Black Bobbin Flat Iron Black Sparkle

The Black Bobbin Flat Iron draws inspiration from the Truetone Vanguard, a distinctive 1960s design built by Chicago’s Harmony Company for Western Auto. Its unique shape provided the foundation for the Flat Iron, reimagined with a newly designed offset waist and elevated with premium hardware and pickups. The result honors the legacy of Chicago-made guitars while delivering the playability and performance we expect from every Black Bobbin instrument.

The Flat Iron takes its name from the iconic Flat Iron Arts Building in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, the building Black Bobbin is proud to call home and a landmark with its own connection to the city’s musical history. In 1918, the legendary Lyon & Healy operated a retail storefront in the building, selling sheet music to Wicker Park’s growing Polish community. More than a century later, Black Bobbin continues that musical connection from within the same building. We carried that history into the guitar itself with a custom neck plate featuring artwork inspired by the ornate architectural flourishes found on the building’s facade.

The Flat Iron also expands on our longstanding relationships with Lollar Pickups and Mastery Bridge. A pair of Lollar Low Wind Imperial humbuckers delivers an open and articulate take on classic humbucker tone, with exceptional clarity, dynamics, and presence. The Mastery M7 bridge provides the stability, precision, and performance Mastery is known for while fitting naturally into the Flat Iron’s distinctive design.

Built in Chicago by Black Bobbin in partnership with Lockhorn Instruments, the Flat Iron brings together the influence of Harmony’s mid-century designs, the legacy of Lyon & Healy in Wicker Park, and some of our most trusted collaborators. It’s a guitar rooted in Chicago’s instrument-making history and brought together in a distinctly Black Bobbin design.

Specifications

 Color: Black Sparkle
 Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
 Body: Alder
 Body Shape: Offset Waist
 Body Contour: Arm Contour
 Neck: Maple
 Neck Finish: Tobacco Tint
 Fretwire: Jescar 51100
 Scale Length: 25.5"
 Fretboard Radius: 12"
 Nut Width: 1.67"
 Pickups: Lollar Low Wind Imperial Humbuckers
 Pickup Rings: Custom Tortoise
 Pots: Vintage-Inspired 550k
 Capacitor: NOS K40Y-9 33nF
 Bridge: Mastery M7
 Case: Mono Vertigo Gig Bag