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At Long Last - My Regal is Home


zombywoof

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Made the two hour trip last Monday into the Middle of Nowhere Missouri to fetch it. Been waiting almost five months to get this puppy back in my arms again. If you will recall, this is the 1940s Regal 12 that was found sticking out of a trash can. Had a laundry list of repairs that were needed to bring it back from the dead. Probably plays better now than it did the day it rolled out of the factory in Chicago.

 

First song I played - what else, Leadbelly's "Gallis Pole." Three thoughts immediately jumped into my head. First, that remains one of the hardest songs to play. Second, I hate tuning 12 strings. Third, this guitar has the biggest, the fattest, the thickest neck I have ever run across. I mean I cannot wrap my hand around it. And I have gorilla fingers.

 

Sound, hard to tell as it is toting the new extra lights the repair guy strung it with. Even with those wimpy strings, the lower end is really nice. But the upper end tends to shimmer out so I need to find a way to calm the beast down a bit. But this guitar does ring out. You can have a cup of coffee and a cigarette waiting for the chord to fade away. Thinking of going old school and string it with 13s with a doubled up G string instead of the octave string and tune down to C or B. I guess I could try silk and steels but I have never really cottoned to them on a six string. Problem is no matter what I come up with, I will have to restring the thing, a thought which is accompanied by a cetain amount of dread.

 

And there is a Gibson connection to the story. The repair guy has a Gibson L-3 hanging on the wall. Been hanging there for years, so I finally asked him what was the story on it. We talked and shook hands and it looks like I will be bringing it home when I go up to pick up my wife's J-200 which we dropped off to get a cracked repaired.

 

Anway, here be the Regal.

 

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Zomby….first off, Congrats!! That is an amazing guitar and an amazing dumpster find as I recall!!! LOL…..Did you get a neck reset and refret? That is a VERY interesting pin less bridge/saddle layout. Can you explain how it works and maybe show a close up? Didn't those Regals have hang tags on them when new advising not to tune up to pitch??? If you contact Neil Harpe, he may have some repro hang tags for you! In the mean time here is a 12 string summit video to get you inspired!!

 

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Nice rescue on the Regal. What do you mean your wife's J-200 has a crack????

 

 

She owns a 1960 J-200. It has a crack in the top. I also asked the repair guy to remove the second pickguard that was put on the guitar at sometime in its previous life. Whether it stays off or goes back on depends on what he finds undeneath it.

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Zomby….first off, Congrats!! That is an amazing guitar and an amazing dumpster find as I recall!!! LOL…..Did you get a neck reset and refret? That is a VERY interesting pin less bridge/saddle layout. Can you explain how it works and maybe show a close up? Didn't those Regals have hang tags on them when new advising not to tune up to pitch??? If you contact Neil Harpe, he may have some repro hang tags for you! In the mean time here is a 12 string summit video to get you inspired!!

 

 

 

Had the neck reset but it did not need a refret. Other than that and the bridge plate replacement, there were a couple of loose braces taken care of, the bridge was reset, the fret wire saddle replaced with a bone one, and one missing tuning post and some ferrules replaced. That wrap around bridge is pretty funky. You just run the strings though the soundhole side, come out the back and then wrap them over the top of the bridge on their way to the headstock. Kay used a similar bridge on some of their guitars such as the J-200-like Jumbos in the 1940s and 1950s. I will take some pics when I get a chance.

 

Neil knows about this Regal and very kindly got me a scan of the guitar in the 1940 catalog. Not sure if Regal provided ample warning about the wisdom of tuning down but Harmony did advise not tuning to standard pitch but 3 or 4 half tones lower with the Stella 12s.

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That wrap around bridge is pretty funky. You just run the strings though the soundhole side, come out the back and then wrap them over the top of the bridge on their way to the headstock. Kay used a similar bridge on some of their guitars such as the J-200-like Jumbos in the 1940s and 1950s. I will take some pics when I get a chance.

 

 

 

"Funky" ain't the half of it. From an engineering perspective, that bridge design doesn't make a lot of sense. Routing a string through the bridge from the forward side, then turning it 180 degrees over the top of the bridge towards the headstock, actually doubles the string load on the bridge, which is already high on a 12. I'm amazed the bridge on a 12-string could even stay on with that arrangement.

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"Funky" ain't the half of it. From an engineering perspective, that bridge design doesn't make a lot of sense. Routing a string through the bridge from the forward side, then turning it 180 degrees over the top of the bridge towards the headstock, actually doubles the string load on the bridge, which is already high on a 12. I'm amazed the bridge on a 12-string could even stay on with that arrangement.

Might be able to put a tailpiece on that setup, and have the strings just put downward pressure on the top??

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"Funky" ain't the half of it. From an engineering perspective, that bridge design doesn't make a lot of sense. Routing a string through the bridge from the forward side, then turning it 180 degrees over the top of the bridge towards the headstock, actually doubles the string load on the bridge, which is already high on a 12. I'm amazed the bridge on a 12-string could even stay on with that arrangement.

 

 

There is a reason so few of these guitars seem to have survived. Regal did make a lower end model (with a birch instead of mahogany body) which had the trapeze tailpiece. I do not think these wrap around bridge versions were produced very long as by 1947 this model was also being made with the trapeze tailpiece.

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There is a reason so few of these guitars seem to have survived. Regal did make a lower end model (with a birch instead of mahogany body) which had the trapeze tailpiece. I do not think these wrap around bridge versions were produced very long as by 1947 this model was also being made with the trapeze tailpiece.

 

 

I would be interested to see what those original hang tags said about string gauge and tuning. Of course, the string load is almost in pure shear, so with a lot of gluing surface, you could in theory make this setup work. The fact that it has survived for 68 years speaks well of the construction. Your new bridgeplate could help as well, as the maple is pretty stiff, which should tame the tendency of the top to distort around the bridge.

 

Frankly, I'm amazed at how well good-quality guitars hold together over the years. Speaks volumes for the builders.

 

That is one seriously cool guitar, any way you look at it.

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The Cool Factor on this guitar is definitely through the roof.

 

As I said, the decision to replace the spruce bridge plate with a solid maple one was made purely to help the guitar survive. This guitar though has a lot of top bracing - basically a Double X (shades of Norlin Gibson).

 

Again, do not know about warnings. There is nothing in any of the 1940s catalogs advising using light guage strings or tuning way down. They do tout the three piece neck though as being "warp proof." The neck was actually fine in that regard. Unfortunately they say nothing about the construction fo the neck maintaining the proper angle.

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Wow, You've found my nightmare guitar! Ha ha. My small hands and lack of gorilla fingers would turn that beautiful guitar into a showpiece. Sure, why not .13s? You're obviously a fan of guitar wrestling!

 

Seriously, though, I'm glad you found a guitar that excites you and I love the story of it and the fact that warriors such as yourself are out there to show the rest of us how it's done.

 

 

Best of luck!

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Congratulations.

 

 

 

Wow, that neck is a beast of a thing!!!!!

 

 

 

If there are strings with longer life than Elixirs, here would be the chance to try them! I have seen that kind of bridge on something else recently, don't recall what?

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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I've seen them in pictures on some older Lyon & Healy guitars.

 

They refer to them as a Durkee or Hansen designed bridge.

 

 

The bridge does kinda look like the love child of the two. It is a 'smile' bridge but one designed more like the older metal wrap around pyramid bridges. Just a strange choice for a 12 string. Thing is though, there was no more bellying on the guitar that you would normally expect to find. The decision to go with a maple bridge plate was more a precaution than anything else.

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