FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Lyon Guitar By Washburn

Question:
I've got a Washburn guitar that I'm hoping someone can help me identify the age of. It was described as a turn of the century guitar by the fellow I bought it from. I has an open headstock, and dots on the fretboard. It is made with mahogany with basically no ornamentation at all. There is no pickguard. On the inside it has the numbers 15200. It has a metal riveted label on the back of the headstock that says Washburn,Lyon & Healy, Made in Chicago. Underneath this metal plate are the numbers 14464. It currently has a pin bridge on it, although you can tell from wear on the finish at one time there was a pyramid bridge on it. The luthier that looked at it felt it originally did come with a pin bridge however. Can anyone help me get any further information on this guitar?

Answer:
Washburn guitars were made by the Lyon and Healy Company until 1928, then they only continued to make harps and pianos. The Washburn name was sold to the J.R. Stewart company which went bankrupt in 1930 and the company Tonk Bros. acquired the rights to the name sort of by default because they were involved in the distribution of Washburn guitars. They sold the Washburn name to Regal. The fire that you make reference to actually was two and they occurred in 1870 and the great Chicago fire of 1871. However, the company had lots of insurance and was able to survive those setbacks very well. As near as I can tell, the actual use of the Lyon and Healy names as a brand of guitars (as opposed to being the actual *company* name) didn't occur until about 1913 when they used it as their budget line of guitars. They did use several *brand* names besides Washburn and Lyon & Healy, like Lakeside, Leland, American Conservatory. I have one of the parlor sized Washburn guitars with the Lyon and Healy metal plate on the back of the head, and it has been dated by people with more knowledge than I have as around the early 1920's. It has the number 1880 stamped on the back of the head and also the designation Style A. It has beautiful tuners with *real* pearl buttons (I have been offered $400 just for the tuners), but the rest of the guitar is very plain. It does have a large, ornate abalone flower inlaid on the front of the head, but everybody that has seen it feels like that is not original. Contrary to what you stated as to the location of the position markers, mine (also simple large dots) are located at the 5th, 7th, *10th*, and 12th frets. My guitar has the original pin bridge with original bone pegs with fancy abalone dots in them. The body is Brazilian rosewood and the fingerboard is ebony. The body has white/black binding on both the top and back and the fingerboard, headstock, and the inside rim of the soundhole are all bound. My Washburn is also a slot-head and has x-bracing and the neck is mahogany. I had never heard of the reversed tuners before, thanks for pointing out that bit of information. Mine appear to be reversed, so maybe mine is a bit older than I thought - do you have any time frame as to when the tuners were reversed?