1930s Regal R 615-C
The 12-string guitar has a long
history in popular music, featuring prominently on recordings on everyone from
Leadbelly to the Rooftop Singers, the Byrds to Tom Petty. However, while the
modern 12-string is a development of the 20th century, its roots go
back much further. Various members of the lute family had long doubled courses
for extra volume, and a popular Romantic-era guitar design featured 10 strings
in five courses. Their descendants likely influenced American guitars via
Mexican and Italian designs. The main innovation of the 20th century,
apart from steel strings and larger bodies, was to double the lower four courses
an octave higher. This not only gave the instrument extra volume, it also
enriched the sound and created a unique tambre that sounded like several guitars
playing at once.
The first American 12-strings,
dating from around the turn of the 20th century, were inspired by the
drive to create louder guitars. At the time, guitars were rapidly growing from
parlor-sized bodies up toward the modern Dreadnought, which arrived in 1916 (but
didn’t really take off until the 1930s). Manufacturers were starting to offer
guitars with absurd dimensions, such as Lyon & Healy’s 22¼”-wide “Monster Bass”
guitar; most, including that one, were regarded as novelty instruments that were
only available on special order. By doubling the strings, guitar designers were
able to coax more volume out of much smaller instruments.
Still, 12-strings never made up a large segment of the
guitar market. They required a somewhat different playing technique, they cost
more than the equivalent 6-strings, and the average 6-string was a fairly loud
instrument in its own right by this time. With the advent of resonator guitars
in 1927, followed by the proliferation of electric instruments in the 1930s, the
12-string was nearly killed off until the folk revival of the early 1960s.
Pre-War 12-strings remain considerably rarer than their 6-string counterparts in
any condition, and those that survive have often undergone considerable repair.
The extra tension of 12 strings requires robust construction to keep it from
causing damage.
The superb condition of this Regal R615-C, which dates
from the mid 1930s, is therefore quite remarkable. At
$16.50, it was far from the bottom of
the Regal line during the depths of the depression, but it was still far cheaper
than the cheapest Gibson or Martin 6-strings. The combination of a spruce top
with birch sides and back is somewhat unusual; most often, spruce was paired
with mahogany while birch was paired with more birch. The unplated brass tuners
have seven screw holes on each strip, but Regal saved a few cents by only using
four screws. The center stripe on the back is a decal, but the top and back are
bound with celluloid. Quality control was kept to a minimum: of the dings around
the edges, several were made before the finish was applied. The splotchy
appearance of the top is not the result of wear or checking, but rather to
inconsistent grain in the spruce itself.
Yet, despite its humble construction, this guitar shows
only light pickwear on the top and some handling bumps around the headstock.
There are no cracks, no replacement hardware, and even the neck has remained
quite straight and at the correct angle. The dyed fretboard and brass frets show
barely any wear, and the instrument plays surprisingly well in standard tuning.
It’s a loud, brash cannon of a guitar, with no subtlety at all but with the
power to be heard from across the dance floor.
