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Post subject: know anything about "washburn guitars"?
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 8:07 pm
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i got a $160 elec acoustic for a present. i had never heard of washburn before. At first i thought the bridge would rip out if i strummed the thing.Then i fell in love with the thin cutaway body. i mostly just play it as an acoustic around the house. just wondered if anyone heard of em or had anything to say about them.



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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 8:14 pm
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Washburn is one of the great American guitar makers. They've been building quailty instruments for over 100 years.

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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 8:21 pm
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My friend has a cheap Washburn. One that comes in a "starter pack" like Squier strats with an amp and all. Not a half-bad sounding/quality guitar for the $200 my friend got it for...'Cept the amp that came with it just plain ol' sucks, really muddy sounding (like a CRATE amp).


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:17 am
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Some washburns were good at one point. Their quality has slipped big time. Never liked their acoustics though, very weak sounding and not built the best. If you like yours though, great.


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:46 am
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dgonz wrote:
Some washburns were good at one point. Their quality has slipped big time. Never liked their acoustics though, very weak sounding and not built the best. If you like yours though, great.


That may be true of the Asian imports. The American-made Washburns were excellent guitars, and priced stupidly low for their value, thanks to a lack of big-name recognition.

When I needed a new acoustic 9 years ago, I searched every guitar store in Indiana, playing Guilds, Yamahas, Taylors, Martins, Gibsons... everything I could find. I was looking for something that reminded me of the awesome playability and balanced response of my long-gone mid-70s Guild F50R. After scouring stores in South Bend, Indianapolis, Elkhart, Lafayette and Fort Wayne, I came up empty.

And then one evening on a whim I walked down to this mom-and-pop shop just a few blocks from my house. They didn't have any name brands, but I was bored.... what the ehck, right?

They had a brand new sunburst Washburn Cumberland, an American-made guitar that I simply could not stop thinking about. I walked down there and played it every day for a week, and then I bought it for $800 with a hardshell case. Everyone who sees or plays this guitar is knocked out by the tone, the ease of playing, and the lovely workmanship.

Two years ago I got hooked on the acoustic recordings of Snuffy Walden, and decided I just HAD to have a Taylor, since Snuffy plays them. I played 2 dozen Taylors before I gave up... not one of them was as good as my Washburn. I decided it wasn't the guitar, but the way he plays that makes Snuffy's recordings sound so nice.

Here's a recording of me learning to emulate Snuffy Walden's tone. This is my Washburn acoustic into a Shure KSM32, with just a touch of compression on mixdown. 2 rhythm tracks, one lead.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/Snuffles.mp3

See? You just need to find a good one. BTW, this track is ©2007 Gravity Music/Jim Bordner (ASCAP), all rights reserved.


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:51 am
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Not quite 4 years ago, 'bought 2 Wasburn Rover Travel Guitars, $149 each with a hard-ish case, one being for daughter to take to college.

The non-daughter one has been on a bunch of business trips on airplanes and is a porch guitar. 24 inch scale, manufactured in China, 'been a great 'cheap guitar.'

'Bought a C 104SCE cheap-ish classical last summer to finally begin learning the genre. Again, made in China, it's a darned nice guitar, all in all.

No complaints at all.


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:53 am
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Gravity Jim wrote:
dgonz wrote:
Some washburns were good at one point. Their quality has slipped big time. Never liked their acoustics though, very weak sounding and not built the best. If you like yours though, great.


That may be true of the Asian imports. The American-made Washburns were excellent guitars, and priced stupidly low for their value, thanks to a lack of big-name recognition.

When I needed a new acoustic 9 years ago, I searched every guitar store in Indiana, playing Guilds, Yamahas, Taylors, Martins, Gibsons... everything I could find. I was looking for something that reminded me of the awesome playability and balanced response of my long-gone mid-70s Guild F50R. After scouring stores in South Bend, Indianapolis, Elkhart, Lafayette and Fort Wayne, I came up empty.

And then one evening on a whim I walked down to this mom-and-pop shop just a few blocks from my house. They didn't have any name brands, but I was bored.... what the ehck, right?

They had a brand new sunburst Washburn Cumberland, an American-made guitar that I simply could not stop thinking about. I walked down there and played it every day for a week, and then I bought it for $800 with a hardshell case. Everyone who sees or plays this guitar is knocked out by the tone, the ease of playing, and the lovely workmanship.

Two years ago I got hooked on the acoustic recordings of Snuffy Walden, and decided I just HAD to have a Taylor, since Snuffy plays them. I played 2 dozen Taylors before I gave up... not one of them was as good as my Washburn. I decided it wasn't the guitar, but the way he plays that makes Snuffy's recordings sound so nice.

Here's a recording of me learning to emulate Snuffy Walden's tone. This is my Washburn acoustic into a Shure KSM32, with just a touch of compression on mixdown. 2 rhythm tracks, one lead.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/Snuffles.mp3

See? You just need to find a good one. BTW, this track is ©2007 Gravity Music/Jim Bordner (ASCAP), all rights reserved.


$1700 is a stupidly low price for a Washburn with 2 EMG pickups? I've heard of Jacksons with EMGs and Floyd Roses going for lower than that.

http://www.washburn.com/products/electr ... wi460.aspx

Where I got my information.


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 10:01 am
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Rocker_Gamma wrote:

$1700 is a stupidly low price for a Washburn with 2 EMG pickups? I've heard of Jacksons with EMGs and Floyd Roses going for lower than that.

http://www.washburn.com/products/electr ... wi460.aspx

Where I got my information.



No.... $800 (what my Cumberland went for new) is a stupidly low price for a really good acoustic.

Here's one kind of like mine (mine has a "vintage tint" finish on the top and fancy inlays)...

http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDe ... em=1790790

You can find used American-made Washburn dreadnaughts for 5 bills that will crush anything you can buy for that price.

ALso, $1699 is MSRP on that guitar. That means it would actually sell for something like $1150 (70% of list).


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 12:04 pm
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Gravity Jim wrote:
That may be true of the Asian imports. The American-made Washburns were excellent guitars, and priced stupidly low for their value, thanks to a lack of big-name recognition.

....

Here's a recording of me learning to emulate Snuffy Walden's tone. This is my Washburn acoustic into a Shure KSM32, with just a touch of compression on mixdown. 2 rhythm tracks, one lead.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/Snuffles.mp3

See? You just need to find a good one. BTW, this track is ©2007 Gravity Music/Jim Bordner (ASCAP), all rights reserved.



Nice recording. Great one and very cool music, good production too. I've just never played a Washburn I've liked. I had an A20V back in the day, and I played a Bettencourt model that was kind of cool. I've played a number of their acoustics (but not your model) and they've never done anything for me though. I've never been an avid fan, so I never looked any harder to find the right Washburn for me, since I've found others that I loved and fit my very well.

But I may have to give them another look if I want to expand my guitar stable (wife will be happy about that :)


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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:52 pm
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Washburn was pretty big in the late 80s into the 90s, and even had the first Dimebag Darrell signature guitars, because for some reason Dean didn't do anything for Dimebag even though he was playing their guitars....I actually didn't realize they were still around....

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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 2:13 pm
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Rocker_Gamma wrote:
My friend has a cheap Washburn. One that comes in a "starter pack" like Squier strats with an amp and all. Not a half-bad sounding/quality guitar for the $200 my friend got it for...'Cept the amp that came with it just plain ol' sucks, really muddy sounding (like a CRATE amp).


I absolutely despise Crate amps...

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