Regal RC-51 Tricone Resophonic Guitar – Nickel-Plated Brass Metal Body – 12th Fret Neck – Vintage Tone & Sustain – Rock Maple Saddle & Bone Nut

Mine arrived adequately packaged and beautifully set up. Out of the box it plays very well with fingers or slide. Action is just right and intonation is very good. Volume exceeded my expectations -- I took it to a gig where unamplified it held its own against an amplified electric guitar. Tuners are excellent. Was surprised to see the bridge is ebony capped maple. Looks great, I've not spotted any visual flaws. The fingerboard has a medium radius (not flat like another reviewer's). A few things to note: The guitar arrived with I think 0.011 gauge strings on it which sounded good and were surprisingly loud. I installed a set of 0.012s which are tight at the nut; 0.013s would definitely require filing the nut. The notes really ring out, so if you're playing melody lines you're going to need to pay attention to muting. Fret ends are a little sharp. Not an issue for my style of playing, but one of my friends noticed. At >10 lbs this is a really heavy instrument! I require a strap to keep it sliding off my lap. I'm still looking for a hard case due to its unique dimensions. My classical gigbag works but I want something heavy duty.

Guitar arrived intact! I didn't realize it was a reflective surface. The guitar is beautiful and I love it. It's a hefty guitar so a strap is good to have for it. I took time to measure the guitar cause the online measurements posted seems off or too big Measurements: Length : 41 inches Width: 14 1/2 inches Height: 3 3/8 inches This means it fits in the gator TSA flight case! The acoustic dreadnought case fits it. Blessed to get this guitar before tariffs hit. I love the sound, design, and everything about it. Worth it!!!

I just got a Regal-RC-51 tricone. I set a price using the camelizer app for a used one and the next day with a great price for a "like new" RC-51. It came unplayable as the bridge had slipped off the cones, but I was able to take it apart, remove a small dent in one of the cones and reset the bridge and restring it with some 12 gauge strings. A bit of adjustment with the neck and viola, it had perfect action for both slide and fingerstyle guitar blues. It sounds pretty good and is way cheaper than an american made alternative, so it will stay. The neck is not flat like the older ones but has a comfortable typical rounded radius. Nut measures bit less than 1 3/4" at 44mm, but the strings are spaced pretty wide and feels like 1 3/4" to my hand. At the saddle, bit narrow string spacing at 2 3/16" spacing for my fingerstyle preference, but will work. The fret end could double as a backup can opener, so be careful and some filling is in order, lol. The ebony fretboard is beautiful hard polished wood with a few micro cracks very had to see running parallel to the horizontal grain, likely sat in a dry warm location for awhile?? But I checked the fret heights in 3 places across every fret and amazingly I only found 1 place on the treble side of the 13th fret that had even a tiny wobble, so some of the flattest fretwork I have ever measured on a guitar fretboard. The mahogany neck has some faint scarf joints and the wood is tight grained and a very comfortable medium to thin rounded feel for my hands. No gap where the neck heel meets the metal body. No flaws I can find with the body, the sound hole "sqaures" are a bit sharp if you were to slip a finger inside, but don't go there. The tone is pretty nice with good sustain! Maybe not like you get with a $4-5K National, but this is a budget tricone. I might eventually upgrade to connes to Beard or national or something else, but fine for now. The metal work is nice and the guitar weighs 9.2 Lbs on a digital bath scale. Balance is just a tad heavy towards the neck, to be expected, but works fine if I rest the lower bout between both my thighs. I sold a 14 fret tricone highway 61 as it had way more neck dive and was hard to balance with the cut away and smaller size. The biggest con for me is the body meets the neck at the 11.5 th fret, not the 12th fret like every other 12 fret guitar I have seen or owned, humm??? The issue is for slide playing, you are always sliding up to the 12 ftet to play the 1 chord and I have to go beyond the body now by a half fret distance and curl my hand more than I would otherwize. Not a huge deal but not as relaxed as it should be and makes it harder to dampen the strings behind the slide. These china made asian guitars all come out of a few factories and TBH, they are all pretty good and very similar. I believe this factory makes regal (saga), recording king, jonathan, johnson and others. The other big factory makes the Aiersi label which is where Republics get their guitars. Really it is hit or miss, but with amazon it is easy to send it back it you get a back set up or a dude you don't like. But as hard as it is to find an affordable playable tricone, this one is staying for the price I paid. Do your homework as all these different styles and brands will have slightly different specs with scale length/nut width, etc and it matters. If you don't know then find a friend of instructor to help you get a guitar that is appropriate for your playing style and hand size. I am not a tech or professional, but a player of about 60 years and I know instruments pretty good and have enough luthier tools to get into some trouble, lol.

This is a fine instrument very well-made in the metal finish is gorgeous as I should know, I spent half a decade in the middle finishing industry however, all is not good. It’s a very heavy instrument wing more than a Les Paul as much as a BB King, Lucille, and because of the steel body, it is very unbalanced probably want to spend most of your time playing it with the strap on around your neck to keep it in position or play it like a classical guitar For slide it is great if you want to play it like a regular guitar the action is just a tad high and the way the strings are held above the resonator. There is no real way to adjust it absent bending metal Which can lead to metal fatigue and breakage It comes with a heavy gauge of strings. I would recommend replacing them as soon as possible with something lighter. The resonator should make up the total difference in volume. You might want to go to a store and play one of these before you buy it as the weight issue is a real negative as the weight, distribution and moment of inertia are quite different from any other guitar I’ve ever played. Well, the metal finishing is beautiful. It is also soft and will scratch very easily. A hard chrome finish would be more expensive to apply, but might be a better choice for the manufacture.

What's not to like? Full rich sound and beautiful package! I do recommend this for your resonator solution!

I have played many resonator guitars in stores, both new ones and used. But I just couldn't find anything that both played well and sounded great. I read the reviews here on Amazon and decided to give this one a try, vowing to send it back if I didn't like it. Well, I not only liked it, it played well and sounded great, but it has become my go-to guitar. I have several other acoustic guitars, some of which I paid many thousands of dollars for, and I still like this one best. It even inspired me to write a new song. Love it.

I love our new RC-51 I replaced the strings that came on it with Ernie Ball Extra Light Aluminum Bronze Acoustic Strings. It sounds great and the strings take the stress off the round neck.

This guitar has a great voice and tone. Strong heavy picking brings out a popping loud sound. I always wanted a metal body. Had an resonator pan for years. Workmanship is good. I play slide and just pick too. Worth the wait. Music is Life!