Description
Washburn 5255 Superb 1934In the 1930?s guitars bearing the Washburn name were distributed by the Tonk Brothers. These were manufactured or assembled from parts by a few different builders, but the most notable was Regal, Chicago. In the early to mid 30?s these Tonk Bros. Washburns were some of the highest quality instruments ever built by Regal. Clearly these were built to compete with the best.Several high quality archtop models were cataloged in the mid ?30s. Though very well built instruments, they seemed somewhat archaic in design when compared with the offerings of Epiphone and Gibson from the period. Their short lived appearance on the 30?s scene and scarcity these days would indicate an unsuccessful effort, but surviving examples can be surprisingly unique and good sounding instrumentsThis style 5255 Superb was first cataloged in 1934-35 and is a slightly fancier version of the Collegian, the first round hole Washburn archtop that was introduced in the early 1930?s.The 15 1/2? auditorium sized body is similar in appearance to Martin?s C-1, C-2 and C-3 archtops. The top is carved spruce with X braces, while the flat braced back and sides are mahogany. This example has bar frets. The tone is big, warm and rustic, an archtop for all seasons.Courtesy D. Buettner
