1930s National Triolian Resonator Mandolin

This is another Mike Brown find and so it wound-up leftified for his use. Per my usual, I also strung it with 36w-10 gauges (lights) but detuned it to EBF#C# rather than GDAE due to the long, almost mandola-like scale length.

Someone had done some decent work on this already -- a neck reset, replacement binding on the bass side of the neck, and fitting of a repro tailpiece. It's quite beat-up, however, and whoever did the previous work hadn't actually dialed it in for spot-on playability, unfortunately.

The cone needed seating, the saddle needed compensation, and the frets needed attention. I also tightened-up all of the fittings inside the box to make its dowel/body fit more rugged. Side dots also got added. Post-work it plays on-the-dot and it has the deep, steely, aggressive sound that you'd expect from one of these (click here to check a post of one of these with a video so you can hear it).