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Topic: NGD - National Triple Neck - restoration and set up |
Antonio Aguirre
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 3 May 2019 8:47 am |
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Hey everyone,
Thought this might be a cool thread for anyone interested in this type of thing. I love cleaning and bringing instruments back into prime playing condition.
I have been looking for one of these for YEARS and finally found one at a good price. So here is the thread, I will post photos and updates as I clean and get this thing back up and running.
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Antonio Aguirre
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 3 May 2019 9:05 am Some Damage in Shipping
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So they threw the metal legs in with minimal padding and unfortunately it shattered one of the pickup covers and dented the pickup.
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Antonio Aguirre
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 3 May 2019 12:36 pm
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Cleaning done, strung it up. The back two necks sound great. The closest neck pickup sounds really anemic. Gets even worse when all three necks are activated.
Anyone have experience with one pickup dropping out a lot in this case?
I am wondering if it is how it's wired or if the pickup got damaged from shipping.
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Jim Sallis
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 3 May 2019 1:53 pm Triple-neck National
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| I've played one of these for years. Had the same problem with one pickup being markedly weak; Jim Palenscar rewound it for me. I was also missing pickup and tuner covers. A friend here in Phoenix made new ones for me. |
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Antonio Aguirre
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 4 May 2019 4:43 am Re: Triple-neck National
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| Jim Sallis wrote: |
| I've played one of these for years. Had the same problem with one pickup being markedly weak; Jim Palenscar rewound it for me. I was also missing pickup and tuner covers. A friend here in Phoenix made new ones for me. |
Jim thanks for that info. This may be the problem. I am going to see if I can check it with a multimeter. The only other guess I had was if for some reason it was being put in parallel or out of phase when all three pickups are engaged. It sounds a bit that way but the output is still super low.
Anyone have suggestions for where to get a case for this beast? Probably will need to have something made but just wondering if anyone has found a particular keyboard case or something that seems to work. |
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John Herb
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 4 May 2019 8:36 am
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Very nice National! You gotta love when something gets damaged during shipping.  The pick up may have been damaged from that hit, but it could've been an issue before. I dont really know much about the National pickups, but I do know fellow national player and forum member Mick Hearn has taken one apart. |
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John Herb
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 4 May 2019 12:41 pm
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Well I found this old thread this could be a solution to your problem. https://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/004886.html
Also they did make cases for this beast, but I say they'd be hard to find I've done some searching but couldn't find any.
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Antonio Aguirre
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 5 May 2019 11:30 am
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Frederick thanks very much for the info.
I have emailed someone about potentially rewiring the one pickup, I also want to get their opinion if I should change out the stock selector switch.
I checked the ohms for each pickup using the selector switch to isolate.
The furthest neck is about 10.5
The middle is 10.2
The closest neck will not give a reading.
When all three are selected its about 5.5
I also have put out a few emails seeing who can make a case for this. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 6 May 2019 8:05 am
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I'll bet Kevin Hatton will make you a case.
He made one for my T-8 Rickenbacker. 
Erv |
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