National 1140 1952 - Sunburst

For sale today is a beautiful 1952 National 1140 arch top guitar. This guitar features a laminate maple back and sides and a laminate spruce top. Check out the figuring on the back! These guitars are some of the most interesting arch tops made at this time due to their forward-thinking neck adjustment design. These have a metal plate on their necks that attaches to another in the body. Within this mechanism, you can set your desired neck angle and once locked in, it stays that way. The neck is made from what looks like maple with a rosewood fretboard. This particular model has a Kay made body (previously they were made by Gibson) that was mounted to this neck in the factory by National. They outsourced for all the bodies for these.

This guitar has seen some years of playing and it has the look and sound to show for it. The tone from this guitar is absolute butter with an emphasis on the lows & mids. The finish is well worn on the neck and the body has little visual imperfections. The guitar was re-fretted recently and now the guitar plays true all the way up the neck with nice low action. This one has dings and dents on the body, but no cracks. Having a laminate back & sides, it truly does increase the strength of the wood and has stood the test of time. It has replaced tuners. The previous owner pained the fretboard pink. We removed that paint but some of it has rested in the divots of the rosewood on the fretboard. Please let us know if you have any questions on this fantastic guitar and we will do our best to help. Thank you for looking and have a great day!

We are a brick & mortar retail space in Saint Charles, MO (15 minutes from St. Louis) and serve our customers with sales, repairs, appraisals, and estates of musical instruments, amps, pedals, and more. All of us at Driftwood share a passion for music and instruments, and are here to help with any questions Monday-Friday 10-6, and Saturday 10-5.