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Vintage and Rare Washburns / Re: Vintage Washburn Identify Please
« Last post by Tony Raven on Today at 12:44:06 PM »Aside from fancy "presentation" models, very few L&H instruments have major value. At their peak, L&H cranked them out by the cartload, literally.
Being "commodity" instruments, most were used to death then parked in the basement or attic, with no maintenance at all. In my experience, good acoustic guitars eventually NEED to have their necks reset, & sometimes other work (pull up & reglue the bridge, reattach the braces, etc.).
The early "parlor-size" guitars were originally intended for gut strings; because of their short scale, they adapted moderately well to steel strings without collapsing the top or ripping the heel loose -- initially, at least.
And the adjustable trussrod hadn't been invented yet. Very few guitars had any sort of neck reinforcement at all. People who restore/upgrade larger guitars might add a trussrod & maybe rearrange the braces.
An acquaintance told me he'd paid $200 for a beat-up but playable L&H, planned on putting $500 or so into restoring it, & asked what it'd be worth. I said he'd have a pretty good $700 guitar.
Fixing a guitar is like building a hotrod: do it for the experience & to have a fun toy, because if you ever try to sell it you'll be lucky to recoup even the parts cost. Fixing a guitar for one's own use minimizes downside, & the value will likely remain stable for eventual trade/resale.
I wouldn't eBay the neck separately. So long as you don't misrepresent what you've got, there's probably someone who'll pay more for shipping to get a vintage"project" guitar.
Being "commodity" instruments, most were used to death then parked in the basement or attic, with no maintenance at all. In my experience, good acoustic guitars eventually NEED to have their necks reset, & sometimes other work (pull up & reglue the bridge, reattach the braces, etc.).
The early "parlor-size" guitars were originally intended for gut strings; because of their short scale, they adapted moderately well to steel strings without collapsing the top or ripping the heel loose -- initially, at least.
And the adjustable trussrod hadn't been invented yet. Very few guitars had any sort of neck reinforcement at all. People who restore/upgrade larger guitars might add a trussrod & maybe rearrange the braces.
An acquaintance told me he'd paid $200 for a beat-up but playable L&H, planned on putting $500 or so into restoring it, & asked what it'd be worth. I said he'd have a pretty good $700 guitar.
Fixing a guitar is like building a hotrod: do it for the experience & to have a fun toy, because if you ever try to sell it you'll be lucky to recoup even the parts cost. Fixing a guitar for one's own use minimizes downside, & the value will likely remain stable for eventual trade/resale.I wouldn't eBay the neck separately. So long as you don't misrepresent what you've got, there's probably someone who'll pay more for shipping to get a vintage"project" guitar.
-- & at that might try to apply some sort of depreciation to that $100. Or they might skip that whole chase, say I didn't have a steel door or high-tech security system or armed guards, & deny my claim outright
).