Behold! The National Bobbie Thomas, a truly wonderful guitar with some history behind it. This was National’s crack at playing with the big boys – flamed wood, real Bigsby, Grover tuners, lovely inlay, and can’t forget those Batman F-holes. It’s not something you’ll see very often, that’s for sure.
Who was Bobbie Thomas you ask? None other than a legendary player on the scene since the 50’s, eventually Wayne Newton’s guitar player, then even later a fugitive for a decade, convicted of mail fraud and sent to jail for stealing $17 million dollars from Merril Lynch (not making that up).
This guitar was made in 1968, the same year that the U.S. sent the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon, Johnny Cash rocked Folsom prison, and Planet of the Apes hit the theaters. But lets get back to the guitar….
