Question: Tell me about Washburn guitars

BlackCat

American Greaser
One of my personal guitar role models had a Washburn dreadnaught back in the late 1970's. I didn't know much about guitars at the time but the guy sounded great. I got the impression that Washburn was a high end brand.

Since the internet I've heard some negative stuff about Washburn but I still have no personal experience with the brand.

Is this the story of an American brand that moved production off shore and the quality went down?

I'm asking this because there is a very fine looking 1990's Washburn electric archtop on Reverb for a very reasonable price. The price really seems too good to be true for a quality archtop.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has first hand experience with the brand.
 
The original company stopped making guitars in the late 30's and the name was resurrected in the early 70's as a name applied to import guitars from Japan for department stores. The company traded hands a bunch but never really developed a significant manufacturing effort, relying on vendors in Asia to make guitars for them (not an uncommon practice in the guitar business). As is the case with all guitars that are made by subcontractors, there are great ones and not so great ones, and it often varies by model and year as to who made them and if they are any good. So, if it is after 1939, it isn't original Washburn guitar and it is just a name used for selling imports. I think they have a small USA custom shop that does their artist series stuff, but that too might be a subcontractor. I kind of thought they didn't make any guitars. I also recall they got into trouble a few years back for selling Asian import guitars with a made in the USA label on them. I think it was from the Nuno Bettencourt model line up, but I might be thinking of another company. US Music owns them now. They also own Parker, Marshall, Randall, Oscar Schmidt, and Jay Turser.
 
I used to have two local Washburn dealers. Can’t say I ever played one I wanted to own. Quality on the production stuff was all over the map from what I recall. Funny, back over the holiday break I was chatting with a friend who used to live in the same place and frequent the same shops. He had the same recollection.
 
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I had '84 Washburn "Tour 24" exactly like the one pictured below. It was a damn fine guitar in all the important ways. It played great, sounded great, stayed in tune, solidly built etc.

I quite liked it and often wish I'd kept it. My first MIJ Contemporary Telecaster made it redundant, and the Fender was noticeably better (also twice the price).

Anyway, hit and miss is the order of the day with them. Always try before you buy.

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Yup, hit and miss for sure, but I think Washburn gets a slightly-worse-than-warranted rep overall. They have/had quite a few MIKs that were made by Samick or Cort that were decent-to-good, especially their '90s semi-hollows, and even the more recent MIC/MII ones are pretty good. Some of the more recent Parallaxe series are pretty good, with good specs.

Generally speaking, they are about on par with most of the other Asian imports in the comparable price ranges.

BC, my guess is that the one you are looking at is probably a Korean Samick-made archtop, and there's nothing wrong with that :)
 
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A friend of mine has owned a T-Bird since the early 80s. Double cut mahogany slab, 2 HBs, bolt on 3 piece maple neck, brass saddles on a hefty hardtail bridge, decent tuners. Simple guitar solid as a rock and sounds great.
It looks like this one


I say play it then decide.
 

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I have 2...

The first is my 1989 WP50 Les Paul...

20170702_104956 by jelloman 1965, on Flickr

I bought this new from Musicians Friend for 500.00 before there was an internet...it's an 8.9 pound chunk of mahogany and maple with a slim-taper neck...in all the years I've owned it it's only needed 2 truss rod adjustments, and the action is lower and faster than any other guitar I've ever seen...

The one and only negative I can say about it is the electronics it originally came with sucked...the pickups were brittle sounding and microphonic and the pots were lower quality...I have it wired up with genuine Gibson '57 classics and CTS pots and Switchcraft switch and jack...

I will put this thing up against any Les Paul ever made...
 
I've done set-ups on a couple of shredder Washburns from the 80's and they were really below average guitars so I've never looked again.
 
My other Wahburn is this 1999 EA2000 Millenium Edition...

20170702_110700 by jelloman 1965, on Flickr

I bought this in 2000...it originally had an MSRP of 1000.00, was selling usually around 600.00...MF was blowing them out for 400.00, and I had an email coupon for 100.00 off any order so I got it for 300.00

Played unplugged it's not too great...a little thin with no bottom or body, but it's only 1.75" deep, so that's no surprise...plugged in the Equis preamp is excellent, with a wide range of tonal adjustment available and a LOT of volume...volume-wise it puts my Taylor to shame...

The neck is profiled pretty thin and C-shaped, somewhere between a '59 and a '60s profile, and plays a lot like an electric...the action has come up some, and the strings have worn grooves in the saddle, which means I have some work to do on it, but it is still VERY playable...

I have put this guitar on Reverb multiple times, but every time I play it I decide to keep it, even though my Taylor makes it a bit surplus...
 
Washburns are like most East Asian guitars with a brand name slapped on. The resale value sucks, so watch Craigslist and you can score a nice one used.
 
I had one identical to this in the early 90s. Same finish & gold hardware. I also had a nice late 70s Martin clone that I regret selling.

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I don't remember that at all :eek:

I do know there is a pic of Dimebag playing a Hamer that looks like the Dean ML, but with the Hamer banana headstock.

I think it came out between The Great Southern Trendkill and Reinventing the Steel; on the latter, his Stealth model was prominently featured.
 
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