Washburn Guitars Opinions

[arbutusq]

I had a washburn mandolin in the 90's that was pretty decent, but I didn't think much of their guitars until Thursday when I played a friend's washburn dred, which cost next to nothing new and was probably all plywood. Did it sound like a Martin? No but it did have a lot of volume and a decent tone, especially for the money.

Your experience probably varies from guitar to guitar.

[ship of fools]

At one time washburn under Rudy Schaller was one of the top leading sellers in the world and even today they rank 3rd in selling acoutics guitars.
The only folks who hate them are mostly those who never really had a chance nor wanted to try and play them. It was only very recently that I had tried a Washburn 2003 and from that point I knew that I had been like most folks who thought of them as cheap cardboard type guitars. And soon after found that they were a great guitar and yes some needed some tewaking, but for the price point I still say I would put my Washbur 2003S up against a lot of todays Gibsons and some Taylors and most Breedloves and even some of todays Martins, not all but it plays and sounds as good if not nbetter in a lot of these cases.
Like all makers they have some dudes and some true gems and at one point I had over 30 of them and have learnt about as much about them as I could (even being a moderator on their forum for a while ) from todays to the old Lyon&Healy and Tonk Vrothers to the Regal made.
And yes some of the Indonesian models were terrrible and a few were good, but the very best were the very early ( Beckmen { The, the W300-12 , W-500 & the W-600 } ) and the Yamaki line and some of their customs ( Ihave the D-78SW from their Custom shop before it was closed in 2008 ).
So it all depends on who you talk to but like all we all have our loves of makers and I never try to say this one is better then that, as long as you are making music thats all that matters to me.I am down to 5 Washburn left as I had to downsize from a 3 bedroom down to one once my last kid left home, but they are my keepers till the good lord calls me home to play some music for him.Washburn Lover.

Ship

[Rob01085]

Hi,

I am looking at two Washburn Jumbos. They are the Washburn WSJ124 Southern Jumbo Vintage Guitar and the Washburn WSJ125 Anniversary Series Antique Jumbo Acoustic Guitar. I have never either or played any Washburn. Does anyone have any experience with these guitars? They are both in the $500 range. Is this considered the top tier of Washburn? I am trying to decide if it is worth finding and going to play these guitars.

Thanks,

Rob

[docsuds]

I had a Washburn J28 Cumberland jumbo for a few years, solid sitka over quilted maple laminate. It was beautiful, played fairly well, and held tune extremely well with the Buzz Feiten tuning system. It was like a poor man's Guild JF-30. I liked it but eventually moved on. Nothing wrong with Washburn's at all.

[ship of fools]

neither one of these is actually a jumbo, these would be closer to the middle of the road.ship

[patticake]

i have yet to play a washburn that sounded really good to me, and there are not all that many washburns around to try, either. i had heard great things about the cumberlands, but i guess they just didn't suit my personal tastes because i found the ones i tried disappointing, and that included a jumbo.

[David Eastwood]

I've had a Washburn J12SNA for 7 years or so.



My Martin was in the good hands of Charlie Hoffman having a new bridge installed, and I was suffering from acoustic withdrawal. I walked into my local GC one day, and saw this nice looking jumbo hanging on the wall, looking very lonely among all the classical guitars it was (mis)placed with. Picked it up, played it, liked it - and two visits later, took it home. It was used, so I didn't pay a lot (less than a new FG730) - but it has a solid top, nice wood binding, a very comfortable neck, and with the addition of a bone saddle, sounds very sweet indeed. I have a Baggs M1 in it, which suits it very well, and it sports a nice set of gold Grovers (thanks, Wade!)

It's my 'beater', but I can't really regard it as that - I genuinely enjoy playing it.

Guitars these days are much like cars. With a few notable exceptions, there are very few truly bad *brands* out there. Every maker is going to have their share of lemons, and the less expensive the model, the more likely you are to find one - but to reject a 'name' out of hand is a bit silly.

[Gostwriter]

I bought two identical Washburn AE 2000 Millenium models in 2000. They are really exceptionally beutiful gutiars one is sunburst and the other is cream or natural finish and I've gotten nothing but complments on them every time I open the case however one problem I've had with both of them is that the preamps will cut out occasionally. At first I taped the battery into the bottom of the holder as it seemed the battery might be slipping out of hte plastic holder but I still continued to have this problem again only accaisonlly. It can ruin a good song or save you from making a fool of yourself; either way I still love them and hope to get the preamp issue taken care of one of these days. I asked about it on hte forum a few weeks ago but haven't gotten any responses, not sure why?

[Eric.Hope]

My 2nd acoustic was a Washburn: an EA10MB. Though it was cheaply made (Solid Spruce top, Nato laminate back & sides, Nato neck), it was a beautiful-LOOKING guitar. Action was quite high when I bought it, though. I kept that guitar for about 10 years, and had the action set number of times, so by the time I was done with it, it was playing pretty nicely. And it always had a nice enough sound to it, both plugged-in & UN-plugged (I would even say that it sounded a lot BETTER by the time I sold it last year). Ultimately ended up getting rid of it, though, as I discovered that I was more comfortable with wider necks (my Washburn had a 1-11/16" nut width, which is just TOO narrow for me), so I replaced it with my current Takamine ETN30C. I also had one of their parlor guitars briefly, an R320SWRK. This was, again, a BEAUTIFUL guitar, this one made out of higher-quality materials: all solid woods, etc. Nice workmanship, but I was't loving the sound of that parlor, so I got rid of it. My first rationalization was that it was the small parlor body that made it sound that way, but then I went to one of my local stores & played the Blueridge BR-361 parlor, and realized that the parlor size had nothing to do with me not liking the sound of the Washburn, because this Blueridge had all the warmth & sweetness of sound that the Washburn lacked, despite its small size. So, the moral of this story is, Washburns are, to me, just OK; just kind of fair. They know how to make a BEAUTIFUL guitar, that's for sure (that parlor is still one of the most beautiful ones I've ever played), but I believe there are better guitars out there. You can get a Recording King or a Silver Creek for even less money, and those are, to me, better guitars. You can also get a Seagull for about the same money, and those are VERY well-made. And I've already mentioned Blueridge. Nice stuff from them. Take it on a case-by-case basis, and trust your ears, but do compare Washburns with some of the brands I've mentioned here. There's a WORLD of stuff out there right now.

[Weird Snake Joe]

Back in the 90's, some of the standard lines had cedar tops...the D25S certainly did (maybe some D10's, too). Anybody have any experience with them, or know its sound compared to a Seagull or Tak?

[LiFeStArTs@40]

My friend has one. It was a starter guitar for him. He eventually got a takamine and still has the Washburn. He's been told many times by good players that if he were to sell it they would buy it right now. It's a wonderful player that sounds really good.

[pescadore]

The last acoustic I sold was a 1973-75 Gibson J-50 and my Washburn D-10S sounds much better than the Gibson did.

[Tele1111]

The Washburn "factory" (whatever it is) Is about eight blocks from me. They do some guitar work there, as once many moons ago, I asked if they might have a part time job for me. Close to home, we have guitars in common, etc. I'm pretty sure they said something about me being "over qualified" for the position they were offering. (I think it was for a set-up tech)

I like Wade's answer VERY much. If you change the word Washburn in his post to "insert any guitar brand name here" it would mirror my sentiments exactly. I cant speak to their quality or anything else. I've played a few of the really old ones, and a couple sounded very good. But I've played nothing close to recent. In my early days of playing/attempting to sound like I could play, I played some guitars I wouldn't like much now. But I did like them a lot when I was playing them. It doesn't mean they were bad, it just means my opinions/tastes have changed. When I was a kid I loved Beefaroni. I wouldn't eat it now if you paid me. I wasnt wrong then, and I'm not wrong now. So somethings changed. I like both answers.

[Aiello1218]

Originally Posted by RussMason

OK, I don't much like the guitar sets on eBay that are dirt cheap and the guitars are colorful plywood. But Washburn is a good brand, and - as someone said - if you get a something better than their entry-level instruments, you could have nice guitar.

I am not aware of any Gibston haters either. If someone offered me a J45 at a good price, or the John Lennon model (160?) I wouldn't pass either up.

Just occurred to me - I don't think I have ever seen any threads about Dean guitars. A few years ago, they offered an all-solid Sweetwood series. The price was very low and they looked great. I was going to buy one, but then I missed my chance. Dang.

Mitchell is another brand. I think the original Mitchells were hand made, but the more recent ones are fairly inexpensive and not very good.

Oh, there was, and may still be, a line of Indiana guitars. I was quite taken with the Syracuse model and found one on eBay for cheap. Bought it right away. It was pretty bad, but I worked on it to sound half-way decent. It was a very good looking guitar, but it was I think all laminate. That model has been discontinued, but they still have the 'Scout' model which, in addition to looking like a normal guitar, have offerings where the tops are painted as flags - Britain, USA, rebel, etc.

I cleaned up a youth group kid's Mitchell guitar, polished the frets, new strings, etc. That thing sounded absolutely amazing, almost as good as my Larrivee. I wanted to buy it from the kid right then and there. It was by far one of the best sounding guitars I have ever heard. I couldn't believe it.

[leehop71]

Good discussion and personal experiences shared, but, for me, it's the old Chevy vs Ford banter!
Jack