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Re: Old Washburn Bowlback info
ON this same subject -
A friend just gave me an old Washburn bowl-back mandolin. Apparently it was last played in the 1950s. The body is in pretty good shape, but the headstock has been damaged and tragically repaired, then the headstock broke off wholesale from the neck, taking the dovetail with it. Not pretty.
The tragic repair involved bolting a steel plate to the front of the headstock with 8 or 9 through machine screws & nuts, then painting the steel plate copper-colored. Well, I hope that allowed someone to keep playing it for a few years, up into the 1950s.
Well, there's no model number on the end of the headstock, but there is a serial number inside: 18951 (note - only 5 digits). The instrument has 15 ribs (counting the wide ones along the edge.) The ribs are nice B. Rosewood, by all appearances. Can anyone here guess a date range of manufacture? Here's a photo of the label inside: Attachment 196197
Re: Old Washburn Bowlback info
Pleijsier's book dates the "Best In the World" label to "1906/7 - 1915." (p. 24) He states serial numbers from around this time would include "low 19,000's" for "around 1915." (p. 236) So "1915" would be about the best guesstimate. The Washburn models 1615 and 1620, both made around this time, listed as having 15 rosewood ribs in the catalog. (p. 151)
Re: Old Washburn Bowlback info
Thanks so much for that info!
Topher