I got a Regal. It was a choice between that or a Johnson, and I thought the Regal seemed to have a clearer tone - the Johnson sounded a bit muddy. That was my initial impression, but after an hour of playing both and trying to decide, I'd confused myself and couldn't decide! :-) So I asked an assistant to play them both while I stood out to listen - that made up my mind, and he reckoned the Regal sounded better too. The Regal was the RD-02, I think - the metal-body one anyway (nickel-plated brass IIRC). I also had a play of the National that they're both copied off - that was a sweet guitar, but way ($2500) out of my price range! :-(

This was at Elderly Instruments, BTW. While I was trying them out, they reduced the Johnson to $495 ($20 more than the Regal, rather than $120!) bcos they weren't selling enough Johnsons and had too many in stock. So maybe other ppl are trying them both, and buying a Regal instead... Not to influence your decision or anything! :-) But then, maybe you're getting a better model than the one I tried.

The strap system is basically that instead of the strap going straight from your left shoulder to the guitar headstock, there's a lace across your chest from the end button to the strap at your left shoulder which pulls the strap down. This makes it impossible for the strap to slip off your left shoulder down your back, since the lace is holding it forward. You can run the lace under the guitar to be unobtrusive, or you can run it over the front of the guitar in which case it pulls the guitar face around towards you, making it easier to position your hand for playing fingerpicking.

A plain lace over the strap will crease the strap up, so I've got a small bit of plastic tube in there, cut to the width of the strap. Take the lace through this once, around the strap, then back through the tube, then tie the ends together, and then tie another lace from the button to the end of this loop. I've tied this second lace to the strap button-hole rather than to the button itself, so that when I take the guitar off, I can just unhook the strap from the button and then just take the whole loop of strap and lace off intact over my head, instead of having to untie it every time. The plastic tube will work above or below the strap, but if you have it on top of the strap then it will spread the pressure on the strap better, and it will also slide along the strap better for adjusting its position.

If you're interested, I'll try and work up a diagram. It's all a bit overkill, but it was just interesting to me to spend a couple of hours working out alternatives to a standard strap arrangement. I'm a sad case... :-) Actually, I'll try this for a while, and if it works out then I'll make up a more permanent version out of a leather strip and a proper buckle instead of bootlaces tied together. It certainly seems to keep the guitar in place much better than a normal strap.

Graham.