The natural-finish top is bound in white celluloid, with a bound sound hole edge and small rectangular rosewood bridge.
It has a spruce top with ladder bracing over mahogany back and sides. This Gibson-made 5241 'Classic' Model is one of them. For a short time in the late 1930s Gibson picked up some of this contract work, resulting in a limited number of very nice Washburns born in Kalamazoo between 19. Tonk used it on their better fretted products but had them built by different suppliers, primarily Regal. Washburn had been Lyon & Healy's premium instrument brand from the 1880s through 1928 after that it passed to Tonk Bros, another Chicago jobber.
This very interesting pre-war 16' Jumbo guitar has two famous names behind it 'Washburn' on the headstock, and Gibson who actually built the instrument. Washburn Model 5241 Classic Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made by Gibson (1939), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, serial # 405, natural lacquer finish, mahogany back, sides and neck,spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.
