Regal Wendell Hall Guitar?

**oinkstrings** · Sep-12-2019, 7:31am

This one is interesting.
I can not find another one like it anywhere. It looks to be built on the the standard Regal tenor guitar body which would make it the same scale as the Octophone of the same era I believe.
Add to that the fact that Wendell Hall was THE big time uke guy of his day and....interesting.

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/75572718

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**nmiller** · Sep-12-2019, 8:59am

That's a new one on me! Wendell Hall had signature ukes made by Regal and banjo-ukes made by Ludwig, but I've never seen a tenor-scale instrument with his name on it. Regal continued to build the ukes at least until 1940, but that circular logo indicates this instrument is from the early '30s or older.

**MikeEdgerton** · Sep-12-2019, 12:10pm

I haven't seen one of these either but the tuners take it way back I would think unless Regal was sweeping the floor for parts. If I bumped it that I'd buy it.

**allenhopkins** · Sep-12-2019, 1:02pm

Hah! Bob Carlin's book Regal Musical Instruments, 1895-1955, has a pic on p. 256 of Wendell Hall playing a very similar instrument, described as a "top-of-the-line Regal tiple," except that it apparently has eight strings, like the one here, instead of ten, which would be standard for a tiple. The pic caption says "photographed in Chicago around 1935." The fingerboard inlays are the same, as is the headstock shape, but it's not marked "Wendell Hall."

I have an eight-string Regal uke, nowhere near as fancy, from the same era; I have referred to it as a "taropatch," which is an eight-stringed ukulele family instrument, but have been told that it's actually just a tenor uke with double string courses. That may well be what this one is.

Regal made "Wendell Hall" instruments from the mid-'20's through the early '50's. As far as I can determine from Carlin's book, they were all ukuleles of different types. Ukulele player Hall was famous for the song "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'", and apparently his name was a selling point for a quarter century.