1930s Regal-made Norwood Chimes Dobro Resonator Guitar

Update 2023: my friend Wayne, who I worked on this for, brought this back into the shop after it had to seed in the wild of his home for the last 4 years. It arrived back here only needing a change of strings and playing just as well as when it left. I've taken some new photos, did a new video, and have added a few more specs to the listing.

The Wards-sold "Norwood Chimes" resonator guitar is a fairly rare bird. It has a Regal-made body and neck but sports a genuine Dobro cone, spider bridge, and super-deco coverplate with engraving. With a small-jumbo body shape and pearloid headstock, it's the spitting-image of mid-'30s cool.

This one is a customer's instrument and it's seen much abuse over its life. Some injustices include a total refinish to natural (it's not a great job, either, but it looks workmanly), not-super-clean seam and binding repairs, and a "neck reset" that involved hacking-off the dovetail and double-bolting the neck. The neck also had over 1/32" warp down its length and the fretboard was beginning to get troubled with hairline cracks and chip-outs (it being the usual ebonized maple that deteriorates). 

After rectifying repair-wrongs, this guitar has a bright, nasal, metallic quality to it that's a little more punch and outward zip compared to the usual Dobro smoothness and honk. It makes a nice trad-jazz chord-chopper in a pinch and I actually think it's almost more-suited to the role of replacing an archtop in an ensemble than it is to straight-up country-blues -- though it's got an airy sound to it that really brings-out fingerpicked playing.

Repairs included: resetting the neck to a proper angle, adding two more screws/bolts to the joint, and gluing the joint as well. The cone and soundwell was fine, so my only work there was to make new, compensated saddles from ebony. I addressed neck warp by removing the frets, planing the board, and refretting. I had to fuss a lot over the deteriorating fretboard extension and because of that, it wears a mixed set of frets -- jumbo up to the 14th and medium after that. I had to do other minor cosmetic jobs, too. After work the neck is straight and it plays bang-on. It's remained perfectly stable in service for years, too, which is nice to see!

Weight: 5 lbs 9 oz

Scale length: 25 3/8"

Nut width: 1 13/16"

Neck shape: big V

Board radius: 20"

Body width: 15 7/8"

Body depth: 3 3/8"

Top wood: spruce

Back & sides wood: birch

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: spider cone/bridge

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights

Truss rod: non-adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: jumbo

Condition notes: it's refinished, has mucked-up binding with many splits here and there and a "pinched" section of binding at the tailpiece, non-original (but '50s-era) tuners, non-original endpin, and has otherwise original hardware. There's wear and tear throughout and I've added three extra position dots at the fretboard extension.

It comes with: a nice hard case.

Consignor tag: CG3