Barth electric 6-string

[Veenture]

Wow, a sight you'll never get to see in Holland What a nice pic of the bear family.

[Deke Dickerson]

In case anybody is interested, I took the "Green Goblin" guitar apart today in an attempt to learn more about it. Make no bones about it, this is one of the wackiest things I've ever seen in all respects.

It's routed out from the back like a Les Paul or Gretsch, but it shows signs of having a plate over the cavities (screw holes that aren't used anymore) so I'm now convinced that the Green customization was done after the factory. Also, the guitar appears to have been painted RED before it was GREEN. Last odd thing, I thought for sure it was a bolt on neck, but after taking the plate off the back, it appears to be glued in.



The pots are completely confusing. They are labeled IRC and best I can figure out they date to 1956 or 1966. Since National wasn't making any of their zero fret guitars by '56 I'm going to say the latter.

If any of you guitar geniuses can decipher this pot code, here goes: IRC PQ13-130 0 .25MEG C 630 Go to the pot dating websites and check it out, it doesn't conform to anything. The pots are actually labeled IRC, but IRC pots are supposed to have the manufacturer code of 615 on them. Either the 630 or the 130 are the date code, so if it's the former it's either '56 or '66, if it's the latter it's '61. Totally confusing. You may not be able to see the numbers on this photo, but it's the best photo I could take.



The vibrato is really interesting too. It's a handmade device that appears to have had a spring loaded in it under the surface of the wood at some point, but it's been "disabled" (yes, I'm looking for a suitable spring and a whammy bar as we speak).




The pickups are also a total mystery. They are encased in two halves of a vac-u-form plastic seal. Somebody really went to some trouble to make these!! Note that the "Metal" on the top of the pickup is just silver paint on the sealed plastic cover. There's no way to seperate the plastic cover without destroying the pickup, so this is as much as we can see:




This guitar is a total mystery to me. There are most certainly elements of actual National guitars from the early 60's, and also some Paul Barth elements. If anybody recognizes any of the various parts let me know....

Deke

[Veenture]

Deke, excellent photo's. A mystery guitar for sure and a lot of fun. I'm wondering if the jewelly type of ornamentations have been applied to hide something maybe...like abandoned screw holes (for 1st. pickguard?) or even damage?

[handbrake]

I was talking today to the luthier with the Barth in his shop. I thought to ask him about a pot code. 137914. Dates it to 1959, I guess.

[dubtrub]

I was talking today to the luthier with the Barth in his shop. I thought to ask him about a pot code. 137914. Dates it to 1959, I guess.

If anybody is interested, here's a link to a Pot Code Reader. Just type in the numbers for manufacturer and date manufactured.

[TerryTNM]

[quote="Deke Dickerson"]

Semie kept in touch with Paul Barth through the years. Terry McArthur told me that when he was making the necks for the 1959 TNM Custom doubleneck, he and Semie went down to Paul Barth's to get the truss rods put in. Am I getting that story right, Terry?

Hey Deke,
I don't know if this really needs a comment, but to be historically accurate: It was Ernie and I that made a trip to Paul Barth's home for the truss rod. Semie had made the arrangements for us however.

-Terry