NGD: 1935 National Duolian

[Mark M.]

I stumbled upon this one while browsing on reverb a couple weeks ago. The seller was a non-player who inherited it from a relative. He had it checked by a local guitar tech who said it was in good playing condition and even got a free, quick appraisal online which seemed pretty accurate at between $3500 and $4000. I made him an offfer of about half of that and was pleasantly surprised when he accepted it.

It was hard to tell from the pictures what was going on with the finish and since I had never had an original vintage National in hand (aside from playing one in a music store decades ago) I had no idea how they age. But, It looked worth taking a chance on it. Here’s what it looked like when it arrived:


After closer inspection I noticed that it appeared to have been painted at some point in its life and that the aged, green paint was covering the original frosted gold duco finish. So, I took a chance and applied Goo Gone on a small section of paint on the rim and tried to remove it with a soft nylon dish scrubber. It worked like a charm! I was able to remove all the old non-original paint and expose the beautiful duco in all its art deco glory, along with its well earned patina from years of playing. Here’s what it looks like now:



For an almost 90 year old instrument, this thing is in excellent condition. The neck has a slight relief but the action is comfortable both for fretting and slide playing. Everything is original - the cone, biscuit, cover, and frets, all in excellent shape. So far, I’m tuning it to open G and refreshing some of my delta blues slide chops. This guitar is loud as hell and has the perfect reso sound you’d expect from a National of this vintage. I’m pleased with this find!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

That's beautiful! I had a brass body style O for many years, but it was so heavy that it rarely went out to play. I finally bought a modern steel tricone National (a Polychrome) that's significantly lighter, so I play it much more and sold the O. Now you're making me want another single cone. Enjoy it!

[Mark M.]

That’s also a beauty. I like tricones as well. There may be one in my future, someday.

[#627CoG]

Hello. Happy New Vintage Duolian Day. Nice score at a good price. Lovely instrument. Vintage Duolians certainly do “bark” loudly in a cool way.

My Mule stainless steel tricone is my lifer/favorite guitar. It sounds wonderful.

***Just in case you are thinking about strings for it, give the D’Addario EFT flat top pb strings a try. I experimented with a bunch of different strings (different companies and alloys) and found the EFT flat top strings the best. Nice warm and round tone, less string noise, and a long life span.***

A pic of my Mule tricone. Matt builds them with the same body/cover plate style of a single cone. Its a cool look I think.