1930s National Trojan Resonator Guitar

I've worked on a lot of old Trojans and they can often be a bit frustrating as they age. This one, however, was in pretty good order. I gave it a neck reset, level/dress of the frets, and fit a new cone and biscuit for its owner. The neck is, unfortunately, a little bowed-up when it's under tension but most of that is on the treble side. He had me prep it for a jack so a magnetic neck pickup could be fit, too. This one had a cone with strangely-rounded top edges vs crisp ones and I had to finagle the biscuit a bit to keep it from wanting to make the cone sag under tension -- but we got there!

These are loud, punchy guitars and a little more on the "airy" and "woody" side compared to modern-day woodbody Nationals.

Just for fun, now, I'm going to show you the "easy way" to get a coverplate back on after setup for a guitar with a non-removable handrest like one of these...

Capo the strings and detune, first -- then remove the tailpiece.

With the coverplate loosely in position, flip the tailpiece upside-down.

You can now "L-shift" it through the handrest opening...

Next, get the coverplate back in place and put your tailpiece back on the guitar in the correct position. For tailpieces with ball-end "holes" that the string-ends pop out of, you can simply attach a piece of tape over the openings to keep the strings in place.