[mdunn]

The store where I have purchased my new Taylors is a Washburn dealer. I have played several Washburns and they very nice guitars. They offer a good variety of models, woods and finishes. Unlike Taylor they are really very different sounding model to model. Maybe I should say there was a wider variety of sounds from the Washburn models I have played. Some I liked and some sounded like Gibsons or very boomy Martins. The quality of the build, fit and finish was very good on all the Washburns that I have played. I thnk they are a good value for the money.

My advice is to find the model you are interested in and play it first.

I belive that most of the good Washburns are Korean made. Probably by Samick. They also build their high end guitars in America and most likely they are sourcing the low end from China.

Washburn got into some troble with the FTC a few years back for removing the made in Korea stickers and replacing them with made in America stickers.

And they crazy part is that the owner of Washburn Guitars lived 7 houses down from me until about 3 years ago. I didn't know it at the time and it was before I got back into guitar playing. Small world Huh!