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| Wayne was one of the early Australian guitar manufacturers, along with Pacific, Maton and probably a few others (click here to read a bit about Sydney's Powerhouse Museum record of these guitars). The factory was in Heidelberg, Melbourne, and was apparently owned and run by a Harry West. I have read an account of one man who bought a guitar directly from the factory in 1957. Many years ago I owned another Wayne-produced acoustic, long since sold, and at Grouse Guitars we have also had a later Wayne acoustic from their later period (in the '60s and early '70s) when they had their guitars made in Japan by one of the established factories there (click here to view it). The brand has long since disappeared from the Australian guitar manufacturing scene. I would guess the date of manufacture to be in the 1940s, or possibly early 1950s, whereas another example I have subsequently uncovered is a little later (click here to see it). This example was owned for a long time by a Canberra musician, and was identified as a Wayne both by him and by Canberra resonator specialist, Barron Clarke, who set up this vintage single-cone resonator guitar for lap style playing. The guitar would suit the player of square-neck lap-style guitar, and sounds great. Apparently the resonator cover identifies it as a Wayne, although I most certainly do not profess to have any expertise in this area! The guitar does, however, possess many of the characteristics of the early Australian guitars, and is very solidly built. The body is bound front and back, and is finished in a low-gloss but strangely attractive greenish stain. At some stage a pickup and balanced Cannon output was fitted to this guitar, with the Cannon socket initially being fitted to the face of the guitar, and later to the end block under the trapeze tailpiece mounting, probably because the initial position may have got in the way. The initial position has been blanked off with a black cover (see the pics in the 'more pictures' link below), and the disconnected Cannon is still fitted to the end block. This would be a very cool guitar to gig, and lends itself to having a pickup re-fitted for such use. The guitar comes with a non-original but perfectly serviceable hard shell case (which probably dates from the 1970s). Sold to Mitch
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