c.1930 Regal-built B&J Serenader Archtop Tenor Guitar


Don't get any ideas -- you won't see me prying my hands off of this fellow anytime soon! This is a very cool archtop tenor guitar built by Regal for B&J who sold it under their "Serenader" brand, probably early to mid-1930s. It's got a spruce top with mahogany back, sides, and neck, and is bound top, back, and soundhole.

The hardware is all-original save some holly feet I stuck under the bridge feet and a replacement (but period) tuner button. I did quite a bit of work on this as it had been "repaired" before... which meant I had to reglue most of the back seams, which had some epoxy-loving damage, reset the neck, and reglue a bunch of braces.


Bone nut.


I love the Serenader decal... a minstrel playing to a lady up in a tower.


MOP dots.


This guitar has a deep body and a 13 1/4" lower bout, with truncated upper bout. It's like an archtop 0-18T with a sunburst top, essentially. You can see this same body form sold under the Washburn brand for 6-strings in the early 1930s, when Regal was building instruments to be sold under the name.




The one black button is from my parts bin... the original was crumbling. These are typical period Grover Champion pegs.


A nice slab of mahogany!


Soundhole label.
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Comments

The Eye of T.A. said…
Hi- i have a beautiful, though not as lovingly restored as this beauty you have featured here, flattop Serenader tenor, which i bought on ebay about 4 years ago. The only major issue it has is that instead of one of the four original (?) tuners which I suppose would be Grovers, it has what is probably an oud peg. I would like to get something as close to the original Grovers while I am in the US for the next couple of days.. Any idea where I could obtain them here - either here in NYC or by mail?
Thanks!
I
October 13, 2011 at 1:52 AM
Antebellum Instruments said…
Grover still makes these identical Champion peg sets, so you could probably order a new set from somewhere like Elderly Instruments. Cost is probably about $25 for 4. I have various parts, but probably not a whole functional peg of the same type for you.
October 13, 2011 at 11:18 PM
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