Show us your National cast lap steel

[Noah Miller]

The fret markers are there to hide the screws that attach the board to the body. Otherwise I don't think they would have included them at the first fret.

[Ralph Czitrom]

Mystery (to me) solved. Thanks Noah.

[Michael Greer]

The first Cast steel by the National-Dobro company in early 1935 was the Supro model.
As my friend Noah profiled in a separate post this model actually predated the National and Dobro cast models that came later in 1935 and 1936.

The Supro was considered the “budget” model....however I suspect in the middle of the Great Depression only the Financially well off were buying new electric guitars.

It’s certainly is “fry pan” looking...gray paint ....and really has great output




The Three Amigos

[Joe Cook]

Thanks for posting that Supro, Michael. That's really something beautiful!

[Barry Fagan]

I just put this photo on the forum in another thread, but seeing as this one is titled "Show Us Your National Cast Lap Steel" and mine is finally approaching presentable condition, I figured that I would add it to this lovely bunch. Thank you all for the helpful examples - mine was acquired in far-from-original condition.

Barry Fagan

[Barry Fagan]

Finally got 'er done, a mere 10-1/2 years after my first post on the Steel Guitar Forum, and 45 years after I acquired the instrument. I still need to clean the volume pot and install the back plate and the felt, but you can't tell that from the photo. Thank you SGF folks for your help!

Barry Fagan

[Jack Hanson]

Looks great, Barry. Good job!

[Barry Fagan]

Thank you very much, Jack, and thank you for your quick answers to my questions.

I didn't comment on what it sounds like, as I'm not sure what it is SUPPOSED to sound like. I will get a listen to some of the recordings on YouTube.

Off topic question for Jack - Are those the Hanson brothers (from the movie Slap Shot) in your avatar photo?

[Barry Fagan]

Just for the record, I did complete the few remaining tasks that I mentioned when I posted last on my 1936 National lap steel SN N162, now back from the dead.
I was delighted to find that a few squirts of 40-year-old Radio Shack contact cleaner/lube took all the static out of the 80-year-old volume pot. I bolted on a homemade back cover (as mine was missing when I got the guitar) and glued on a piece of felt. According to my correspondence with Mike Newton in the the 1990s, he believes that the felt was trimmed using a metal file held at a shallow angle to the guitar. The file marks that I am pointing to in one of the photos seem to bear this out (Have others notice the same marks on their guitars?)

My efforts with several grades of files looked more like chewing than cutting, and I abandoned this technique eventually and used fine scissors held at a diagonal to finish the trimming. I can't tell much difference from my inspection of the shot of the back of the very low mileage cast National that Jack Hanson put in this thread a while back. Jack, feel free to weigh in.

Anyway, my next trick to to see if I can start to make music instead of just sounds on it and unfortunately, I am better at fixing most things than I am on operating them.

[Barry Fagan]

Not sure why the shot of the back of my National showed up out of focus. Here is another try.

[Jack Hanson]

Off topic question for Jack - Are those the Hanson brothers (from the movie Slap Shot) in your avatar photo?

Indeed they are! Good eye, Barry. One of my all-time fave flicks. ("They brought their effin' toys with 'em!")

Good job on the felt application. Looks quite similar to the brown on the back of mine. Seems to me a file would have been a rather ineffective and primitive method for trimming felt. I probably would have used either a single-edged razor blade or a #11 Xacto blade to trim off the excess.

[Barry Fagan]

Thanks Jack! I may clean up the edge with one....