Restore a lyon and healy lakeside guitar?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by DanPanther

Wade, if he knows the distance from the nut to the center of the saddle, couldn't he easily calculate the 12th fret position ? Looking at Cone-Heads photos it appears the bridge is movable.

Yep. Good call.


whm

[Cone Head]

Originally Posted by riverrummed

Cone Head-What's that Washburn off to the left in the above picture?

It's actually a very sweet little 1920s Stromberg-Voisinet. The bridge shape is very similar, but unlike Washburn, the S-V bridges have "pyramid" tips.
You can see the shape clearly here:
http://d1n51d37v3y820.cloudfront.net...gflwg4r_so.jpg

Originally Posted by DanPanther

WLooking at Cone-Heads photos it appears the bridge is movable.

Movable, and held in place with string tension.

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

It might be maple, but what was actually a more common practice back then was to use pearwood and dye it with black aniline dye, particularly on less expensive instruments.

Wade, you are quite correct.
I'm not sure why I typed "maple" because it is certainly pearwood...I guess I shouldn't talk on the phone and type at the same time.

[Wade Hampton]

After I wrote that it was more likely to be dyed pearwood than dyed maple, Cone Head wrote:

Originally Posted by Cone Head

Wade, you are quite correct.
I'm not sure why I typed "maple" because it is certainly pearwood...I guess I shouldn't talk on the phone and type at the same time.

Well, I wondered, because maple was considered a premium wood back then, and I've never heard of a musical instrument factory of the period dyeing it black. Because they certainly wouldn't have saved any money that way.


whm

[Truckjohn]

Pear wood is quite hard - and makes a good fretboard.
Most of these had rosewood fretboards.

100% get it sorted out. They really were high quality guitars.

You may not realize it but the George Lyon's middle name was Washburn. Those were Washburn guitars before there was a separate Washburn.

One thing.

Regal did make some (a few) of them under license. The internal bracing is a little different - the Regal made instruments have a diagonal cross brace directly below the sound hole where the Lyon and Healy ones have a more conventional straight across ladder. The regal also has a more pronounced "v" in the neck profile.

Either way they are high quality guitars well worth the work.

Thanks

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Truckjohn

Either way they are high quality guitars well worth the work.

I agree completely.


whm

[ship of fools]

They made what they called ebonized wood fretboards or Rosewood. And Regal's part in Washburn ( Lyon & Healy ) was around 1930 this one is much earlier and Regal guitars all had 20 frets which is what difference there was between them and the L&H and even the J.R.Stewart line ( they were mostly 18-19 fret instruments with a few exceptions ).
Also Gibson made guitars ( mandolins ) for them also for about 2 years around 38- 40ish

[brinkster]

I know it's been a while but I finally got the guitar looked at by Alan Perlman. Very nice guy by the way. He said the neck needs to be reset as well. With that and installing a fret board it will be quite expensive. His original quote was $1000 but he said he could probably bring it down to $800, maybe less.

At this point I don't feel it's worth the money to restore as I could buy a really nice acoustic for that price and the restoration won't add any value to the guitar. Thanks for your help guys. Maybe down the road if I can justify it I'll have the work done.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by brinkster

I know it's been a while but I finally got the guitar looked at by Alan Perlman. Very nice guy by the way. He said the neck needs to be reset as well. With that and installing a fret board it will be quite expensive. His original quote was $1000 but he said he could probably bring it down to $800, maybe less.

At this point I don't feel it's worth the money to restore as I could buy a really nice acoustic for that price and the restoration won't add any value to the guitar. Thanks for your help guys. Maybe down the road if I can justify it I'll have the work done.

You know... ...speaking of bringing it to a hack...

Not a long term fix but something to make it playable and leaving a restoration for later but I had the thought that if it needs a fretboard and a neck reset an option might be for a fretboard planed at an angle to take into account the need for a neck reset. No need to do a great finishing job as it will only be used as a player in this condition. In the future a little heat to release the board and do the full Monty to get the guitar restored.