c.1934 National Duolian Resonator Guitar

The bottom line? Incredible guitar. This was National's entry/mid-level 6-string metal-bodied resonator guitar at the time and it's definitely been established as a classic right alongside instruments like the Tele or Strat. Slotted headstock, 14-fret neck join, single-cone with biscuit, comfortable v-neck, and simplicity. Also they tended to have nice deco-ish weirdo paint jobs. Like this one. It's green.

I worked on this for a customer -- neck reset to give better angle, light fret dressing and polish, some cleaning, a new bone saddle to replace a steel one (eh, not really a saddle -- a hex wrench cut off with string slots cut in it), and also a crack repair to the headstock.

In theory I was also going to replace the (maple? misc hardwood?) biscuit with an ebony one, but once I got the ebony one finished, I put the old one back on... for whatever reason, this one is what drives the tone into the feel-good zone. The ebony was just a hair shrill.

Also adjusted the original bone nut. This was played with a steel and raised nut all its life before the current owner so the nut was never setup correctly.

Under 4 of those ivoroid dots are machine screws that hold the fretboard extension down.

A little peek at the new bone saddle. Tone cleared up and got louder immediately.

Neck is hard maple with tobacco sunburst.

Yessir, it's a looker -- and plays nice, too, despite a 1-2mm warp in the neck from the 1st to the 10th fret. You've gotta cover your ears if you're anywhere near it as this thing is LOUD. Who needs an amp??