Three_Eyed_Willy - Posted - 11/27/2020:  00:09:57

I purchased a Republic tricone at the beginning of the pandemic. Over a period of a three or four months, I accumulated the parts I wanted to swap out the cones and the T-bridge with National parts.



The sound is excellent. This was a good instrument in the first place. When I ordered it, I asked the folks at Republic to do the "mushroom mod," which has to do with the placement of some of the innards of the instrument. This shows up in several topics here. I won't go into detail, but trust me, if you have a triclone, you want to do the mushroom mod. It won't cost you anything unless you damage a cone or something.



There were two surprises.

1) The National cones are a tad smaller in diameter than the "Continental" cones that come in the Republic. The edges of the National cones are finished better, and they weigh just a little less than the "Continental" cones.



On the other hand, the National T-bridge weighs about 20 grams more than the Republic T-bridge.



Here are the exact numbers -- Republic -- bridge 44g, cones 30g; National -- bridge 65g, cones 23g. I weighed the cones as sets of three. So each of the Republic cones weighs ca. 10 grams. Each National cone weighs a little less than 8 grams.



There were a few problems I needed to solve. One was making sure I got the slots right on the bridge. I had already purchased some good fret slotting files and a bridge sanding tool that made the process rather simple, although a bit time-consuming.



So here are the results. The guitar appears to have more volume and response than it did before the parts swap. It has nice highs and strong lows. I also added a roller nut to it. It makes the guitar feel similar to my Gretsch, which also has a roller nut. I may add a Doubleshot tailpiece to this instrument sometime in the future.



It has been out of commission for a couple of months now. I had forgotten what a nice instrument it is. Now it's even better.



One other thing. This guitar came with a Schatten T-bridge pickup. The Republic T-bridge has a flat surface at the intersection of the T, which is where you put the pickup. The surface of the National T-bridge is curved. I called Schatten tech support about this. They said that I should make a lightweight filler piece that would fit the curved area on one side and have a flat surface to attach the pickup to on the other. Since I don't actually use the pickup here, I opted to simply attach the pickup to a flat spot inside the guitar. I won't be using it for a while.

Edited by - Three_Eyed_Willy on 11/28/2020 09:57:57

SamCy - Posted - 11/28/2020:  07:57:31

Thanks much for the report. Where are the rollers: at the bridge or at the nut? Do you think the "scallops" in the National T-bridge give it more flex than the Republic T-bridge?

Three_Eyed_Willy - Posted - 11/28/2020:  09:56:25

The rollers are on the nut. I plan to add a doubleshot tailpiece later. I wrote the original post very early in the morning. I have edited the original post to make sure that it reads correctly.



As far as the rigidity of the T-bridge is concerned, the National and the Republic T-bridges seem to be about the same. Cast aluminum in general tends to be very rigid. I think the scallops are to reduce the weight of the T bridge. It could be that the scallops optimize the weight of the bridge.



When you think of the combination of the bridge + the cones, they are actually pretty close. For the Republic, the bridge + the cones weigh 74 grams. The National bridge + cones weigh 88 grams.

Edited by - Three_Eyed_Willy on 11/28/2020 10:02:24

Wildeman - Posted - 12/12/2020:  15:37:11

Cool you finally got around to doing it, glad you like it. Im still gonna keep mine stock most likely, well its mushoom modded and paint stripped off T bar but stock otherwise. Republic/ Aiersi Tricones are a great value, they dont "need" anything imo, but modding is fun and sometimes you do really notice the changes for the better.

Piro39 - Posted - 01/29/2021:  17:32:40

This morning I woke up the sleeping princess. Around 15 years ago I purchased a Johnson tricone around the time that Johnson had retooled and was about to become Recording King. At that time I didn't know much about reso guitars especially how to improve them. Over the years I learned many things thanks to the internet on how to improve my tricone and my other reso guitars and incrementally did improved it. I still was not really satisfied with this guitar and it was very frustrating. I never really bonded with this guitar because it still felt kind of dead. Last week I decided to give it one last try and purchase a set on National cones from Elderly Instruments .Over the years I had read on the internet that replacing the Continental cones which I had assumed were already in there really didn't improve much of anything. So this morning I installed my new National set of cones and I was absolutely blown away by what happened to this guitar, it literately woke up and became a new entity. It became alive with amazing bass tones and mids and highs. It's volume become loud and it sings and has sustain. I can feel it vibrating. I never have experienced such a transformation on a guitar before. The new cones were the missing key. I am thrilled that I followed my instincts to make this last attempt to improve this guitar.

Edited by - Piro39 on 01/29/2021 17:37:23

Three_Eyed_Willy - Posted - 02/23/2021:  23:01:19

Here's an update on the Republic tricone. Although I really like the National cones, I decided to try another set. This time, I got a set of Quarterman cones. The are a little heavier than the Nationals. WOW!!!! I really like the sound of this guitar now. There was one minor problem. The cones have a flat section on the edge that is about 1/16" wide, and this section of the cones actually overlaps slightly.

I called Rob at Quarterman, and told him about it. He said, I could trim this off with a pair of sharp scissors or use some 120 grit emery cloth to gradually take it down. I asked him if it would actually damage anything if I left them on the cones, and just tried it that way, listening for any buzzing or other noise. Amazingly, there is no buzzing or other noise, so I figured, "What the hey!" and decided to leave the cones alone.

So, if you get tired of the Nationals, try the Quartermans. Both are definitely better than the continental cones.