Who made this guitar? Re-Brace thoughts?

[David Edward Helmer]

I am thinking about doing a Martin or Gibson bracing on this as a project for fun. Any suggestions on which to choose? Also, were these made in Chicago by Regal?

[Eric Steven Johansen]

I had one similar years ago and it had a Kay Kraft style headstock, so maybe Kay? Go with a Gibson L-00 style bracing, thin and tall.

[Ned Knepp]

I agree with Eric on using Gibson's tall/thin style of bracing. If it were mine, I might consider using something like the ladder bracing Gibson used on the early L-0 series rather than an X brace simply because of the bridge placement. 

[Kerry Krishna]

Man, you got the right guy here for this. It is a 1926  Stromberg/Voisinet. I just bought an all birch one just this last week off of Ebay. A martin style x bracing for small body will work nicely for this... 

Can we have a few more pics please? 

What are back and side woods, and is it a MOTS fingerboard? Do you have the bridge? It will have to be reslotted... 

[Kerry Krishna]

Here ya go

[Eric Steven Johansen]

That's the same headstock mine had. Pretty sure they were made by Kay. Mine was all birch as well.

[David Edward Helmer]

Here are some more pics. I am not sure what the bridge and fingerboard are. Pearwood perhaps? Bridge is wrecked of course. FB is concave. I think i might replace both with ebony, The back and sides look like birch to me. Bridge removal is not as bad as it looks. Pics of that always look bad!

[David Edward Helmer]

FB top

[John McDonald]

Hi David. Looks like a fun project ya got there. I did a rebrace on an old 50's/60's solid wood Harmony last year and went with vintage Martin style bracing. I learned a lot from the process and wound up with a great sounding guitar. Look forward to seeing what you do with this one.

Here's a couple of photo's of my Harmony rebrace..

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Gotta love that framed stud wall the used as a top. Nicely rebraced, very cleanly done.

[Kerry Krishna]

Eric, I host Facebook's  Kay Kraft Guitars 'site, just so you know. It is a S/V from 1926, and they were the precursor company to Kay Kraft which turned into KAY guitars. 

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Hey Kerry, If I had thought about it more than a few seconds I would have remembered the tie in with Kay and Stromberg Vois. By the way I own a Groehsl parlor from the 1880's that you might find historically significant for your site. Groehsl was the original precursor to Kay. It's lattice braced on top and Brazilian B&S.

[Kerry Krishna]

It there a photoessay of that axe Eric? It would be the 1st one I have seen or heard of actually. I will send you my Email address Private message. Thanks!