1920's Regal parlor: FULL REBUILD from start to finish, follow along

[vintageparlors]

srick made a suggestion to me on another thread about showcasing a start-to-finish vintage parlor rebuild, starting with an assessment of the as-found condition and ending with a video soundclip of the finished guitar being played. I agreed with him wholeheartedly that it was a good suggestion.

srick was responding to my invitation for playlist ideas for a new YOUTUBE channel I'm putting together for the shop. This channel is to be my way of sharing with others the various tips, tricks and repair techniques that I use on old parlor guitars that might be helpful/useful to anyone working on their own instruments at their own workbench. BUT...such a channel is way more involved than I imagined so rather than wait until the darn thing is launched, let's take on this project now and post it here on the AGF.

The subject I've chosen is a 20's vintage Regal 0-size, 12-fret in ladder braced solid birch. As you can see by the photo it's a real "barn find", which is what I would expect budding repair folks might come across on their old guitar-hunting travels. I'll plan to start next week and will build on this thread with additional posts as reportable progress takes shape.

The next post will breakdown the condition of this guitar as I received it, which will generate a checklist of needed repairs and upgrades that I would make in the course of bringing it back to modern standard for structure and playability. I'll include photos of each topic along the way and share how I would handle any given situation.

Follow this thread as you can and feel free to comment and ask questions along the way. It's the best way to learn and I find it to be the only way things sink in to this stubborn brain of mine.

Thanks again to srick and let the rebuild begin!

[vintageparlors]

Let's look at the condition of the Regal parlor guitar as it stands today. I'll walk you through the process that I take in determining 1) my perspective on its current condition, 2) what work is required to make the guitar structurally sound and playable with modern steel strings, and 3) what work I would add, over and above what it required, to prepare it for posting on the shop's website.

Please keep in mind throughout this "full rebuild" thread that what I will share with you is my opinion and my opinion alone. The tips, techniques and insights that I offer are reflective of my approach to a vintage parlor rebuild and in no way dismisses the fact that other approaches exist or might be different from my approach. So, if you see something that might not reconcile with what you've read, or practice or believe to be true, know that there might be another angle to achieve the same end. Hopefully, we can meet in the middle and learn something along the way.

The Subject: Regal made 0-size, 12-fret in solid birch all around with ladder braced top and back. Softwood linings. Poplar neck. Pear wood fretboard and bridge. Factory applied finish and stencil. Everything that came with the guitar is original to the guitar. The tuning machines were absent when acquired.

Condition: Here are some closeup photos of the 20's Regal parlor in its current state. My notes attempt to follow the order of the photos, from top to bottom and left to right.

Looking at the guitar body, my impression is that this old girl was well played in her day, but also saw a good deal of moisture as well. The moisture was excessive and contributed to failure of the bracing, seams and ultimately, warping of the top and back all around.

The second photo shows how the top and back have separated from the rim. If they hadn't separated then both would have cracked under the pressure of exposure to high moisture conditions. Other than a small hairline to the top near the end block, the guitar is crack free, which is good news.

The moisture-induced top warping also caused failure of the bridge as well. You can see in the next shot the gaps where the bridge should be glued tight to the top.

Worse still is the warping around the sound hole. There's quite a roller coaster going on at the sound hole. This will take a bit of effort to correct but more on that later.

The fretboard shows significant play wear, which exposes the wood underneath the dyed finish. This was very common to early "budget" model parlors where black stain hid the not-so-exotic domestic fretboard wood.

The deep gouges in the back of the neck comes from a serous capo user. If you've ever seen early capo designs then you can imagine the damage such a device might do to modern guitars today.


These are the salient points to the guitar's condition at the start of the process. The next post will get into what I would do, in the form of a checklist and sequence of events, to achieve structural stability and playability based on what we have to work with.

Let me know what questions you have so I can post replies. This will keep the information exchange moving and maybe uncover some things folks might have thought about and now have a chance to learn more about.

[srick]

Thank you Steve! What a nice surprise to see this thread.

So, I do have a question to start. And that is about preserving wear and patina while you make major structural repairs. The Regal is not a Martin and you are likely only going to enhance its value.

There is some nice stenciling on the top, which may, or may not come back to life. So in advance, do you think that you can you restore these wood surfaces (IOW, the top, the neck, the body) to the same level of patina\color, or will you end up re-finishing the whole guitar (maybe with some toner) to get everything to blend in?

Similarly, let's say you need to work on the fretboard. The worn areas of stain look great and I'm sure you don't want to sand them off. But what if you have to in order to make the guitar playable?

I realize that these are all judgment calls that you can only make as you work stepwise through the process. And you have already noted that your primary goal is to make it playable again. I'll be interested to hear your thought process as the re-build takes place.

best,

Rick

[redir]

Cool! Following along.

[vintageparlors]

Originally Posted by srick

Thank you Steve! What a nice surprise to see this thread.

So, I do have a question to start. And that is about preserving wear and patina while you make major structural repairs. The Regal is not a Martin and you are likely only going to enhance its value.

There is some nice stenciling on the top, which may, or may not come back to life. So in advance, do you think that you can you restore these wood surfaces (IOW, the top, the neck, the body) to the same level of patina\color, or will you end up re-finishing the whole guitar (maybe with some toner) to get everything to blend in?

Similarly, let's say you need to work on the fretboard. The worn areas of stain look great and I'm sure you don't want to sand them off. But what if you have to in order to make the guitar playable?

I realize that these are all judgment calls that you can only make as you work stepwise through the process. And you have already noted that your primary goal is to make it playable again. I'll be interested to hear your thought process as the re-build takes place.

best,

Rick

Your welcome, Rick
You and I were on the same page when this topic first came up so it makes sense to keep the flame alive! To your questions...

As a whole, I look at every guitar separately having no true regiment that every guitar gets treated the same. In the case of this Regal, I'm planning on keeping the "barn find" look and not do a total refinish. This will likely extend to the body and maybe the headstock. Whether binding is necessary is something we'll fold into the mix in the next post or two.

For the original neck itself, it will get "updated" and then the finish color matched after the upgrades are complete. The condition of the neck (capo gouges) plus the super chunky profile common to this era Regal makes this neck a good candidate for reshaping. With my customer demographic starting at 55 yrs and older, reshaping chunky parlor necks is the most requested modification in a rebuild "spec sheet".

What to do with the fretboard?
Budget model parlors in for a rebuild with less-than-fancy original fretboard materials, like pear wood or poplar, are updated with new a radius'd rosewood(or ebony) fretboard and new medium nickel silver frets. It boils down to playability and what most modern players want their fretting hands to feel when fretting.

Original fretboards on a parlor like this Regal were flat to start with, then cupped after years of drying out, after which the thin brass frets (with very little tang) popped out of the not-deep-enough fret slots and started their own back-bow reshape, etc. etc. etc. The lesson I learned early on is that customers in the market for a vintage parlor guitar tend to love the size, the look and the tone. They almost always hated the original fretboard and frets so I started to update the fretboard for more expensive parlors and then made new radius'd fretboard/new frets a standard feature on 99% of vintage parlor rebuilds offered for sale on the website.

I hope this helps. I enjoy the exchange very much and welcome more contributions as the thread develops.

[vintageparlors]

The difficulty factor for removing an original bridge from its top ranges from super easy to really hard depending on how secure the bridge is glued to the top and the type of wood the top is made of. The bridge on this Regal parlor is holding on by a thread so this removal would rank close to the super easy end of the spectrum.

My favorite putty knife is worn thin and does a good job at working its way under an already lifting bridge. With some coaxing at both ends and working toward the center, the old dried glue gives way without much of a struggle. There's no tear-out and top is no worse for wear.

If the bridge finish had not already worn off from age and elements, the undersize of the bridge tells of the factory dyed black surface and how "ebonizing" a soft wood finish to appear more exotic was very common back in the day. In fact, the softwood bridge pins were dyed too!

[vintageparlors]

When an old parlor guitar from this era has been subject to the extremes of hot and cold over many years, strange things begin to happen to the underlying structure. In the case of this Regal, extreme heat has melted and then reconstituted the seam glue over the years creating a tenuous situation for the modern rebuilder.

For example, attic heat in the summers will soften the glue hold the guitar's top and back to the rim causing movement in the alignment of both in relation to the rim. Areas around the rim that were previous flush/aligned turn into gaps or offsets when glue holding everything together softens or melts and then hardens again. This condition does not promote the original alignment to return flush. In fact, it almost never does.

I want to remove both the top and the back from the rim of this guitar to clean everything up, rebrace, reinforce and then reglue everything back together once the update is complete. However, as soon as I remove the top and back (thus releasing the rim from the original shape) the rim will spring into its own shape, contorted from not being contained by the top/back and throw the proper reassembly of all parts into a real mess.

To help me return the rim's shape to the original and align properly with the top and back I will make a tracing of the rim and use it later as my guide during reassembly. This step of a rebuild is not always required but gaps and offsets around the edge of the top and back warn me of bad things to come if I'm not careful to record the original shape before taking everything apart.

It's certainly possible that nothing will happen to the shape of the rim when it's free of the top and back but I'm not willing to take that chance given what I see. The first photo shows an example of the "offset" I refer to. The photo might lead to believe that this "offset" means the seam has failed and a putty knife is easily slipped between the top and rim but, no, what you see in the photo is the offset firmly attached to the rim just like anywhere else around the guitar. The second photo shows the tracing paper ready to record the baseline shape of the rim.

[srick]

And even though the wood on the bridge and bridge pins was not premium hardwood, the builder did take the time to slot the holes adjacent to the bridge pins. It will be interesting to see how the 'innards' look.

[catndahats]

Vintage Parlor, what a great and timely discussion.
I've been toying with trying my hand at a kit (uke first)...but also have my dad's old guitar from the late/early 1920's-1930's. It is still more or less in one piece, but looks to have top and back separations, and no telling what else wrong. Maybe I'll pull it out and see what I can do with it. It was not an expensive guitar, but great sentimental value.

Dad has been gone for years now, but I recall him telling me that he took a few lessons to learn to play slide guitar on it when he was very young. My grandmother put the guitar in layaway and paid it out of her paycheck each week.

Anyway, look forward to your insight on your project.

[jguns]

Steve,

Thanks for documenting the restoration process of this old Regal parlor. Fascinating stuff! I am looking forward to following along to see the transformation back to its prior "glory".

[vintageparlors]

Originally Posted by catndahats

Vintage Parlor, what a great and timely discussion.
I've been toying with trying my hand at a kit (uke first)...but also have my dad's old guitar from the late/early 1920's-1930's. It is still more or less in one piece, but looks to have top and back separations, and no telling what else wrong. Maybe I'll pull it out and see what I can do with it. It was not an expensive guitar, but great sentimental value.

Dad has been gone for years now, but I recall him telling me that he took a few lessons to learn to play slide guitar on it when he was very young. My grandmother put the guitar in layaway and paid it out of her paycheck each week.

Anyway, look forward to your insight on your project.

I hope you can gain some insight through this series and at least solve some mysteries about what goes on inside the box.

[vintageparlors]

Originally Posted by jguns

Steve,

Thanks for documenting the restoration process of this old Regal parlor. Fascinating stuff! I am looking forward to following along to see the transformation back to its prior "glory".

Thanks for checking in and welcome aboard.

[vintageparlors]

Originally Posted by srick

And even though the wood on the bridge and bridge pins was not premium hardwood, the builder did take the time to slot the holes adjacent to the bridge pins. It will be interesting to see how the 'innards' look.

Stay tuned for "innards" this week.

[Crosswind]

I have taken on a lot of small restoration and refinishing processes over the years, so seeing something at this scale done right is special.

Thanks for this thread and pictures! I will be following along with great interest!

[vintageparlors]

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the easiest top I've ever removed from a vintage parlor, this top would definitely rate at #1. First two pics show me using the blade and knife technique. The glue holding the top and rim together was so dried out it took maybe 2 minutes to remove the top completely. What was left of the "innards" explained a few things about the condition of the top itself.

The second two pics shows what was left of the bracing inside. The top retained it's original bridge plate but neither of the two(that's right, two) top braces remained with the guitar. The back braces split 50/50 with two present and two absent. The missing top bracing probably saved the guitar from serious cracking over the years as there was hardly anything left to confine the top from movement due to severe living conditions. If the bracing was all there and everything had held tight through the years, this guitar would look more like a pile of kindling wood.

Our next post will talk about how the top was originally braced, what to do with the top next and how to handle the removal of the back from the rim.