1930s Regal-made MayBell No. 25 000-Size Flattop Guitar

Update 2019: The owner of this guitar is forced to sell, so I've updated the blog post where necessary and added new pictures and a fresh soundclip.

This same, Regal-made guitar was found under a variety of names in the '30s, but it's most-often seen with Slingerland's MayBell branding (where it was known as model #25 per old catalogs). I've worked on MayBells like this with both x-bracing and ladder-bracing, but of the four I've encountered personally, only one was x-braced and the rest were ladder-braced like this guitar.

These are good-sounding boxes that sound great with a flatpick or fingerpicked and, in typical Regal fashion, they're featherweight. The body is solid mahogany throughout (with a mahogany top, too). It has a 14-fret neck joint and a shorter scale and its lightly-sunburst/shaded finish gives it a look reminiscent of Martin's mahogany-top guitars of the time with a little twist. 

This one came in via a consignor and it was in pretty decent order (save one tiny old-repaired hairline crack to the bass side of the fretboard extension and three replacement frets) when it came in, but it did need some love.

Work included: a fret level/dress, neck reset, light bridge shave and new drop-in saddle-slot cut/location, a new compensated bone saddle, fill of the pinholes and relocation of them farther aft, general cleaning, and a good setup. It's wearing 50w, 38w, 28w, 20w, 16, 12 gauges and plays on-the-dot with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. The neck is straight and the guitar is original save my alterations to the bridge and the bridge pins (which are rosewood replacements)

Scale length: 24 15/16"
Nut width: 1 3/4"
String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"
String spacing at saddle: 2 5/16"

Body length: 18 7/8"
Lower bout width: 15 3/8"
Upper bout width: 11 1/4"

Side depth at endpin: 4 1/4"

Top wood: solid mahogany
Back/sides wood: solid mahogany
Neck wood: poplar
Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck shape: 12" radius board, medium-big C-shaped rear profile

Bridge: ebonized maple, modified original

Nut: new bone

Saddle: new bone

Condition notes: it's mostly original but is missing the archtop-style original pickguard, has a modified bridge, replacement pins, saddle, and nut, and mild use-wear throughout. The fretboard extension over the body is a little cracked-up and dips down a bit.

While very plain, this truly is a great-sounding box. It has that "mahogany top" mids-centric thing going on, but with a creamy high-end and full-but-clean low-end. I love the way this flatpicks -- which is something I can't say about all (or even most?) ladder-braced guitars -- and it has a good, old-timey voicing when you dig-in.

While the first three frets are later replacements, the rest are the original, small, thin stock. Note that I added side-dots while I was working on it.

I cut the saddle-slot deep so the saddle could be easily-adjusted via shims and I also added string ramps behind the saddle to keep the back-angle good all the time.

Thought I had to sand the top of the bridge, I finished it similar to the original look (a little less glossy, though), and distressed it a little to simulate age and wear.

It comes with a new, fancy, plush, arched-top hard case that fits it nicely.