Re: Regal Wendell Hall Guitar?
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.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Bookmarks