2005 National Reso-Phonic Resolectric Electric Resonator Guitar

Update: Just got news from Mr. Jason Workman at NRP on the build date: "This one was build March 17th of 2005 and originally sold through Rudy's Music in New york." Thanks, fellas!

These Resolectrics are stylish and popular guit-izmos and while they're somewhat loud and sound like a brassier guitar-banjo acoustically (hear the clip above with the mic on it), their strong suit is plugged-in playing. To that end they've got a P90 magnetic pickup at the neck and a Highlander piezo at the bridge -- with individual volume controls for each, a 3-way selector switch, and a master volume control, too, all on the upper-bout.

This has serial 906 stamped on the side of the neck, and I'm guessing that relates to somewhere around 2000-2008. I'll update this post once I know more conclusively. At any rate, this guitar was brought in for consignment and aside from one light scratch on the back near the preamp's battery compartment and some light tarnish on the coverplate and tailpiece, the guitar is essentially brand-new and has its original hard case and company stickers still with it.

It's a well-made, high-quality guitar and it feels like one in the lap. The neck is figured maple with a rosewood board and "diamond" inlay. The finish is an evenly-shot satin sunburst and looks great on the solid mahogany body with its flamed-maple top-cap. My only work on it was to clean it up, compensate the saddle, replace the 9V preamp batteries, and set it up. It's set-up for normal-style playing with low, fast action that's a hair-under 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret. The strings are 49w-11 nickel-wounds with a wound-G to suit the acoustic and piezo sound, though 54w-12 might offer more of a familiar acoustic attack. I also set it up so that this action is achieved via a very small shim that's in the neck pocket. If you remove the neck, remove the shim, and tighten it back up, the action rises to a hair-over 3/32" overall which would suit a more slide-centric player.

Specs-wise, it's like other Resolectrics I've tried with a 25 3/4" scale, 1 3/4" nut width over a mild-medium-sized D-shaped profile, 1 9/16" string spacing at the nut and 2 1/4" spacing at the bridge. The body is 13 1/4" on the lower bout.

The handsome details are what make the vibe of the guitar so decadently retro -- the plastic bits on the body are all "ivoroid" so they have faint graining and a creamy look to them. The headstock veneer has "mother of toilet seat" celluloid-style material in "white/cream" and the deco National logo is in both locations.

This guitar is 100% original and the jumbo-ish frets have no wear on them.

Controls are (from the top) 3-way, magnetic volume, piezo volume, master volume. I find it plays most-balanced with the piezo turned down just a little bit.

Here's that original hard case and it's just as clean as the guitar.