1920s Regal Fancy Spruce/Mahogany Tiple

This fancy, solid spruce over solid mahogany, Regal-made tiple is... just like the half dozen or so of this exact same type I've worked-on... save that it arrived here very clean for its age. These are lightly-built, ladder-braced, and sound tremendous -- saucy, loud, and saturated. They're not "creamy" or "elegant" like a Martin tiple, but they do have fire.

This one needed a neck reset, fret level/dress, side dots, bridge reglue, and a new fully-compensated bone saddle install. At the same time I also converted its stringing-style to a tailpiece setup, using the original string-mount holes in the bridge to add down-pressure on the saddle. This is a fashion used on a lot of Latin American and Spanish instruments (like bandurrias and lauds) and it allows the top to move a bit more freely, reduces the "curling" stress around the bridge in the soundboard, and gives the instrument a bit more volume and a slinkier feel. I do this mod to Regal tiples as a given for the most part because they're just better instruments after the fact. This one certainly was!

The tailpiece is a period thing and the cover is sort of hack-jobbed into place as it's not the right type for the tailpiece style but it looks right from the front. This has a scale right around 17" and the neck is a bigger V-shape with a bit of C and the fretboard is flat.

I like how so much of the green/yellow/red purfling has retained its crisp colors over the years.