Lyon & Healy Parlor Guitar Circa 1905 / Over a Century of Seasoning! / June Special!!!

For sale is a gorgeous Lyon & Healy Parlor Guitar, in Excellent Restored Condition, which probably dates from about 1905.  If you haven’t played parlor guitars before, this one will make you a believer.  This twelve fret darling would be considered 0-Size and reflects the culmination in design of the first wave of American guitars, those made after the Civil War and before the First World War.  We can not get over the quality and volume of sound that jumps off this fingerpicking classic!

We’re calling it a Lyon and Healy, though the guitar has no branding or markings of of any kind.  As many know, Lyon and Healy was a very large instrument manufacturer out of Chicago and, like Harmony and Regal, made guitars as a “jobber” for a number of other companies.  Among those and probably most notably, was Washburn.  One of the stand-out features of this guitar is the distinctive binding of the top and back.  We have found the same binding in use on a Washburn Style 217, and the same binding and fretboard inlays on a Lyon and Healy Lakeside.  There were dozens of different models of parlor guitar made at the time, many of which shared the same basic designs, executed in different tone woods and with differing trim options.  Many of those guitars seem to exist in model name only, with no surviving pictures for comparison.  So, after a lot of consideration, and what we can find about some of the different brands, it seems most likely to be a Lyon & Healy made guitar, possibly for Washburn or for another company with the one notable change of a Mahogany back and sides (Washburns of the time rarely used Mahogany).

Here are the important specs:

Spruce Top

Mahogany Back and Sides

Decorative Inlaid Marquetry

Cedar Deep V neck

Rosewood Fretboard

Replacement Rosewood Bridge

Replacement Tuners

Ladder Braced

20” Radius Fretboard

Total Length: 37”

Scale: 24 1/4”

12 Frets to the Body

Lower Bout Width: 13” (0 Size)

Upper Bout Width: 9 1/4”

Body Length: 18 1/8”

Body Depth: 3 5/8”

Nut Width: 1 7/8”

String Spacing at Bridge: 2 1/8”

Action at 12th Fret: Low E 5/64”, High E 1/16”

Coming into the shop this guitar had already had, and also needed, a lot of work.  It appears that originally, the guitar had a trapeze style tailpiece and a floating bridge, which was replaced at some point with a pin bridge.  The tuners had already been replaced.  Some of the interior cleating to secure the center seam of the back had also been replaced (notably, this is where Lyon & Healy would have had their Brand Marking).  

Here is a list of what we did to restore the guitar:

Lubricated the tuners

Cleaned the Body and Fretboard

Repaired / Reglued two back braces

Cleated and glued a crack in the back, upper bass bout, near the neck block

Reglued the Center Seam of the Back

Glued loose Soundhole Binding

Glued the Bridge Down

Filled holes left by the old Trapeze Bridge

Reattached Loose Binding along the neck and headstock

Repaired the Cracked Fretboard Extension

Removed and Reset the Neck for an optimized neck angle

Made a New Bone Saddle

Adjusted the Nut Slot Depths

Leveled and Crowned the Frets

Lemon Oiled the Fretboard and Bridge

Strung with a fresh set of D’Addario Silk and Steel Light Gauge Strings

Restored, the guitar plays cleanly up and down the fretboard and has a wonderfully deep and resonant tone.  The 1 7/8” wide nut makes this an ideal guitar for finger style playing and the action is comfortable all along the neck.  It certainly has evidence of a long and “played-in” life, but is structurally sound and ready for its next, forever home.  Treated with some respect, this guitar will outlive you and me.

If our research could have pinned down an exact maker for this instrument, it would probably command a price closer to $3000.  But, we can’t, and that is reflected in the pricing we’ve set for it.  You’re getting a guitar here worth considerably more than what we are asking.

Please be sure to check out and zoom in on the photographs, as we’ve tried to capture this guitar from all angles. It will ship in a worn but functional, chipboard case.

This Early 1900s Parlor Guitar is sold AS IS, and is not returnable unless it arrives in a condition other than as described or photographed, here.

Price: $2100.00 plus $145 shipping (Lower 48 USA, only)