1930s Regal-built "Kleartone" Tenor Guitar

June 13, 2010

1930s Regal-built "Kleartone" Tenor Guitar

Update 2019: I bought this guitar back from its buyer/owner after 9 years and have just gone through it and fixed it up again. I've completely updated this blog post with new pictures, a video clip, and description.

This guitar is rare as heck. There are so few x-braced Regals that have survived "in the wild." This one is 00-size and about the same dimensions as a Gibson-made Kalamazoo KG-11. I sometimes see this same body shape used on other Regal tenors, but most of them are ladder-braced. It's the Regal "squashed 00" shape that's somewhere between the curves of a Martin 0-18T tenor guitar and said KG-11.

It was really good to hear that this guitar was played a lot by its interim owner, because I remember at the thinking that it's a really, really good instrument for the period it was built in -- in this case the mid-'30s. Usually only Martins and Gibsons of the time sound as good as this guy. This has a Gibson L-00-ish tone to it, but it's more "open" and has that odd mix of Regal's airy/woody voicing. Nothing else quite sounds like them.

At any rate, while the guitar played alright when it came back in, I definitely wanted to upgrade it and address all the little details I lacked the skill to address back when I first worked on it. I'd already done a neck reset and installed a bridge "back in the day," but I wanted to make it whole and iron-out all the small kinks.

Work included: a fret level/dress, side dots install, resculpt of the bridge and recut of the saddle slot to a drop-in one, new bone saddle and new bone nut, cleats and fill/seal jobs to two longer hairline cracks on the back, cleaning, new 4:1 geared banjo-style pegs install at the headstock (this originally had banjo-style friction pegs), "new" 1930s parts-bin Regal celluloid pins for the bridge, replacement binding at the soundhole and in two spots on the back binding, and a good setup. Everything's buttoned-up and humming, now. Action is bang-on fast at 3/32" G and 1/16" DAE at the 12th fret -- I have it tuned "Celtic" style GDAE in gauges 42w, 30w, 18w, 12 -- and the neck is straight at tension. It would sound good in CGDA or DGBE tunings, too, and I could restring and set it up for those if desired.

Scale length: 23"

Nut width: 1 5/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/16"

String spacing at bridge: 1 3/8"

Body length: 17 3/4"

Lower bout width: 14 1/8"

Waist width: 8 3/8""

Upper bout width: 9 1/2"

Side depth at endpin: 3 3/4"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid birch

Neck wood: poplar

Bracing type: x-braced with one tonebar, maple bridge plate

Fretboard: ebonized maple with lots of surface wear to its finish (but not divots)

Bridge: ebony, bone saddle

Neck feel: medium C-shape, flat board

Condition notes: one repaired hairline crack next to the pickguard on the top, three repaired hairline cracks on the back (two long, one short), repaired binding at the soundhole and two small spots on the back, replacement tuners, replacement bridge, replacement nut and saddle, non-original pearl dots in the board, but -- otherwise all-original, with medium wear-and-tear to the finish. The bridge plate was glued a little too far back at the factory but the pinholes have been filled/redrilled to keep them tidy and the top happy. The small sunburst looks great and the "life" in evidence on the guitar looks grand.

It comes with: an almost-new Golden Gate hard case that fits it perfectly.

I mistakenly kept-on with the 9th-fret inlay position when I put my pearl dots in back in 2010. Oh well!

The replacement bridge isn't perfectly rectangular but it shaped-up nicely after cleaning it up this time around.

The new 4:1 geared banjo tuners have old, '50s buttons on them to maintain the look. They're gold-plated but that sort-of fits with the brass frets and the "Deluxe" theme.