Guitar
Date1932-1950 ca.
Place MadeChicago, Illinois, United States, North America
SignedOval gold, red, blue, and black decal on head, enclosed in black-yellow-black border: TRADE MARK [crown] / Regal / MADE IN CHICAGOMarkingsTrapezoidal brushed aluminum mailbox letter stickers, with letters in black, affixed to bass side of top: FURRY LEWISScratched in paint on back of head: graci
Scratched in paint on neck: if / you / touch / this / you / will / dieDescription Furry Lewis (1893-1981), who owned and personalized this guitar, was a blues guitarist whose career spanned nearly 70 years, beginning in 1908. Toward the end of his life he experienced a surge of popularity and twice opened for the Rolling Stones.
Stringing: six steel strings
Soundboard: arched, one-piece, slab-cut birch with pressed arching
Back: arched, one-piece, slab-cut birch with pressed arching
Ribs: two-piece slab-cut birch
Head: birch; integral with neck; upper edge of front with decoratively routed profile
Neck: birch; integral with head
Heel cap: white plastic; heel set in from back
Binding: none; brown paint in imitation of brown binding on top with single brown painted line trim
Fingerboard: rosewood; 20 nickel-plated T-frets frets; mother-of-pearl dots behind 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th frets
Nut: bone
Bridge: black-painted maple with brass saddle
Tailpiece: nickel-plated steel, secured to lower rib with four steel domed slot-head screws
Tuners: two sets of nickel-plated steel worm-gear tuners with white plastic heads; one worm-gear and head missing; possibly later
Endpin: missing
Soundholes: f-holes
Pick guard: thin imitation-tortoise-shell celluloid; nickel-plated steel bracket affixed to body and pickguard with Philips head screws
Lacquer: ivory paint
Neck block: light hardwood
End block: light hardwood
Top bracing: two hardwood longitudinal braces, angled wider in lower bouts; white reinforcing cloth tape above and below f-holes, under braces
Back bracing: three spruce ladder braces with tapered ends, one each in upper, middle, and lower boutsDimensionsTotal guitar length: 1026 mm (40-3/8″)
Back length: 509 mm (20-1/32″)
Upper bout width: 288 mm (11-11/32″)
Waist width: 241 mm (9-1/2″)
Lower bout width: 407 mm (16-1/32″)
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 85 mm (3-11/32″)
Rib height, at waist: 83 mm (3-9/32″)
Rib height, at end block: 80 mm (3-5/32″)
Head length: 178 mm (7″)
Head width, top: 72 mm (2-27/32″)
Head width, bottom: 95 mm (3-3/4″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 348 mm (13-11/16″)
Neck width, nut: 45 mm (1-11/16″)
Neck width, heel: 56 mm (1-25/32″)
Soundhole length: 163 mm (6-13/32″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 614 mm (24-5/32″)
Scale length: 628 mm (24-23/32″)ProvenanceNo known provenance other than acquired in Memphis.
Credit LineAnonymous gift, 2013
Object number14719
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