/slot at the lead end of the tailpiece. Previously, I went into some detail on how to restring this guitar.

From the end of the tailpiece the strings traverse under the polished hand rest and are then situated into appropriately sized grooves cut into the guitar’s bridge, which for National resonator’s is most commonly referred to as the biscuit. The biscuit/bridge is comprised of two pieces of wood glued together: a circular horizontal piece that is glued to the metallic resonator cone and a vertical slice of wood with grooves cut into it to guide the strings like a guitar bridge. The whole enterprise, biscuit bridge and resonator cone are covered with a shiny and elaborate hubcap-like cover, which is very characteristic for resonator guitars.

When the strings are plucked their energy is transferred to the biscuit/bridge which downwardly vibrates the spun aluminum convex shaped cone which serves as a speaker and radiates sound outward creating the characteristic bonk and splang for which resonator guitars are known. Most importantly, for this guitar there exists a piezo pickup which is mounted in the lower part of the biscuit bridge, the signal which captures the sound emanating directly from the cone is sent to a Fishman preamp located under the volume control knobs in the upper bout of the guitar. The piezo is one of two ways in which the guitars sound is amplified.

Following the string-line past the biscuit/bridge and up towards the neck of the guitar, the strings flow over another electric pick-up. Covered in black plastic is a Lollar P-90 single coil pick-up. I believe this version is referred to as a “Soap Bar.” So, in sum, this guitar has two pick-ups available to sculpt its sound. One below the biscuit/bridge and the other located at the sweet spot just below where the neck joins the body of the guitar.

Control of volume and tone knobs are located on the top of the upper bout of the guitar. There is a toggle switch to move between the two pick-ups for individual selection, or the center setting will deploy both simultaneously. Unlike a lot of electrified guitars, this one does not have a tone control; however, tone control is managed really well in my judgement by blending the volume of the two disparate pickups.

So what do we have here for controls besides the pickup toggle? Referring to the image of the controls, the one positioned lowest is overall volume control. The middle switch controls the output of the under biscuit/saddle pickup and the uppermost control does the same the P90 pickup. The sounds offered by the two different pickups are distinctly different so it is possible to create a wide array of sonic possibilities by playing the pickups individually or by blending them through control of output. I will revisit this subject a bit later with some sonic examples.

After crossing over the neck pickup the string line advance along the ebony fretboard mounted on a maple neck. The fretboard is marked with inlaid dots, is 14 jumbo frets long off from the guitar’s body, with a longish scale length of 25 21/32 inches (65.2 cm). The strings finally arrive at the headstock, passing over the bone nut with a width of 1.73 inches (4.4 cm) which is fine for both slide and finger-style playing. The strings end their journey on the posts of Kluson tuners, which are elegant appearing and smooth operating.

I’ve included below are some sound samples for the National Reso-Lectric. I play a opening section of Blind Willie McTell’s Wake Up Mama with the guitar’s pickups set three different ways:

First I play Wake Up Mama with the biscuit/bridge piezo pickup engaged alone:

Biscuit/Bridge piezo pickup alone

To me, the biscuit bridge pickup alone sounds the most acoustic. Of the two pickups, I think the one on the bridge also has the most bite, which is typically true of most bridge pickups on electric guitars. I am not inclined to play the bridge pickup alone as it comes across to me as a bit thin and tinny sounding which does not appeal to my ears.

Second, I play the same tune with the neck pick only engaged:

Neck pickup alone

The neck pickup alone demonstrates, by comparison to the bridge pickup, a warmer, rounder, fatter tone which is also consistent with other electric guitars. I like the tone of this pickup but used alone it just lacks a modicum of bite that would make it most appealing to me, especially for a resonator guitar.

In my judgment, the best way to play this guitar and to elicit from it the most lovely tones it is capable of is to mix together the output from both pickups simultaneously. What I would call the Goldilocks tone. I tend to balance the tone more towards the warmer neck pick up but dose in enough bridge sound to add some edge. Let’s take a listen:

The first time I ever played a resonator, it was one of those moderately priced Fender wooden jobs and it was fun to play finger-style, especially my genre of choice, country blues, but it did not feel like a particularly substantive, quality instrument, so I decided to go top drawer and get a National NRP Black Rust for my own.

I’ve written about this before several times on this blog, that the NRP was pretty much a fine guitar for bottleneck playing, but for me it was basically unplayable finger-style because of the way it was set-up with very high action. I am delighted to report in this review that the Reso-Lectric is mac easier to play finger-style. Below I run through one of my favorite country blues finger-style tunes, Cocaine Blues (as arranged by Stef Grossman).

In the past I’ve purchased guitars and suffered from buyer’s remorse of varying levels but no so in the case of the National Reso-Lectric! For the genre and style I like to play it is a perfect complement to my guitar collection.

As a final note… National provides as nice a guitar case as I’ve seen… solid, sturdy, well padded and the guitar fits snugly into its place. Still… even so I would not check it through an airline! I don’t know how they do it but National managed to embroider a logo onto the top of the case… so cool…

Tag: Guitar Review

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