Washburn Bell Style 5270 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1926)
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Item # 12348
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Washburn Bell Style 5270 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1926), made in Chicago, serial # 8744, natural varnish with stenciling finish, mahogany back, sides and neck; spruce top, ebony fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
This is a well-worn but fine playing example of one of the rarest Lyon & Healy creations, the Washburn Model 5270 "Bell" guitar. This unusually shaped instrument was a product of Lyon & Healy's last big push in the guitar market in the mid-1920s, before the company got out of the manufacturing and wholesale business in 1928. While many other Washburn designs were continued into the subsequent Tonk Brothers line, the Bell was not and vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Lyon & Healy introduced two Bell models in the 1925 catalog, pitched as absolute top of the line guitars. "The most beautiful guitar in the world" they claimed, though C.F. Martin might have offered the 000-45 as a contrary argument! This Model 5270 Bell with mahogany back and sides was priced at $165 (exactly the same as that Martin pearl-trimmed 000) while the rosewood model 5271 listed at an outrageous $195, making it the most expensive flat-top guitar in the world in 1925. Unsurprisingly both of these models are very rare, with the 5271 being nearly non-existent! The few that do surface often have features not exactly as specified; this mahogany 5270 has an ebony bridge and fingerboard instead of the cataloged rosewood.
"The remarkable graceful design of this instrument is the invention of out Washburn experts" offers the catalog "It represents a great advance in guitar construction. (It) brings a new beauty to the appearance of the guitar (and) has an extraordinary effect on the tone". The Bell guitars were certainly unusual; nothing like them has been seriously attempted before or since! The lightly built mahogany body is 15 1/2" wide at the "bell" peaks, carrying a lightly built X-braced red spruce top bound with B&W purfling lines around the top, sides and back. The mahogany neck has a medium "V" profile topped with an unbound, dot inlaid ebony fingerboard.
The distinctive ebony "Smile" bridge with delicately curved ends is another signature Lyon & Healy feature, as is the raised celluloid ring set around the sound hole edge in place of any conventional inlay. The top is adorned with Washburn's trademark delicate gold leaf filigree designs, something that subsequently kicked around other Chicago makers from the early '20s up into the late '30s. The slotted headstock is faced in rosewood and topped with a pointed crown; the tuners are beautiful engraved plate strips with grained ivoroid buttons. A white Washburn label adorns the inside back, with the Lyon & Healy stamp on the backstrip.
This very rare guitar is very well-made of excellent materials. It is a very responsive guitar, quite suitable for fingerpicking styles and offering a surprising volume when strummed. The sound is geared towards midrange rather than bass but not thin, with a good sing in the high end. Bell models popped up with a few Vaudeville artists in the 1920s (Where are you, Witt & Berg?) but is mostly remembered as the favorite guitar of poet Carl Sandburg, who owned several and played them quite a bit. Actor Fess Parker played a Bell on the pilot for the early 1950s "Davy Crockett" TV show; it may well have been specifically chosen for its unusual look. While perhaps a blind alley in flat-top perfection, the Washburn Bell remains one of the most distinctive and in its own way lovely guitars ever built almost a century on.
Overall length is 37 in. (94 cm.), 15 1/2 in. (39.4 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 5/8 in. (625 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a very well-worn guitar, heavily played by one or more adventurous guitarists over the last 98 years. The original very thin finish appears to have been oversprayed fairly early on with a thin coat of clear lacquer, which shows subsequent moderately heavy wear overall. There is some deeper pickwear on the top to the wood below the strings and beneath the fingerboard extension. There are scrapes, dings and dents overall, with some noticeable checking and occasional flaking and some fairly heavy moisture damage to the lower back, which appears to have occurred many decades ago. The back of the neck is somewhat worn as well, mostly small dings and dents along the spine and the headstock edges, where some finish has flaked off.
This guitar has recently been restored to excellent playing condition with a clean neck set, fingerboard true and carefully period correct refret. The ebony "smile" bridge is a very well-executed reproduction of the original. There is a filled strap button hole in the back just below the heel. For such a heavily used instrument this Bell has remarkably little in the way of cracks, only the back center seam resealed and one repaired grain split just below it. This is an eccentric but fine-playing X-braced guitar with a sweet and resonant sound; an unusual and very cool example of this unique 1920s period piece, an instrument that we rarely see. It still lives in the original battered but solid and functional shaped HSC, thankfully as nothing else would ever fit! Overall Very Good + Condition.
This is a well-worn but fine playing example of one of the rarest Lyon & Healy creations, the Washburn Model 5270 "Bell" guitar. This unusually shaped instrument was a product of Lyon & Healy's last big push in the guitar market in the mid-1920s, before the company got out of the manufacturing and wholesale business in 1928. While many other Washburn designs were continued into the subsequent Tonk Brothers line, the Bell was not and vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Lyon & Healy introduced two Bell models in the 1925 catalog, pitched as absolute top of the line guitars. "The most beautiful guitar in the world" they claimed, though C.F. Martin might have offered the 000-45 as a contrary argument! This Model 5270 Bell with mahogany back and sides was priced at $165 (exactly the same as that Martin pearl-trimmed 000) while the rosewood model 5271 listed at an outrageous $195, making it the most expensive flat-top guitar in the world in 1925. Unsurprisingly both of these models are very rare, with the 5271 being nearly non-existent! The few that do surface often have features not exactly as specified; this mahogany 5270 has an ebony bridge and fingerboard instead of the cataloged rosewood.
"The remarkable graceful design of this instrument is the invention of out Washburn experts" offers the catalog "It represents a great advance in guitar construction. (It) brings a new beauty to the appearance of the guitar (and) has an extraordinary effect on the tone". The Bell guitars were certainly unusual; nothing like them has been seriously attempted before or since! The lightly built mahogany body is 15 1/2" wide at the "bell" peaks, carrying a lightly built X-braced red spruce top bound with B&W purfling lines around the top, sides and back. The mahogany neck has a medium "V" profile topped with an unbound, dot inlaid ebony fingerboard.
The distinctive ebony "Smile" bridge with delicately curved ends is another signature Lyon & Healy feature, as is the raised celluloid ring set around the sound hole edge in place of any conventional inlay. The top is adorned with Washburn's trademark delicate gold leaf filigree designs, something that subsequently kicked around other Chicago makers from the early '20s up into the late '30s. The slotted headstock is faced in rosewood and topped with a pointed crown; the tuners are beautiful engraved plate strips with grained ivoroid buttons. A white Washburn label adorns the inside back, with the Lyon & Healy stamp on the backstrip.
This very rare guitar is very well-made of excellent materials. It is a very responsive guitar, quite suitable for fingerpicking styles and offering a surprising volume when strummed. The sound is geared towards midrange rather than bass but not thin, with a good sing in the high end. Bell models popped up with a few Vaudeville artists in the 1920s (Where are you, Witt & Berg?) but is mostly remembered as the favorite guitar of poet Carl Sandburg, who owned several and played them quite a bit. Actor Fess Parker played a Bell on the pilot for the early 1950s "Davy Crockett" TV show; it may well have been specifically chosen for its unusual look. While perhaps a blind alley in flat-top perfection, the Washburn Bell remains one of the most distinctive and in its own way lovely guitars ever built almost a century on.
Overall length is 37 in. (94 cm.), 15 1/2 in. (39.4 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 5/8 in. (625 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a very well-worn guitar, heavily played by one or more adventurous guitarists over the last 98 years. The original very thin finish appears to have been oversprayed fairly early on with a thin coat of clear lacquer, which shows subsequent moderately heavy wear overall. There is some deeper pickwear on the top to the wood below the strings and beneath the fingerboard extension. There are scrapes, dings and dents overall, with some noticeable checking and occasional flaking and some fairly heavy moisture damage to the lower back, which appears to have occurred many decades ago. The back of the neck is somewhat worn as well, mostly small dings and dents along the spine and the headstock edges, where some finish has flaked off.
This guitar has recently been restored to excellent playing condition with a clean neck set, fingerboard true and carefully period correct refret. The ebony "smile" bridge is a very well-executed reproduction of the original. There is a filled strap button hole in the back just below the heel. For such a heavily used instrument this Bell has remarkably little in the way of cracks, only the back center seam resealed and one repaired grain split just below it. This is an eccentric but fine-playing X-braced guitar with a sweet and resonant sound; an unusual and very cool example of this unique 1920s period piece, an instrument that we rarely see. It still lives in the original battered but solid and functional shaped HSC, thankfully as nothing else would ever fit! Overall Very Good + Condition.