Hi Mike,
I had a very nice email from the guy who runs the Broadway site (he's going to add a pic or two to the site
).
He told me
Despite having 'Broadway Made in England' imprinted on your LG-50, this type of tremolo was never fitted to a Broadway guitar.
The principal of 'rocking' the string saddle bar is the same but Broadway guitars have tremolos arms that are different and have a chrome cover plate that hides the working mechanism. The plate is held by a large central screw which goes into the plate on the guitar body. The trem unit on the LG-50 does not have this.
Broadway was a brand name, applied by Rose-Morris to musical instruments from various sources, especially Japan. I would think it likely that your LG-50 was imported from the Guyatone factory and fitted with a Japanese tremolo unit but marked Broadway for the UK market.
However, the Guyatone LG-50 was also branded Antoria. As you probably know, these were especially for the UK market and Rose-Morris didn't handle the distribution of Guyatones. These were distributed by J.T. Coppock of Leeds but distributed as Antoria branded.
The Guyatone LG-50 was distributed by J.& I. Arbiter of London. So, we have two named guitars, an Antoria LG-50 and a Guyatone LG-50, both exactly the same except for the headstock. You can see where things start to get confusing!
I would suggest that the 'Broadway' tremolo unit on your Guyatone LG-50 is in fact a Japanese tremolo, either adapted for the UK market or made in the UK and fitted over here as an optional extra to an already imported Guyatone guitar.
Sadly I've made the decision to sell the LG-50 and I'm off to see a few specialist dealers in London next week. It would be very nice to keep it, but the apparent value is too much to ignore as unfortunately times are quite tight with me right now.
It is great to have had the interest here though!