1930s MayBell College Pal (Regal-made) Rubber-Bridge Electrified Parlor Guitar

Above: electric clip

Above: acoustic clip

Rubber bridge guitars are everywhere! This is probably the classiest one I've worked-on yet as it arrived pretty clean and looks just as good after conversion as it did before. I say that with full knowledge that I've done the mod to a fair number of cool, stencil-job guitars, though.

This one is an all-solid-birch, Regal-made, College Pal (a MayBell/Slingerland imprint) guitar of the 0-size/parlor variety. It's ladder-braced and lightly-braced at that, with the main brace being an angled "transverse" ladder that opens-up the bass response better than your average parlor from the time.

As a conversion guitar, it sounds great plugged-in through the Strat-style pickup (which is bright enough that you get some good thwacky, snarelike tones without the tone rolled-off) and also with a mic stuck on it for recording acoustic bits. Per my usual style these days, I cut-in around the soundhole to fit the pickup neatly in the body and used "grout float" rubber for the rubber saddle that sits on top of the original bridge.

Wiring-wise, it's a simple volume/tone affair but I've added an Orange Drop cap, Switchcraft jack, and ground to the tailpiece. The knobs are neat Dakaware-style repros that looks perfect mixed with the black of the tuners. I've been using a top-mount jack lately, too, to avoid any "side-break" incidents from stage drops or knocks.

Anyhow, it's ready to go and does both the "folksy rhythm" thing real well and also the sort-of "muted jazz guitar" sound, too.

Repairs included: hidden neck bolt reinforcement at the neckblock, pickup and harness fitting, rubber bridge fitting, brace repairs (reglued all the back ones a bit), fret level/dress, cleaning, and setup.

Top wood: solid birch

Back & sides wood: solid birch

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: ebonized maple

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: poplar

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 50w, 36w, 26w, 20w, 15, 11 (use wound-G strings)

Neck shape: medium-big C

Board radius: flat

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-low/narrow

Scale length: 24"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

Body width: 13 1/4"

Body depth: 4"

Weight: 3 lbs 8 oz

Condition notes: it's actually rather clean and crack-free and, aside from the mods, original to itself. There are also added strap buttons. There's a mild bit of usewear and handling-wear throughout but overall it looks really nice.

It comes with: its original chip case.