National Club Combo 1953

The 17-inch body is completely hollow, without a cutaway, with a spruce top and laminated maple back and sides. In the past, an extra pickup was placed in the middle and later removed; this has been repaired. A P-90 dog-ear pickup has now been placed in that spot, which matches well and nicely covers the previous modification. Of course, you can still see traces of the previous pickup.

The “Stylist” neck is made of maple with a bound rosewood fingerboard and mother-of-pearl block inlays. We had the guitar professionally refretted, and it plays incredibly well. The stylist neck makes adjustment easy. The headstock features the famous National logo and the original vintage National tuning machines. A truss rod cover has also been added; this was originally installed to camouflage some damage to the headplate. It has no other function, and there are no cracks.

The two original National pickups have been professionally rewound and matched. The electronics feature additional volume and tone controls and brown cupcake knobs. The switch has four positions: position 1 is the neck pickup, position 2 is the middle pickup, position 3 is the bridge pickup, and position 4 is the bridge and neck pickups together.

In short: a true player from the 1950s, a National archtop with a beautiful sound and comfortable playability.

The National comes without a case or gig bag.