1940s Recording King (Regal-made) Hollowbody Electric Guitar

The tuner plates suggest this Regal-made Recording King was built right around 1941 and the original tuners (not on the guitar -- I have '50s parts-bin tuners on this at the moment) corroborate that.

I worked on one of these ages ago but the original pickup was fried in that one. I was super, super happy to find this one intact and functional after replacing the wiring harness. The old pots were completely seized and dead on arrival. It's interesting because this is built like a mid-high grade Regal archtop but a hole was cut in the top, a "box" inserted, soundposts added, and one of their big, cast-housing, lap steel pickups was fit. This introduces some structural wonkiness but once they're modified a little with some extra posts, the top stays nice and stable.

Work included a neck reset, fret level/dress, new wiring harness with ground to the tailpiece, modification of the bridge (I replaced the fret saddle with a bone, 3-wound, 3-plain compensated saddle), general tidying, and setup work. It's currently strung with a regular set of electric 10s (46w-10 with an unwound G) and it's sounding and playing slick and easy despite its ginormous neck.

I worked on this for Collar City Guitars and I have a feeling they'll have it listed soonish.

Here's a pic of the insides -- the old wiring harness (pots and cap) are to the right while the new wiring harness is installed.