Owner of a Regal Tiple (10-string) ukulele from the 1930s!

Maddieukulele

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Hey everyone, I had an account on here last year but forgot my username and such, so I made a new one and here I am! Just wanted to share my latest uke business! My parents bought me an Ibanez concert uke last year and I love it. This week on family vacation, we went to a guitar shop in a cute downtown, one stoplight sort of town and I found something I didn't even know existed... A Regal Tiple (pronounced tee-play) 10-string concert ukulele from the 1930s! I'm not exactly sure of the date, something like this is extremely rare, at least rare enough to say there is only one on ebay! It's definitely used and shows its age, but it plays! The tag at the store said $599... the guy misunderstood our offer of $525 for $425 and we walked away with the ukulele for $469.70. I guess watching all those episodes of pawn stars paid off!

Does anyone else out there know about Tiple ukulele's?

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There was a thread about tiples here a week or two ago. I have a Yasuma tiple (they made copies of Martin tiples until the Martin Co. stopped them) that I got used for $90 back around 1990. It looked so beautiful in the store and it didn't sell, so I was seeing it there for months, and finally the money was burning a hole in my pocket so badly that I had to buy it. Then, I really could never figure out how to make good use of it until about a year ago. I've been trying out rock songs on it to see what works and what doesn't -- there's several "tiple experiments" on my YouTube page.

Mine doesn't stay in tune well, especially the wound strings, so I've found it isn't much use playing in front of an audience. I'd have to be prepared to stop and re-tune after every song. This problem seems to be specific to my instrument, plenty of others here have tiples and don't have that problem.
 
I have an all mahogany Yasuma which does stay in tune. I do not run steel strings on it. It runs Aquila nylaguts and is tuned DGBE rather than GCEA. I also have a 1923 Martin T18 (#19686) with an Adirondack spruce top. It also is Aquila strung, but the D is down a whole step to Cc GgG CcC EE. Great sound! Great fun! It even came from the factory with a tail hook (button to USAFers) for a strap.
 
Congrats Maddie On the cool score....wow a vintage concert too..woo hoo.... Yeah I am not big on the steel strings...that is a nice price....Happy Strummings
BTW You forgot your user name???? you gotta come here more often and write it down...
 
I need to find a Tiple for cheap. There's a cover that I want to do of a song my friend composed, but he used a 12-string acoustic guitar and slack-tuned. In order for me to make my cover sound kind of like his, but still unique in its own way, a slack-tuned Tiple could be the thing that makes the difference.
 
I bought a strange outsider-folk, psychedelic album (vinyl lp) many years ago by Ed Askew. Ed played the tiple, which was and odd instrument to be playing in the late 1960's. Much later, because of my interest in the ukulele, I discovered the tiple and remembered Ed Askew. I looked on Youtube for him and found this great video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh8MgXR3YcM

He can barely play anymore, as he explains, but the story he relates is fantastic.
 
Does anyone else out there know about Tiple ukulele'sView attachment 39993

It's actually not an 'ukulele, it's a tiple, period.

I may be way off, but here goes:
As I understand, Martin based it off a 12-string Columbian Tiple (pronounced tee-play, meaning treble). Brought it to the states, dropped two strings, and Americanized its pronunciation. See Cumpiano's website for a modern build, with sound clips.

Peter Moon played it on a few Sunday Manoa albums, and the only other guy I know that builds them is Joe Souza.

And yes, a recent post of Ramon Camarillo in the vid section shows why he's gravitated to it (he really uses it to replace his guitar player . . . kidding).


MGM has a Martin Tiple at HMS right now (or he had one anyway).

Aaron
 
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And since I can only embed one vid at a time, Redd Foxx was way before his time, so much so, that most of you are probably too young to know who he is.


Aaron
 
I just bought a yard sale Regal tiple today. I paid $100 Cdn.

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I feel like I'd like to try Nylguts as suggested by TheCraftedCow. I'm not sure I trust it with these steel strings. Where did you buy this set, or did you make a set up from a few uke sets?
 
You're in good company, with tiple fans like Josephine Baker and Big Boy Teddy Edwards, Ry Cooder, Suzanne Vega and all: http://martintiple.blogspot.be/

As for strings, steel is the way to go, and both GHS and Pyramid offer strings sets for tiples - I have used the GHS one. Of course you can mix and match your own set (aim for .010 and .022 on the G, .034 and .015 on the C, .012 and .026 on the E and .010 on the A) but I doubt it will be cheaper.

The straight bridge, short scale length, high tension and mixture of string gauges mean that the intonation is usually so-so. Either have a luthier take a look at it, perhaps have him replace the whole bridge (on the website above you find different designs, some are better) or just live with it. The shimmering sound and loudness of a tiple can't be compared to anything else...
 
I'm not one to usually stop at yard sales, but while out visiting relatives in Lancaster, PA about 6 years ago I stopped into one yard sale and found a vintage Bowl back Regal mandolin in absolutely super condition. I was able to take it home for a wallet-busting $12.00. Without putting too much time or digging deeper, I was able to just get a ballpark estimate that it was built circa 1930. Oddly enough a few more that I have seen here and there were all made by Regal.
 
since I am an Aquila string seller, I just went to my tenor string inventory and selected what I wanted. If you tell me what you want the strings to be, I will check inventory and see what I have to make a set. Because you have to declare a value, and I do not tell lies, if I sell them at my cost to you, then declared value is less than what it would be at retail. Do I make $$ this way? No, but neither do I lose anything, and I get to help you get it on the road. I really enjoy both of mine. As I am sitting here writing this I am thinking about putting the Aquila Red strings on one or the other. The reds surely brighten up any of the other ukuleles which wear them

Bill Thompson dba thecraftedcow@comcast.net
 
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