1920s Bruno (Regal) Spruce/Rosewood Flatback Mandolin

Overview: I sold this mandolin to my friend Mike a long time ago and, as it sat for years in storage, its neck joint shifted under tension and it needed some work. I took it back in trade a couple years ago and it sat until Tim took up the banner of mandolin rescue and began work on it. He did a fantastic job on it and it's now an excellent player's instrument with a good, warm, sweet, old-timey/Celtic sound. While this has Bruno branding, one finds this same, Regal-made model under a variety of brands including Washburn, SS Stewart, and others. I've worked on dozens of them so I can confirm that with my own eyes...

Interesting features: The fancy, pearl-inlaid pickguard is, of course, very appealing. It has a replacement rosewood fretboard with modern, medium-stock fretwire (and a zero fret) and Tim set the neck back far enough to get an adjustable bridge on there for easy setup tweaks. It has multi-ply bindings with nice purfling and an engraved tuner plate cover at the back of the headstock. The top is solid spruce and the back and sides are solid Brazilian rosewood.

Repairs included: A lot has been done. The largest repair is that it got a fresh neck reset combined with the installation of a 1/2" dowel that mates the neckblock and endblock inside the instrument. This is something I have been adding to these Regal models for the last 5-8 years "as standard" because the neckblock area on these instruments is underbuilt, yielding "crush-in" at the soundhole and action that creeps. The dowel solves this, improves the tone (as the top is no longer under compression), and makes the instrument very stable. After that, it got new binding for the fretboard (I'd added the board years ago), a new bridge fit, a level/dress of the frets, and setup work. It's playing spot-on and ready to serve, with adjustment room at the bridge available for the future.

• Weight: 1 lb 8 oz
• Scale length: 13 1/8"
• Nut width: 1 1/8"
• Neck shape: medium soft V
• Board radius: flat
• Depth at first fret: 57 /64"
• Depth at seventh fret: 1"
• Body width: 9 3/8"
• Body depth: 2 1/4"
• Top wood: solid spruce
• Back & sides wood: solid rosewood
• Bracing type: ladder
• Bridge: adjustable rosewood
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall adjustable (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 34w-10
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium

Condition notes: The fretboard, bridge, and internal dowel are not original. It's otherwise got its original gear throughout, though the tailpiece cover is missing. It's crack-free save for a couple small ones next to the fretboard extension, though those are repaired and can't be seen, really, as they're under it. The soundhole has a little compression fatigue at its corners but is stable after our repairs. 

It comes with: This has an old hard case.

Consignor tag: JW