1936 National New Yorker Lap Steel disassembly video

[Mike Busam]

Greetings... This video of the disassembly of a 1936 National New Yorker Lap Steel came up in my YouTube subscriptions list today. I just checked the list archives, and the topic of how these were put together has come up as recently as 2024, but I don't think there have been many (or any) videos that show the process of getting inside these instruments for repair ... Well ... it seems to be a struggle to work on these! I thought the group might find this video of interest.

https://youtu.be/X0sAzxsdYI4?si=zLY7Vm9JOsHyX6JJ

Take care,
---Mike

[Jim Newberry]

Is it any wonder that they switched to a single string-through Valco pickup in the early 40’s? I can’t imagine how much assembly time those things took! Fascinating…

[D Schubert]

What a classy work of art! I tried to open up and repair one of those one time. Let's just say it was not very successful. Some of the components fell apart when I touched them.

[Noah Miller]

Yeah, while I acknowledge that you can get inside these, I'm pretty certain they were not built with that in mind. National-Dobro seemed to assume that maintenance would never be required.