1920s The Vernon (Regal-made) Tiple

When this Regal-made tiple was new, its purfling/trim was bright yellow, red, green and black. Its top was a milky-cream color of fresh spruce, and its back and sides would have been a medium red-brown that showed-off the light figure in the mahogany. Clearly, it's lived a hard life and has UV-faded and aged to its current state.

Work was the usual for an instrument like this and now that it's fixed-up it's playing spot-on and sounding good. I love these instruments for use in a recording space -- nothing else sounds quite like them and they can be played nicely in a whole variety of styles. I like them best with a flatpick for crosspicking and Portuguese-guitar-style picking and whatnot but uke-strummers will find that uke-style bare-finger-strumming will give a good wash of jingle-jangle, woody sound.

So, to sum it up: do I love tiples? Yes I love tiples. Do I have a huge soft spot for Regal tiples? Yes... yes I do!

Repairs included: neck reset, fret level/dress, bridge modification, crack cleats for the top, mild cleaning, new bone nut, new compensated bone saddle, setup, etc.

Weight: 1 lb 12 oz

Scale length: 16 7/8"

Nut width: 1 1/2"

Neck shape: medium-bigger V

Board radius: flat

Body width: 9"

Body depth: 3 1/4"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: ebonized maple

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 10/24w, 17/38w/17, 13/30w/13, 9/9 for GCEA tuning

Truss rod: nope!

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: low/small

Condition notes: ha -- well, it has plenty of wear and tear and discoloration and muck in the finish, especially on the neck and fretboard where it's alligatored. There are two (repaired) hairline cracks in the top in front of the bridge and both are a little "offset" but sturdy. They're old and had old repairs done to them. The tailpiece (a repurposed guitar one) was added a long, long time ago and I love it as I tend to add tails to Regal tiples myself. The "tie block" part of the bridge was hacked-off and we removed a whole bolted-under-the-top metal contraption that looks like it was added to hold the bridge on in ages past. Its primary effect seems to have been to destroy the instrument's sound, though! The side dots are new as are the fully-compensated bone saddle and bone nut. The tuners are original and work alright but won't win any awards.

It comes with: no case, sorry.

Consignor tag: AT6