1890s Unmarked Lakeside-Style Spruce/Mahogany Parlor Guitar

This odd guitar is unmarked but has a lot of features I associated with Regal-made instruments built for Lyon & Healy just before 1900 or so. I don't think it is one, really, because enough things are "off" about it, but it's very similar to them so may be related. It's one of those "conflicted beings" I guess.

Anyhow, it would have been made for gut strings when it was made but it's been living with extra light steels for a while now without too much complaint, so that's where I've left it. The owner brought this in not knowing whether to stick with steel or go nylon but as he has several other classical guitars he decided to leave it as a steel-stringer.

Work included a neck reset, fret level/dress, saddle-slot and pinholes fill/recut, new bone saddle, sidedots install, cleaning, and setup work. It had a very savaged neck joint hidden under the fretboard extension and I added some extra blocking when doing the reset to make sure that area was safe. The action was pretty dang high with a nonexistent saddle height when it arrived...

Post-repairs it's a sweet, easy player with a clean, pretty sound to it. It definitely likes fingerpicking more than flatpicking (it's ladder-braced and that's the trend).