1930s Washburn (Tonk Brothers) 00-Size 12-Fret Guitar

This beaut is pretty-much a Model 5238 Washburn but it doesn't have the fancy decals that I'd expect for one of them and the inlay is slightly less-ornate. It does have some fancy frog "decals" on it via more modern hands at the moment, though!

I've been lucky enough to work on and sell a pair of Model 5237s (see here and see here) so I know the name of the game in terms of the outrageously good tone and volume these have. I'm assuming that this guitar was also built by Regal for the Washburn brand, but the Tonk era is murky so I'll leave that estimation wavering. I'm pretty sure it is, though.

I'd installed a pickup in this before for the owner but this time around it came in for a needed bridge reglue, fret level/dress, and setup. It's a lot happier after these repairs, but the bridge area could use some reinforcement (at some point) at the bridge plate as the top had been damaged under the bridge in the past and it has a bit of belly anyhow.

That said, it's holding-up nicely and plays spot-on. I let poor Ancel suffer through leveling and dressing the bar frets -- which can be tricky, as they've got a practically rectangular shape to them and the original "rounding" on the tops of the frets is terrible on these. They can only get better!

It's solid spruce over solid Brazilian rosewood, sports a mahogany neck, ebony fretboard and bridge, fancy binding throughout, and an x-braced top. It's all-original save pins and saddle as far as I can tell. The neck/heel had a bolt in it at one point, but I tidied the rear of it a bit.