Interesting guitar, SeagullMan - it might well be one of the budget models that Lyon & Healy made a hundred or more years ago. That squared off headstock shape that we now think of as being a characteristically Martin shape was used by many competing companies back then, Lyon & Healy prominent among them.
There are several other forum participants on here that are much better versed in this era of guitars than I am, so hopefully they’ll see this thread and chime in. I do find it curious that the guitar has both bridge pins and a tailpiece, so it seems obvious that one or the other was added after the guitar left the factory.
The use of a length of fret wire for the saddle is a sign that this was definitely an inexpensive guitar in its day, as is the use of oak for the back and sides.
More than that I can’t tell you, except to mention that many of the guitars from this era that have pinned bridges weren’t intended for use with steel strings - steel guitar strings used to have loop ends, just as mandolin and banjo strings still have. Pinned bridges were used with gut strings - a knot was tied in the end of the string and the pin was wedged over it to hold it in place.
The use of ball ends on steel strings was an adaptation to the pinned bridges already in common use for gut string guitars, not the other way around. But because these days we tend to automatically associate pinned bridges with steel strings, many a gut string parlor guitar has been ruined by using steel strings on it.
So double check with whoever works on the guitar for you to make certain before you string it with steel.
Hope this helps.
Wade Hampton Miller
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