1933 Washburn (Regal-made) 5200 "Inspiration" Flattop Guitar

This 0-size Washubrn is a beaut and it's also x-braced. Regal made these for Tonk (owners of Washburn branding at the time) and every one of these old x-braced Regal-made Washburns I've played has been a treat. They're a bit airier and woodier than a Martin of the same style -- basically like a mix of Gibson sound and Martin sound with a bit of that Regal "airiness" thrown-in. It's a peculiar thing.

The owner of this guitar picked it up from Chicago Music Exchange, as I recall, and sent it here for conversion to lefty. At the same time I gave it a fret level/dress, extra side dots, and minor tweaking. The bridge is thankfully non-original (as far as I can tell), so it wasn't sacrilege to do so. I was surprised at how funky the frets were as-is, though -- and was happy to get them working properly again.

This model is stamped 5200 in the soundhole and it has an 800s serial number that, when fit-in with the model type, places it probably at 1933 per the "Pre-War Washburn Book" serialization notes.

The top is solid spruce, the back and sides are solid mahogany, it has a hefty mahogany neck, and the fretboard is, insanely-enough, ebonized maple. Ohhhh Regal!

There are some older repairs, too -- I'm guessing a neck reset was done at the same time as the back's cracks were cleated and sealed. The tuners also appear to be modern repro-style replacements. They're good stuff.