Regal Conversion

This is not a "how to" article. Really, it is just photos of a finished project of mine along with some notes on the finished product. It is included here just because these banjos were weird and are not seen very often.

	For some years, I have been fascinated with the cast brackets used on some Regal banjos from the 1920s and/or 30s. I've never heard a formal name for them so I have been calling them "elephants foot" brackets. Some think that is clever, others think it is silly. So be it. I acquired this pot without a neck and only about half of the brackets were useable. I was able to eventually assemble a full set and added a 5-string neck. The original skin head is in good shape so I retained it. Here are some photos.
	The brackets are made of cast zinc alloy, sometimes called "pot metal". Manufacturers used it because it is inexpensive, melts at relatively low temperatures, and takes detail well. The main drawback that it is quite brittle. Also, particularly in the Regal case, impurities in the batch can cause the castings to slowly crack and/or explode after several years.
	They do, in my opinion, make a rather distinctive rim appearance that has not been copied by any other maker.
	They are quite thick and therefore a full set makes a pretty heavy rim.
	Every example that I have ever seen uses 23 brackets, one of which holds the tailpiece and does not contribute to the head tensioning.
	There are two types (both reading "pat. pending"). One is drilled and taped for a machine screw and the other is not. The latter are held in place just by the upward pull of the hook. Clearly, the undrilled set was from a different batch as they did not exhibit any of the cracking and exfoliation. They generally appeared newer but that could also be attributed to better quality control at the foundry.
	Here are four pretty good, sound ones.
	...and four examples of bad ones. Damage is very common to the thin, flared end which contacts the resonator. It can range from minor chipping to complete failure. I got a set on eBay which looked good until I carefully examined the outer edges, nearly all of which had been ground down to obscure the chipping (see for example far right one in the examples labeled"good").
	They can be bad in several ways. Here the rim hook is broken off. Pot metal is difficult to repair. I have not been able to solder it. Muggyweld makes a soldering rod and flux for it but I had little luck with it. I'm sure it would work for filling pitted surfaces. Others have said that JB Weld (an epoxy) is useful but I have not tried it myself.
	The rim hooks typically warp from the pull of the hooks over the years. Here are a few of the more obvious examples. Any way, after a few years of collecting them, I was able to put together a useable set of 23. Some are chipped and ground, but useable. Others exhibit what metal guys call "pot metal cancer" - it shows as cracks from what appears to be internal expansion . The top two here show this.
	Otherwise, the Regal rims are unremarkable. This one has a 1/4" steel rod for a tone ring. The resonators are often finished in this pleasant sunburst with a decal decoration. They are typically not bound but have simulated binding with white paint. This one had fallen apart so I added actual ivoroid celluloid binding.
	The resonator is fairly stout and has 4 braces. They don't contact the rim at all but are just to strengthen the joint between the main plate and the vertical edge (it is a simple butt joint).
	I kept the headstock simple - just a maple veneer, stained black, and given about 8 coats of lacquer. Tuners are a set of $40 Chinese planetary types. The neck is a very inexpensive 5-string from my junk box; don't know where it came from, it is probably 1960s Asian-made.
	I think this logo is really cool - the crown and gold, suggesting the highest quality. Of course, they weren't. Regal specialized in mass quantities of inexpensive instruments. This logo is taken from a photo of the headstock of a Regal guitar and then made into a water-slide decal. It is pretty easy with the coming of inkjet printable decal paper.
	The decals are usualy a bit transparent, so I print two copies and double them up. Give the decals a couple of dust coats of lacquer followed by at least one wet coat before wetting. This keeps the printer ink from running.
	Here's an interesting light blue version that I saw on a ukulele recently.
Regal history	The Regal Musical Instrument Company of Chicago has been around for quite a while. It was originally Lyon & Healy's small instrument department and became a separate entity in 1908.