1960s Regal 235 (Harmony H1260) Jumbo Guitar

I really like the way the Regal-branded versions of the Harmony H1260 (like this one) look. Their "smile" bridge shape and thick headstock veneer with its unusual truss cover give it a different overall vibe. I'd recently worked on one that was in pretty good shape but this one is the opposite -- it arrived as a bit of a basket-case but is now a happy camper. While there's no date-stamp on this one, it dates from around the mid-'60s -- 1964 or 1965 is my guess.

These are big-bodied, full-sounding instruments and their lighter ladder-bracing and solid spruce tops give them an airy, woody, open sound and good sustain. A lot of players that favor Gibson J-45s can move right over into one of these because the response is similar, if not the tone, exactly. They sound lovely in open tunings.

This one came with a badly-done neck reset job (they'd cut the dovetail flat... ergh! ...and then half-heartedly bolted it), a split bridge, falling-off pickguard, replacement (horrid) tuners, and an extra pickguard on top. The treble-waist-side of the body has an old longer hairline crack repair, too, though it's stable.

Repairs included: a neck reset (two bolts over/under plus an epoxied glue job to mate it back to the dovetail), new rosewood bridge in the same shape as the original, fret level/dress, new Gotoh Kluson-style tuners at the headstock, pickguard reglue, new ebony pins at the bridge and endpin, and a new bone saddle.

Setup notes: it plays bang-on at 3/32" bass and 1/16" treble action height at the 12th fret. The neck has a hair of backbow when detuned but is straight when tuned to pitch with normal 54w-12 light gauges. The truss rod works. The neck angle is a little steeper than I'd like so it has a fairly tall bone saddle, but it was a finicky reset job. At least that gives you a lot of room to adjust as it ages-in to future setup jobs!

Scale length: 25 1/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"

String spacing at bridge: 2 3/8"

Body length: 19 5/8"

Lower bout width: 16"

Side depth at endpin: 4 3/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: ebonized pearwood/maple?

Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: medium/full C/D-shape, ~10-12" board radius

Neck wood: mahogany

Weight: 4 lb 2 oz

Condition notes: where to start? First it has a lot of playwear around the soundhole and the usual nicks, scratches, and finish weather-checking throughout the body. Second, the fretboard extension was a bit mucked-about (it was split in 3 places when it came in) and dips-away from the rest of the fretboard post-reset (and pre-reset, hah hah).  The bridge is replaced, of course. It also has a second, clear, rectangular pickguard that was fit a long time ago. The tuners are new (but far better than what would've been on it, anyhow). There's a longer hairline crack at the treble-waist-side which was gloppily-but-workmanly glued-up in the past. There's also an old repair to a bumped seam/small hairline crack on the back-lower-bout. At the back-treble-waist there's raised-grain/finish cracking and I'm not sure if there's a real hairline crack there or not, but it's over kerfing (and thus de-facto cleated) in any case and no issue.