National Val-Pro

[ccswanson]

I have a National Val-Pro guitar that was my grandpa's. Not interested in selling but curious how much it is worth and what year it was made.

Also I would like to know what the six knobs are for and where to get good replacement pickups or to find schematics to fix the existing ones on it.

The serial number is T79046 and I will include a picture.

Thanks for the help!

[VintAxe]

Hey ccswanson.

From what I see your guitar is a Westwood 77 not a Val Pro/Newport.

They look similar but the Westwood has a mahogany body while the Val Pro is made of fiberglass.

The Westwood was produced between 1962-65. Based on the serial number your guitar was built in 1962. The 6 knobs along the top are a volume and tone control for each of the three pickups in the guitar. The two standard looking pickups are single coils and there is also a transducer pickup in the bridge. The single knob at the bottom is a master volume.

If you are not getting signal out of the guitar the most likely problem is dirty pots; I bet your pickups are just fine. You just need to remove the control cavity cover from the back of the guitar and spray contact cleaner (De Oxit) into all the pots and switches of the guitar. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, a local guitar shop will likely do this for you at a reasonable cost.

I don't think the tremelo tailpiece is original to your guitar. I have never seen this type of trem on a National before. It is possible that a tremelo option was offered on early Westwoods and I have just never seen one before. It is also likely someone simply removed the original tailpiece and installed the trem. What does the lettering on the tailpiece say?

Here is a picture of a Westwood with the original tailpiece. This is a guitar that has sold and from the ad it appears the guy was asking $1,280 for it. Looks like it actually sold on eBay so who knows what he actually sold it for but it's at least a ballpark figure for you.

[ccswanson]

The tremelo bridge says Maestro Vibrola on it.

It looks as though someone either did a good job changing the bridge or it was an option.

If anyone else has any ideas let me know and I will try cleaning them and see what happens.

Thanks

[Spud1950]

Great guitar! Cosmetically,appears to be in great condition other then needing a good cleaning. I totally agree with VintAxe. It's not unheard of,but pickups rarely just stop working. Assuming that the guitar has sat around for a long time without being used, it's very common for corrosion to build up in the pots,switches and output jack contacts,any one of which would prevent the pickup signal from reaching the amp. Replacing the pickups would be the last thing you would want to do. That would really devalue the instrument. Even if they actually didn't work, it's way better to have the originals rewound by an expert such as Jason Lollar or Lindy Fralin and thereby keeping them as original as possible. The pickups can be tested with a multimeter to see if they are working by taking a K ohms resistance reading on them. If you have no luck in getting it working,it would definitely be worth it to have a qualified guitar tech have a look at it.

[johnnyb]

sweet guitar. if you do put in some replacements, keep the old ones wrapped up in the case. dont loose them. that looks like it would clean up real nice. i doubt there are any major problems. pull it open and check out the electronics. or pay someone. either way try not to change it. most likley its a broken solder or a switch or something.

[ccswanson]

Thank you guys for the prompt and instructional responses they have been very helpful.

I was wondering if anyone knew more about the bridge on this guitar. From what I can find this model was made from around 62-65 with a different bridge but parts were assembled in around 68 for a bankruptcy sale and sold. Some of the parts came from Italian manufacturers...this is what why I assume that the bridge is original to the guitar because of its name.

I would like to know if this makes it worth more or less and I mostly just think its cool to learn all of the history that is packed into this instrument.

Also when checking the resistance produced by the pickups what ohm readings am I looking for? I have a background in electronics and am pretty familiar with some aspects.

Thanks Again

[Spud1950]

I'm pretty sure the tremolo unit is not original. There's lots of pictures of this model on the net and I'm not seeing any with other then the same tailpiece like the one in the link that VintAxe provided. An alteration like that would knock some value off the guitar,but how much is hard to say.Really depends on how fussy a perspective buyer would be about it not being all original. As to the pickups, here's the basic method of testing them.You want to measure them for K ohms resistance.Set the meter dial to "20 K". Each probe goes to one of the pickup lead wires. If they're working, you will get a K ohms resistance reading.Exactly how much is hard to say as different types and brands of pickups can have different amounts of windings on the coil, so readings will vary. The important thing is that if the coil is dead,you will get a zero reading. Anyway,give it a try and post your results.