HELP! Old Regal Parlor Guitar Restoration

[Sean_C]

Hi Everyone!!
Im new to the forum and to guitar repairs. My mother in law brought over my father in laws old Regal acoustic guitar and asked if I wanted it, if not, she was going to pitch it. He passed away 20 years ago and I used to play guitars with him so I definitely wanted it. Upon inspection, I realized it was in bad shape and need of some serious repairs. That took me down the YouTube rabbit hole of repairing guitars. After watching literally 100’s of videos, most of which were Jerry Rosa, I decided to tackle it. I have successfully removed the neck, bridge and guitar top. The top had several cracks that extended into the bottom of the sound hole, and a large crack in the guitar top next to the fingerboard. I have successfully glued and clamped these cracks and it turned out great. The top is very solid now. The bridge was cracked in half length wise, and had about 1/4” of bridge left on either side of the saddle, so I will have to make a new bridge. The two braces above and below the sound hole were both cracked as well, so I removed and replaced them. This guitar has a tail piece that holds the strings, and upon sounding the top, it had no tone and sounded like I was tapping on an oak tree. In my pea brain, I thought shaving down the horizontal bracing from 3/4” to 3/8” would be a good idea to reduce some weight off of the top and add some resonance, which it did. I was thinking well, since the string tension is on the tail piece and not pulling up on the bridge, I could afford to do that. Im ready to glue the top back on when it hit me, that even though the tail piece bears the majority of the string tension, that there will be downward tension on the bridge/saddle. There is a continuous bridge plate on the underside of the top that stretches from one side all the way across the top to the other side, and two horizontal braces above and below the bridge plate. when i support the top on each side and exert force down at the bridge location, it takes quiet a bit of force to flex the top. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this. Do I need to reinstall taller bracing, or am I overthinking it? I would hate to put this amount of work into the guitar just to have it not function properly. Thanks in advance for any advice!!!

[redir]

You are not overthinking it. I would suggest making the braces the same as the original.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "upon sounding the top..."

If you mean holding the top in your hand and tapping it then what you want to do there is hold the top on a node, or just dangle it over your finger through the sound hole. It should have a ping with some resonance tone to it. But you won't really know till it's glued on to the body. Once that is done and you tap it you should get a full sounding note.

If you re-brace that to the original size then once it's all glued up you could always reach through the soundhole and shave it down. Obvioulsy you cannot do the opposite!

This of course assuming it's not an F-Hole arch top.

[Sean_C]

Thanks redir! Good point, yes I can reach through the sound hole. You are correct, I was referring to tapping on the top to test resonance. The top had such tall wide bracing that it was like tapping on concrete. I tried to post a photo, but am in the process of figuring out how to do so. There is no diagonal bracing. Three braces run across the width of the guitar below the sound hole and two run above the sound hole, with the bridge plate on the underside of the guitar being 1/4” thick spruce, 1 1/4” wide across the entire width as well.

[redir]

Yeah it's called Ladder Bracing. I actually have an old Regal that is branded as SS Stewart that has ladder bracing. Selmer guitars are also ladder braced and they are braced quite heavily too but they are very loud guitars.

I use deflection testing to get a target top thickness and then use standard Martin/Gibson bracing which so far has done very well for over 100 years as for the history of the American guitar. But there is always room for tweaking. The process of thinning the top is most important. When you have a thick joined top and hold it on a node and tap it you get a distinct pitch followed by a gong like ring that fades away. As you thin the top the pitch goes lower and lower as the sustain gets shorter and shorter. The point at which you want to stop thickening the top is right when that pitch and sustain is squelched. IOW no more ringing note and no more sustain. Any further ant the top is too thin.

The bracing is only installed to make the guitar top strong enough to withstand string tension for many years. When you glue and carve the braces the tapped note and sustain should be brought right back up again. Of course you can over brace it and ruin all the hard work you put in to getting the top thickness right but you could under brace it too. Over bracing at least allows you to make changes. But most of the time using standard bracing patterns and sizes with a bit of experience and intuition and you are good to go.

But I've made Selmer guitars before but not ladder braced flat tops so it could be slightly different though my guess is it's similar enough.

[bisco1]

In my opinion, it sounds as if the top on this Regal is considerably over braced. Here is Michael Hauser's website http://hauverguitars.com Notice on the home page how those old Stellas were braced--only three ladders on these guitars. Putting four or five ladders on these guitars tends to make them less responsive and "boxey" sounding in my experience. I own a '20's May Bell guitar that I believe was made by Regal. It has what I call "Z" bracing on the top. It sports again only three top braces, the first above the sound hole is in the standard position. However, the one beneath the sound hole and the one on the far side of the bridge pad are not perpendicular to the guitar's centerline, but are angled hence the "Z" designation. I'm sure you can find some pictures online of this design. It is quite responsive and has a pleasing sound to my ears--very similar to a '20's Galiano that I once owned. Good luck with your project.
Bill

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Sean_C

Thanks redir! Good point, yes I can reach through the sound hole. You are correct, I was referring to tapping on the top to test resonance. The top had such tall wide bracing that it was like tapping on concrete. I tried to post a photo, but am in the process of figuring out how to do so. There is no diagonal bracing. Three braces run across the width of the guitar below the sound hole and two run above the sound hole, with the bridge plate on the underside of the guitar being 1/4” thick spruce, 1 1/4” wide across the entire width as well.