Wayne Amplyphone Resonator Guitar c.1948

The ‘Wayne’ Brand was created in the 1940s by Melbourne Hawaiian band leader and guitar maker Harry West, based on his stage name Wayne Ramero. At a time when acquiring an American guitar was time-consuming and expensive, Wayne made acoustic and single-cone resonator guitars.  This round neck ‘Amplyphone’ houses a standard Dobro cone, and cast aluminum ‘spider’, which we assume Harry acquired from the USA. He then built the bodies and the hand-made coverplate.  The tailpiece looks newer and is a standard Dobro style.  Tuners are vintage style 3-on-a-plate but we’re not certain if original.  The fretboard is most unusual, being made of a bakelite type substance – very hard and definitely not wood! Original frets are modern T style and in good condition, suggesting that most of the playing in the past was with a nut riser lap style.  This is also  suggested by the lacquer missing from the back of the body, where we believe some felt non-slip material was once glued on and then taken off.  The main thing is: lots of big  resonator volume and tone with no rattles, a great player!  A 1950s brown hard case of era completes the package.