The weirdest thing in 2019 to me was the absence on the iconic National on R&J. That sounded really strange.
The brass section can be cool if well used.
Mark turning into classic 'stax sound' blended with his inimitable touch could have been an enjoyable move.
The beard resonator just didn’t cut it. He might as well have played it on a normal wooden acoustic tuned to open G.
I think the old reliable National is just too heavy for Mark's back. The thingh weighs like an aeroplane! Around 8 lbs. or 4 kilos or more, it's a beast. And on the new guitar they seem to have a pretty generic and not a sophisticated undersaddle pickup which really sounds like a regular acoustic guitar. I think in the old one the pickup was installed right in the cone itself. But either way, this change was lame and I can't agree more.
Gibson Les Paul is also very heavy, and he used it a lot.
The problem with the National wasn't the weight, but protecting such an old guitar from further damage on the road.
I think he might had used the Beltona or the National replica instead of the Beard, that didn't sound right for Romeo nor for TR, but he thought it fit, so he used it.
