Recording King lap steel builder ID -- Regal? Kay?

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 4 Jan 2015 9:03 am

This is a Recording King Hawaiian Guitar circa late 1930s, marketed by Montgomery Ward. Recording Kings were known to be built by Gibson, Kay, Regal, and possibly others.

Does anyone recognize this pickup? Anyone seen this tailpiece/bridge/pickup arrangement before? The body resembles the Recording King Roy Smeck Model AB 104 from Gibson, but the pickup and bridge don't look like anything from Gibson.

I'm thinking Regal, perhaps?

Peter Huggins · Post by **Peter Huggins** » 6 Jan 2015 1:24 pm

That's a Regal pickup. It looks like a humbucking with its two blades but it's not. These were used on May-Bell guitars as well as numerous house brands. Note the little bump at the lower right edge under the tone control. this was often the point where the cable came out. that way the pickup could be flush-mounted on an unrouted top such as an acoustic flat top guitar.

Some of the Recording King guitars actually say 'Recording King By Regal' on the headstock.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 8 Jan 2015 6:49 am

Thanks for that info, Peter.

Any ideas on the color plastic used for the original (Kluson?) tuner buttons? I'm thinking they likely were white, but could they have possibly been black?

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 8 Jan 2015 12:13 pm

Sure s some klunky hardware for such a gorgeous piece of wood. It's still a pretty guitar and I bet it'll sound even better. A quick check of ebay shows that Regal parlor guitars of that era had both black and white tuner buttons. Here's a different model Regal lap guitar with black ones:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-40 ... 3f430cff69

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 28 Jan 2015 10:41 am

Suspect the nicely flamed maple (or possibly birch) top is likely just a veneer, but it is a looker in any case.

I installed black plastic replacement tuner buttons and strung it up for C6 and it sounds amazing.

The pickup only measures 2.1K, but it has a light, airy sound unlike any other I've played. Artificial harmonics just fly out of this thing; it's truly amazing. Perhaps its marginally longer scale length has something to do with that.

The seller claimed the guitar was from the late 1930s, but I suspect it's more likely from the late '40s or early '50s. A Google search revealed only one similar instrument, and it provided no additional information.

Probably will end up selling it at some point, but I'm having fun playing it at the moment.

Noah Miller · Post by **Noah Miller** » 28 Jan 2015 12:43 pm

Yeah, that's almost certainly a veneer. The guitar could well be from the '30s, though - it's definitely a pre-War instrument.