Republic Tricone Resonator Prototype
After trying a single cone resonator I decided to get a tricone for the extra sustain and mellowness that I hoped it would give me. I bought it in January 2007 from someone in Queensland Australia.
These Republic guitars are made in China but the company is based in Texas. The headstock on this one was discontinued after a very short time as customers didn't like it. To me it looked like they stuck a classical guitar neck on, and cut out a hole in an attempt to disguise it. The neck felt like a classical guitar too - very widely spaced strings, and a flat fingerboard with no taper.
I wrote to the company and they told me that this one would have been one of the first 20 ever made - a prototype. This one was so early it didn't even have a logo on it.
The body was nickel plated brass, and there was a pearloid headstock veneer. The neck looked like it was bakelite but was wood of some kind - it was only the paint job that made it look like bakelite. There were also engravings all over the body shown in the photo below.
I later bought a Highlander Magnaphonic Pickup System that cost me a small fortune (US$332) because it was supposed to be the best pickup you could get. I then spent another small fortune (AU$325) to get it fitted by Gilet Guitars in Sydney because I was told they were the resonator experts in Sydney. However it didn't work out well and I was never happy with the electrified sound so it was all a complete waste of money.
In any event, once I tried a National I knew this guitar just wasn't in the same league. You get what you pay for. Like Samuel L Jackson said in Pulp Fiction - '...it ain't the same league, it ain't the same ballpark, hell it ain't even the same fuckin' GAME.' Anyway it was a fifth of the price of my National, and as an entry level tricone it was reasonably good.
I sold it after I bought the National in September 2008 and lost a lot of money because of what I wasted on the pickup.
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