1940s Regal "Milord" Dreadnought Guitar (Modded)

Regal made jumbo/dreadnought guitars of this shape and size from the very late '30s into the very early '50s, though they didn't make a whole lot of them. The most famous of them appeared in Grand Ole Opry sessions, though I'm blanking on the players seen with them. A few latter-era Washburn-branded ones even sported double-x-bracing under the hood, but most (like this one, when stock) had ladder-bracing and so sound a bit like a crisp-voiced 1960s Harmony Sovereign H1260.

Mr. Brandon sent this one in some time back and, like a quartet of others collecting dust on the shelves,  it was in for a long-term rebracing job. I don't often have time to complete work like this in my regular schedule of glorified setups and average old-box work, so it's always exciting when one of these jobs is actually finished. Any time I have to take the back off of something work slows to a crawl. Here's what the new braces look like:

I've been toying with various alterations of "Bohmann" double-x-bracing for a while, now, and decided to go a little farther with this one. Mr. Kerry suggested reinforcing the low, square-ish Bohmann-style braces with carbon fiber -- so I did. Those are the black strips you see on one side of each brace.

In addition, I also made the pattern asymmetrical to try to coax a refined tone out of it. I wanted to get a wider patch open on the bass side of the lower bout and a smaller patch open on the treble side. I figured lengthening one of the main braces so it made a slash across the whole top would also stiffen the whole thing up length-wise, too. I didn't taper the braces as much as I did on previous versions of this attack plan, keeping them more in-line with the Bohmann originals.

The bridge plate is simply a spruce patch -- just like on most original Chicago flattops. I used the remains of the original bridge plate/strapping brace to reinforce around the soundhole, too. The thin oak veneer on the lower bout "open patches" is there to keep the top from getting hairline cracks.

I know the work doesn't look beautiful, but I'm a fan of Knutsen/Weissenborn invent-as-you-go bracing -- the big picture is more important to me than the fine sculptural details. Besides, this is not a pre-war Martin we're talking about here. It's going to be a stage-ready street fighter.

True to form, said stage-ready guitar has a Victory soundhole pickup and wiring harness installed and the K&K acoustic pickup at the endpin area got glued-down after I fit the new bridge. The old holes in the soundhole cut for a long-ago soundhole pickup got filled and touched-up, too.

It also had some old repairs done to it in the past -- newer frets and a neck reset and not-so-great replacement bridge were the most recent ones -- but aside from the rebracing job I also fixed the rest, too. Post-repairs it does sound really good -- it has punch, clarity, tons of piano-like sustain, and takes a lot of heavy-handed playing very well. These double-x guitars don't get woofy when driven hard and note-to-note balance all over the fretboard is even and clear. That might be my favorite feature -- it's great to play a guitar where you don't have to constantly think about hitting certain strings harder than others. The carbon fiber reinforcement in the braces seems to have made the top retain stiffness a lot better, too -- usually I expect a top to deflect a bit after stringing-up, but it hasn't budged at all in a few days. I think we win.

The K&K pickup sounds great, as you'd expect. At first I wasn't happy with the Victory magnetic pickup because the output was so low, but after padding it a little so it got closer to the strings I was actually really happy with the sound. It's a bit like an old Danelectro pickup -- clean and midsy-bright, excellent when given some bluesy drive, and with a dramatic drop-off in volume as it gets farther from the strings.

Repairs included: rebrace to double-x pattern, fret level/dress, side dots install, magnetic and piezo pickup installs, new rosewood-like (I forget the species) bridge, new bone saddle, cleaning, and setup.

Made by: Regal

Model: "Milord" jumbo

Made in: Chicago, IL, USA

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: double-x

Bridge: rosewood-like

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany

Tone: crisp, clean, clear, balanced, lots of sustain, good punch

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights (in this case D'Addario Monels)

Neck shape: medium C/D

Board radius: ~12"

Truss rod: non-adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-modern

Scale length: 25 3/8"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

String spacing at nut: 1 9/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"
Body length: 19 1/2"

Body width: 15 5/8"

Body depth: 4 7/8"

Weight: 4 lb 5 oz

Condition notes: replacement top bracing, replacement (StewMac repro) tuners, replacement bridge+saddle+pins, non-original soundhole pickup and wiring harness, replacement frets, replacement nut. There's a big ding on the treble side of the top near the knobs that's been there for ages, it looks like. There's a repaired hairline crack (longer) on one of the sides and general usewear and light scratching throughout. The back has some minor hairline cracking/finish muck here and there. At a glance, though, and aside from the magnetic pickup, it looks original. My new replacement bridge has a color that matches the milky "Regal rosewood" of the '40s in the fretboard and I cut it in a similar shape to the Regal bridges I have in my parts-stash.