jimmyprince - Posted - 06/14/2026:  19:42:06

What is this? 

Edited by - jimmyprince on 06/15/2026 12:46:57

Banjo 2

Banjo 3

Banjo

Culloden - Posted - 06/14/2026:  22:27:47

I'm making an educated guess here, Jimmy, since I couldn't enlarge the picture clearly. The peghead inlay makes me think Washburn. I once had a Washburn tenor banjo with that inlay. That's not a lot to go on, but it might put you on the right track.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 06/14/2026:  23:39:09

Mark has as good an educated guess as can be made, given the pic. I would also note that the type of banjo is one fitting the Washburn (i.e. Lyon & Healy} style. Hard to tell from the pic, but if the hooks go into, rather than over, the tension hoop, that would also suggest L&H. (A lot of Washburns had hooks over the tension hoop too.)

jimmyprince - Posted - 06/15/2026:  07:13:59

It looks to be older

Culloden - Posted - 06/15/2026:  07:51:26

George Washburn Lyon was one half of the Lyon and Healy team. He was actually a luthier; Patrick Healy was the mouthpiece of the company. They started the company in the 1860s, if I remember correctly. George Lyon started making a separate series of instruments, using his middle name as a trademark, in the late 1800s.
I attended a Sons of Confederate Veterans convention at the Patrick Henry Hotel in Roanoke in 1994, and, at the evening kickoff festivities, there were several parlor musicians performing in the upper mezzanine. One of the ladies had a beautiful old Washburn parlor guitar from the turn of the century.
So, Washburn instruments can be old.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 06/15/2026:  11:20:07

quote:

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Originally posted by Culloden

 there were several parlor musicians performing in the upper mezzanine. One of the ladies had a beautiful old Washburn parlor guitar from the turn of the century.

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Would those not be mezzanine musicians playing a mezzanine guitar?

Bill Rogers - Posted - 06/15/2026:  11:23:52

Some of us old folks who started playing in the ‘60s remember when “Washburn” referred only to the Washburn/Lyon & Healy instruments—before a distributor started putting the name on Asian-import instruments than bore no resemblance whatever to the pre-WWII Washburns.

jimmyprince - Posted - 06/15/2026:  12:47:33

quote:

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Originally posted by Culloden

I'm making an educated guess here, Jimmy, since I couldn't enlarge the picture clearly. The peghead inlay makes me think Washburn. I once had a Washburn tenor banjo with that inlay. That's not a lot to go on, but it might put you on the right track.

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I added a few more pictures