Washburn Model 5246 Solo Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made by Gibson (1938), Period brown hard shell case.

Washburn Model 5246 Solo Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made by Gibson (1938), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, sunburst top, natural back and sides finish, rosewood back and sides, spruce top; laminated maple neck with ebony fingerboard, Period brown hard shell case. This is a very rare and extremely interesting pre-war flat top showing a lot of old repairs but a spectacular instrument nonetheless. It was made by Gibson for Chicago-based jobber Tonk Bros. who owned and operated the Washburn brand name in the 1930s. In both size and shape it is unique among Gibson flat tops, mating a narrow waisted nearly 16" jumbo body made of rosewood to a multi-laminated maple neck. Gibson rarely built rosewood flat tops, and this model is the most unique of the bunch with no Gibson-branded equivalent. While most off-brand Gibson products (Recording Kings and Kalamazoos, for instance) were definitely built to a price, Washburns were priced and sold as premium instruments and the construction and materials were not compromised to save a few bucks at Kalamazoo.Tonk Brothers used a fairly confusing, oft-changing system of 4-digit stock numbers and names to codify their Washburn line in the 1930's. This guitar has the plainer cosmetics of the model 5246 Solo, but is built of rosewood with a sunburst top which was specified for the Model 5249 Solo Deluxe. The 5246 was Tonk's next-to top of the line flat top in 1938-9, under the 5249 so this guitar is sort of a halfway point in between those two catalog specs! The instruments had been sourced from Regal up through 1937, then the next year Gibson took over production of the higher grade pieces which may have led to some of these inconsistencies. Why this happened is not recorded; some say Tonk and Regal had some sort of business falling out, or it is possible Gibson simply quoted a lower price that year. At any rate this is an X-braced rosewood "large auditorium" Guitar, 15 3/4" inches wide. The body has a narrower waist than Gibson's own Jumbos, which changes its character both visually and sonically. The back and sides are nicely figured rosewood finished natural, bound and with an elegant chain backstrip. The top is made of tight-grained Appalachian spruce in a dark sunburst livery, with a pickguard made of Gibson's "firestripe" celluloid in a more typically Regal shape. The soundhole edge is multi-bound but there is no rosette ring, another Regal-style feature. The bridge is a simplified version of the traditional Washburn "Smile" design, with the two bolts (under pearl dots) that Gibson typically used in the '30s to help hold them down along the back edge. The neck is made of 5-piece laminate maple, fairly slim for the period with a soft "V" profile and a 24 3/4' scale length. It is finished in shaded dark lacquer with an unbound, dot inlaid rosewood fingerboard and Gibson's period thin "French" heel design. The Washburn name is inlaid in pearl in the large rosewood-faced headstock, the tuners are pre-war Kluson strip units with beautiful amber plastic buttons. These Gibson made Washburns were not budget brand instruments; they were sold at prices comparable to Gibson's own merchandise. They are all extremely rare, especially the pro-grade models like this one. The only available figures suggest approximately 35 of the model 5246 were ever made, and how many were rosewood is open to question. This is an extremely well-crafted, high-grade instrument made with the finest materials available to Gibson at the time.This is a loud and responsive guitar with a tone that has a "Gibsonic" character but with the rosewood depth and the added midrange tightness of the slightly smaller body. It has no close equivalent in Gibson's, or really any one else's pre-WWII line. The Regal-built versions are fine guitars but sonically do not approach the majesty of this product of Kalamazoo. As an interesting footnote unused laminated maple neck blanks for these instruments left over at Kalamazoo found their way onto Gibson flat tops during WWII, when *anything* that could be used was! It seems Gibson made plans to build more of these Washburn Jumbos but somehow it never happened, leaving this as one of the company's more fascinating prewar rosewood rarities.Overall length is 40 1/4 in. (102.2 cm.), 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 5/16 in. (11 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.). This guitar has had a lot of very carefully done repair work, to a very high standard. It would appear this was at one point a re