Regal MarvelTone Style #3 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, c. 1930, made in Chicago, serial # 2503, natural lacquer finish, mahogany back and sides, spruce top; mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard, black hard shell case.
This marvelous MarvelTone is a jobber-branded version of a guitar otherwise known as a Regal "Custom built", one of the best-kept secrets in pre-WWII flat tops, at least until recently. Most of these were sold as Regals, but the MarvelTone versions were a special version branded exclusively for Targ & Dinner, one of the many wholesale jobbers active at the time. Apart from the pearl logo inlaid on the headstock this model seems practically identical to the Regal-branded #3 although it bears no Regal marks at all.
Regal's "Custom Built" line was the Chicago company's direct challenge to Martin at the beginning of the depression, a time when guitar makers were scrambling for a very thin market. These begin to appear in catalogs in 1930-31, often advertised directly alongside Martins. They were very similar looking -- in print at least -- but the Regals were priced somewhat lower for the same level of materials, a savvy move as the country's economy collapsed. While this ploy did not seriously threaten Martin's dominance in high-end flattops it did result in some of the finest guitars to come out of Chicago in the 1930's.
Regal copied Martin's basic guitar design closely, including the X-braced top, an extravagance the Chicago makers did not usually bother with. This Style 3 was the "popular priced" Grand concert model of the "Custom Built" line, a 14 1/2" wide guitar plain in ornamentation but well built of excellent materials, including "Genuine mahogany" neck, back and sides, ebony fingerboard and an X-braced Appalachian spruce top. While considered premium materials today this is simply what professional guitars were built with in 1930; the highest grades used Brazilian rosewood.
The X bracing pattern under the top is closely copied from Martin's, if just a shade heavier and perhaps a bit less elegantly executed. The design conveniently enables this guitar to handle steel strings with aplomb. The top is 3-ply bound with a dark outer layer, the back single bound. The soundhole rings are plain inlaid circles. The neck is a round-backed profile just a bit chunkier than the typical Martin, especially as it moves up towards the body. The tuners are the familiar budget-grade strips used on many period guitars. The "MarvelTone" pearl inlay in the headstock is a bit sloppy, with a couple of the pieces skewed slightly from vertical.
Regal listed their house-branded Style 3 at $28 retail, a decent sum at the time although a full $17 less than the similar Martin 00-18. Based on their rarity today even fewer of the MarvelTones seem to have been sold than Regals; all are quite rare today. Regal is mostly remembered for lower grade instruments but they were perfectly capable of building excellent guitars, as they also did for Bacon & Day. While not as delicately crafted as a Martin this is a great value in a pre-war steel-string guitar with an X braced top, with a fine sound all its own. "The Mark of Better Instruments" was Regal's slogan at the time, and in this case actually a pretty accurate assessment!
Overall length is 38 in. (96.5 cm.), 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 7/8 in. (48 mm.).
This guitar is in excellent playing condition showing general wear and some typical maintenance repairs. There are dings, dents and scrapes to the finish overall, most heavily on the back and sides. The top finish has checking with some random dings and scrapes but is largely free of the heavy pick wear often seen on older flat tops. The back of the neck has some small dings and dents but no heavy wear. There is no visible finish overspray on the guitar; the top has some finish disturbance around the bridge likely from the old one being heated off.
The top is very solid with no cracks; the side has one small repaired split at the turn of the lower treble bout and the back has small sealed grain splits off each waist. The ebony bridge is a well done replica, as is the maple bridgeplate. The neck has been reset and the angle is very good. There are three sloppily filled holes above the endpin from an old tailpiece addition, but most of the repair work is cleaner. The original small frets appear to have been recrowned and show little subsequent wear, the fingerboard is mostly quite clean. This is a very fine playing guitar with a fairly big but balanced and airy sound, about as good as a mahogany "non-Martin" from this era gets. Overall Excellent - Condition.
