Instrument Company, which had purchased the "Regal" brand name in 1908 from Lyon & Healy (who acquired it in 1905). Regal was chosen to reopen the Washburn factory (producing Regal instruments as well). Though the Washburn brand was preserved, it never regained its preeminence, and by the early 1940s had declined to nothing. Revival An unbroken lineage is often alluded to by Washburn International, in press releases and advertising materials, and on the company website: However, there is no direct connection between the original Washburn brand and the modern Washburn International. In the early 1960s, retail store The Chicago Guitar Gallery hired Rudolf "Rudy" Schlacher, a young German violin builder, as a repair technician. A few years later, Schlacher opened The Sound Post in Evanston, Illinois, to focus on guitars. He soon realized the sales potential for quality instruments of modest cost. Tom Beckmen and his wife Judy Fink Beckmen in 1972 left careers as music salesman and teacher (respectively) to launch a wholesale music business in Los Angeles, Beckmen Musical Instruments. It was Beckmen Music that resurrected the Washburn name, and beginning in 1974 applied it to a series of quality imported acoustic guitars, made in Japan by Terada, as well as a selection of mandolins and banjos. Fritz Tasch, Rudy Schlacher and Rick Johnstone, as Fretted Industries, Inc., acquired the Washburn name in 1977 (for $13,000) when the Beckmens took their business a different direction, The corporate offices of U.S. Music were relocated to Buffalo Grove, Illinois in 2012. Production Very few modern Washburn instruments have been built by the company itself. It has relied on outside factories and luthiers to fulfill their designs and meet public demand. The first modern Washburn instruments were full-size acoustic guitars imported from Japan by Beckmen Music. The 1974 range included one folk-style guitar (W-200) and eight dreadnoughts of increasing quality and decoration: W-240-12, W-250, W-260, W-280, W-300, W-300-12, W-500, W-600. Under Rudy Schlacher, most Washburn models were ordered in runs of 200 units, rather than ongoing production; if sales went well, further runs might be ordered. This application of just-in-time manufacturing (or lean manufacturing) kept the company from needing to warehouse and liquidate overproduction, improving profitability. As a result, Washburn models (acoustic or electric) sometimes became difficult to locate between production runs. The first Washburn electric guitars were the Wing Series models, offered 1978-1984. These instruments featured innovative push-pull split humbuckers,