Re: National RM1 changes/evolution
My cousin, Don Young, was the co-owner and president of National Reso-phonic. The National guitar company in its original form had ended decades earlier than when Don and M. Gains restarted it and used many of the original designs of the National instruments. Some had patents renewed that had expired. They were actually a new company going by the name National Reso-phonic, rather than National. They started in 1989 with a few prototypes they took to Namm and received orders from sellers and various shops, kicking off the manufacturing and hand-building of this revived Resophonic form of guitar. They built it from the ground up. The mandolin was a new design Don’s team came up with not long before the year of Pheffernan’s 2005 was made. When Don became Ill about 7 years ago, and subsequently passed away in his early sixties, several changes in design began to occur. The quality of their instruments does not seem to have changed, though the tone woods, various models and varieties of instruments went through an evolution. Don was overseeing the operation when the wood body Resophonic mandolins were added to the product line. Their two options included a more ornate version and a simpler edition. There were those with walnut backs and sides and another version had flamed maple throughout. Both Walnut and maple were used on the more ornate version. In Don’s time, and I watched him do so, he played and inspected every instrument as it left the shop to be sold. He was a remarkable musician— playing Hawaiian slide, acoustic flattop, fiddle, banjo and mandolin, not to mention his great singing voice. Gains was the design engineer, while Don the luthier and musician. His untimely retirement and death could very well have instigated numerous changes in their models and varieties. Prior to the recent mid-teens, the RM mandolins were consistently in two iterations. This is what I know and I am proud to say that Don Young and his partner Gains were responsible for the revival of the Resophonic instrument. Now they are being manufactured by a number of companies. Without Don, who polished his skills at Dobro when they were in our hometown of Long Beach, CA, the popularity of these metal cone-amplified instruments would not have occurred. Don and Gains moved up to San Luis Obispo, CA to start their new company, which took courage and vision. These mandolins, crafted under Donald L Young’s artistic leadership are a meticulously and wonderfully built instrument. I hope this information helps.
I started on the guitar my dad handed me in 1962, and have continued as a guitarist all my life. In 1982 my wife’s family passed down an old teens Gibson A4. It only took me 40 years to learn to play mandolin in 2013. Now I can’t stop trying to get better. — lflngpicker
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Originally Posted by musicofanatic
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