For those who didn't know I aquired another National D8 with necks of differnet height and with legs (No more walker) - but - it was in desparate need of restoration. So bad in fact that only one thing could be done and that was strip off all the paint back to bare wood and respray.
Some previous owner was a smoker who placed his lit cigarettes on the peg head whilst playing and therefore some nasty burns to the wood. Stripped and sanded I was able to prime and found a colour that matched the brown on the control panel. Peugeot Cafe Noir. The front and back aprons were done in white as was the centre section that holds the controls. The control panel also had to be carefully masked and repainted.The pickup and bridge section is all one unit and as such picks up noises from handling the whole unit and picking noise if you hit the pickup with your pick. This is the same on both Nationals so is an inherant design fault which cannot be overcome. I took the pickup to bits to see if this could be remedied using different coils, but the magnets are attached to the bridge plate. Never mind - I put the original coils back.
The National does not have a lot of sustain especially above the 12th fret. Place the bar too high and hit a string and it sounds like pinging one of those little brass strips in a musical box. I fell back to my days of trying to increase sustain on a Fender Jaguar and Jsazzmaster, the answer being getting the bridge to make more contact with the body. There is a gap under the bridge and picup unit so I cut some steel bar and placed under it.. When the unit is screwed down to the guitar it bites on the bar sending more vibration into the wood. I also made a brass nut from 1/8th bar but now I know it works I will be making another one from angled stock.
I wanted to use the original machine heads but alas trying to get replacement melt on buttons is like looking for rocking horse poo. cheap chinese Kluson look alikes currently adorn the headstock. They will have to do until my search is fruitful.
The fetboard is perspex the artisitic work being screen printed underneath. As I lifted this from the guitar some of the paint was left on the wood, so I am matching paint to redo this.
I strung up the rear neck C6 using La Bella strings and she sings like a beauty. I have still retained my sound but with a lot more sustain, and the guitar now responds better from different pick pressures. She is beautiful. Pics soon showing the before and after if I can get them up.
Comment from the wife "When that guitar arrived I thought what the hell have you bought, and you paid how much? Well looking at it now it does not look like the same guitar. It looks lovely. You must be proud of that." And that folks just about says it all.
