Cool Guitar Find - Tonk Brothers Sterling Parlour Guitar and a Ukelele

Got a chance to visit a friend over on "Ontario's West Coast" for the weekend. He and his family own a general store and mini-put off the Bluewater Highway, and have a guest cabin that we were lucky enough to get a spot at after a last minute cancellation.

Beyond a visit to the beach, we went into Goderich, where as luck would have it I found a music store.  My wife was less than surprised. With a wall of Ibanez guitars, a floor of Laneys, and two kids in tow, I didn't have much time to start pulling guitars off the wall...

My oldest however, was drawn to first the drums and then the brightly colored ukuleles.  She has a pink one was home, so she was keen touch each one that wasn't the same color as hers.

The owner followed us over and grabbed one off the rack.  Explained how they had just come in, and that they were cool because they were A) made entirely of ABS plastic, and B) glow in the dark.  

While I agreed that the glow in the dark part was cool, the plastic thing seemed weird, so I said "yeah, I've never been much for those.  Can't figure them out."

"No problem," he said. "Top four strings of a guitar, capoed at the 5th fret. Here, try."

No. Shit.

So we bought it.

We got back to my friend's place later, and I was keen to show the new Uke to my friends kids.  One seemed interested and said "We have grandma's old guitar downstairs.  Want to see it?"

"Sure," I replied.

Now, this kind of thing happens more often than you'd think; Someone discovers you like guitars, and remembers that they have an "old" guitar they'd like to show you. More often than not, it isn't worth you time or theirs.

This may be different.  From what I can tell, this is a Tonk Brothers Sterling guitar, made in Chicago before 1940. It's definitely had some (questionable) work done to it, including replaced tuners, installed pickup, replaced bridge (though the "new" one is a nice piece of rosewood).  The guitar was surprisingly playable as well, leading me to believe the nut and frets had been replaced (which is just dandy).

So is it worth anything?

Well, certainly more that a $100 Yamaha, but beyond that I'm not really all that sure.  The history of Tonk Brothers is here if you're interested.  These are, in a way, original Washburn guitars, which apparently has nothing to do with the modern incarnation of the name.

Cool.

It sounded GREAT.  The neck was absolutely massive, with just about the hardest "V" profile I've ever felt. Obviously the modifications seriously damage the value, but when you're dealing with a guitar this old it's hard to care much.  This is the cool old guitar you PLAY.

Next time I go I'll get better pictures.