c. 1940 National Sonora Archtop Acoustic Electric Guitar

The National Sonora is an extremely rare early archtop electric guitar with features that are far ahead of its time. It is likely the first archtop guitar with two pickups- In the neck position is a blade style pickup which sounds very similar to the Gibson ES-150 “Charlie Christian”. In the bridge position, is a hum cancelling pickup that predates the Gibson PAF by 15 years! The main difference is that it's wired in parallel rather than in series. It has a master volume knob and a blend control so you can dial in the perfect balance. The body was manufactured by Regal and features a solid carved spruce top and solid flamed maple back. The neck is mahogany with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard. The profile of the neck is surprisingly modern feeling and fairly slim. It plays perfectly with very low action and no buzzing up the neck. The original amphenol jack mounted on the bass side of the guitar is still present and works well. The original cable is not working but will be included with the sale. We will also include an adapter so that a regular 1/4” cable can be used. It comes complete with the original tweed hardshell case. This was National's top of the line electric guitar at the time costing $175 plus $25 for the case. To put that in perspective, a Gibson ES-150 was $85.25 and the ES-250 was $150 in 1940. Overall this is a very rare, unusual, and functional piece of history with a great palette of early electric tones.