What Happened To Washburn Guitars?
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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I have 7 Washburn guitars. All from the 90s and very early 2000s. Love them. Wish they still were as big a name today as they used to be, because they made quality stuff.
I have 11 guitars, most fairly nice. I had played a Washburn WI64 before and liked it a lot. I saw a deluxe version of the guitar for sale used online at guitar center, everybody knows how they only take 1 picture of their used guitars and it’s always the worst quality picture you’ll ever see. So I took a chance and bought the guitar for $200. And it came absolutely immaculate. I was expecting it to be beat up but it was close to flawless. I checked the serial number and turns out it is a 1999 made in Korea Washburn. Needless to say I was stoked and several years later it’s probably the guitar I play the most. Those Korean made guitars are the truth
@@MadGunny Agreed! As far as I know, four of mine were made in Korea - 2 X series and 2 Chicago Series. You wouldn't think it but Korea makes really good stuff. China, notsomuch - but Korea, yes.
For reference, the shirt in the beginning says “love yourself like malmstoon loves malmstoon”, malmstoon, for those who don’t know, is the name of kaylen’s legally distinct sidekick character.
Yes 👍🏼
@@sixstringtv1isnt your name Kenan?
No, but I've been called worse
@@sixstringtv1I thought your name was mia
Yngwie would ❤this...🤣🤣🤣
This was the best, most concise history, analysis and commentary of Washburn that I've seen. I learned a lot today and really enjoyed it, thanks!
YES....................... 😊
this is the most of my attention span I've ever dedicated to Washburn but between the pace and lengths you went to try and produce more info for us....I salut your efforts!
The Parallax line were really excellent metal guitars, well built with top hardware and electronics, and killer designs. They were very well received with great reviews...then they disappeared. Seems like that was the last real push on electrics for them.
Great guitars, but easier to find vintage Washburn guitars than these.
Dimebags sigs, Ola's models and in the early 2000's Dan Donegan's model kept that company alive apart from the odd learner double cut and acoustic sale seems like none of these guys were looked after very well and went elsewhere with ola even bringing out his own company which probably is shitting all over Washburn in sales
@@PC85X I've recently bought PXS20 and I can't believe what kind of an instrument I got for 300€. It easily smashes my more expensive guitars and not just mine, the guitars of my friends that I can get my hands on. Parallaxe series is a top notch.
There’s so much good history to the Chicago Custom Shop (‘92-‘00) and US Music Custom Shop (‘01-‘17). I was lead assembler in Chicago from ‘96 to ‘01 and stay in touch with the entire team to this day. Once Rudy sold it, that marked the death of Washburn, it never made Rudy money, it was a labor of love, he made his money in real estate, they tried to grow it in ways that’d surprise you like exclusive Feiten agreement, and buying parker technology but relying on the old school marketing model failed them too. Anyways sad no one responded to you. -Chopper
Is there a good place to look up serial numbers?I have a n4 from the early 2000s I bought used
@@johnfoskey7855 not really, when I started there in ‘96 I would methodically log every piece that I stamped a serial number on into a logbook, it was detailed with specifics of that model and any special status like which artist it was being built for. Sadly the logbook disappeared when Washburn shut down and sold the rights and tooling. If you have a stamped usa guitar the first two digits of the serial denote the year, the next two digits denote the month, and the last 3 are the piece number for that month.
Thanks for the hard work! I own alot of custom shop guitars that were made during then and love them all.
I think it would be cool if you did one of these videos on hamer guitars. They were really big back in the 80s but have seem to vanished. Google says fender closed them down in 2012 but it also says that another company re openend them in 2017 to make import models.
at 8:10 he mentions that hamer is actually owned by KMC, the company that owns Washburn!
@@johnevered9640damm! That slipped past me! Thanks!
Yes.........
In 97 or 98 Hamer either closed or seriously downsized their Chicago shop and we brought over some serious talent to our spraybooth and finish/buffing departments at the Washburn custom shop.
Lived outside of Chicago growing up. You could always find a gem Washburn from the 80s in a pawn shop.
Now they are rare.
I saw a white with gold hardware one on Chicago Music Exchange a few years ago and wanted it BAD. Never have found another one. I think it was even called the Chicago Series.
I remember shopping for my second guitar ever (and so, like for many beginners: my first "real" guitar) back in 2009 in Germany. Back then Washburn were a serious contender: i remember them endorsing a Band I really liked back then, I remember seeing their single cuts on stages and them being actually in stock in music stores near me, I even remember their guitars had silly little tuners built into the pots back then as a futuristic feature.
In the end I decided to go for one of the newly relaunched Hagstroms instead and that was the last time I heard saw or thought about Washburn untill many years later a youtuber mentioned the famous signature washburn.
Thanks for yet another awesome video! Following your video, I've just visited the Steinberger website, and the images there suggest that they're now entering a revival attempt with the slogan "Lose your head... again!" so it looks exciting.
Malmsteen also means donuts in swedish.
During an online conversation with someone from Fortin Amps, it was vaguely implied that Mike Fortin was trying to buy the Randall brand, but I haven't seen any indications that this has taken place let alone that Randall is going to be available in any significant way in the immediate future. On the Washburn front, a dealer who is/was listed on their very inactive website they aren't replying to emails to place orders let alone fill existing orders. I think Washburn is about to become a memory.
Yep, about halfway through this video I was going to mention Steinberger if you didn't. That's a criminal case of neglect, though it wasn't surprising. Imagine a child prodigy adopted by a traditional family who lives in the mountains. That was Steinberger being brought into Gibson. They brought it because it was getting all the attention at the time, but then didn't know where to go with the brand they acquired. Ned Steinberger was and is a genius (Fun fact: His father won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1988, the year after Gibson purchased the company). Ned wanted to get away from day-to-day operations of a company and stick with with he loved: Designing instruments and components (e.g., several innovative tuners such as the track tuner or automatic string-trimming tuners, all the trem systems including several incarnations of the Trans-trem that transposed everything). He used to consult for the company even after he sold it, but all his creations and ideas were pearls before swine. Gibson is a company that missed out on the Floyd Rose 40 years ago and still hasn't caught up. Steinberger guitars from the early Gibson years are worth a small fortune now, not because they're collectible so much as that they were attractive, well-made, and you just can't get Trans-trems anymore. Every once in a while Gibson will put out a new Steinberger model with little research into what players want (See their "Demon" guitar, for example: Looks metal, but no tremolo. Has a piezo pickup for... ballads, I guess?), barely markets it, then shrugs when it doesn't sell, concluding that "no one wants Steinbergers anymore." Meanwhile, Strandberg (with a conspicuously Steinberger-sounding name) is killing it with many of the features that made Steinberger cool to begin with: an ergonomic body, headless design, striking looks, and even the colors the Gibson-made Steinbergers came in before the company squandered the opportunity and downgraded to mostly just black or white. It's unfortunate that corporate mismanagement effectively killed a great brand. Today's players won't have easy access to the amazing instruments we had a few decades ago, and tomorrow's players won't get to benefit from the cumulative effect of what all those innovations were moving toward.
My first guitar was a Washburn Lyon Series, a cheap series from them (I still own it), and I have a special place for the brand in my heart.
Same. My mom got it for me when I was 12 back in '94. Red strat copy, and still have mine too. 😊
@@TheKey304 mine is a 94 too! Lyon face on the headstock and a gryphon on the metal plate holding the neck, right?
@@thaedleinad most definitely does!
I just bought that same exact kind of guitar last weekend! Found it on a local marketplace website. Was hoping to find out about the quality (the price was the motivating factor for me).
@@juliedurden9479 it's decent. Not terrible, not great, just decent. You can mod it and it becomes pretty nice.
Washburn are great guitars. The early 1990s had killer quality. I have a Angelo Batio Mg44 and it’s killer
As a former US Music Artist who was there between 2010 and 2015 when everything fell apart, I can 100% tell you that if it wasn't for George Lynch, Ola, Scott Ian, and then President Joe Delaney US Music would have died in 2010! US Music who also at the time owned Randall Amplification. They brought Ola on who turned them onto Mike Fortin and were releasing TONS for products that were AMAZING! The Satan, Natas, and Thrasher line of amps, Ola's Solar Guitars, Michael Sweet from Strypers guitars, and of course Nuno.. It all came to a head in 2015 when US Music sold off to KSM and NONE of us could get guitars, amps, or pedals anymore. Randall didnt work things out with Mike Fortin so he bounced, followed by Lynch, Ian, and everyone else. US Music even worked out a deal with Ola from Strandberg guitars to start building them in their custom shop and even that fell apart because of how broken US Music was internally.
The staff at US Music were AMAZING. Allen in the custom shop was an incredible and friendly builder with a really great reputation, Joe Delaney who I do believe is with Magnavox now was just incredible to work with. Mike Fortin, Jason Frankhauser, Joke Skog, Matt Olivio and everyone else on the artist team were a true blessing. Its really a shame what happened to Washburn, Randall and US Music......
Nuno the man himself should buy out Washburn 💪👊🤘
I had a superstrat that was Frankensteined together from a Washburn 3G-V body and hardware with an Ibanez RG neck. Thing was insane. It wound up getting broken in half again and I gave it to a friend, who put it back together a third time and still plays it.
Goddamn that thing's been through a lot 😂
I own a WV66GT and it was my first really good guitar when I was 13. They just had the most awesome guitars man, I still drool for an N7, was my first 7 string guitar "crush". Not to mention all the dime models.
Have the same! Satin white finish. I recently restored it and did a couple videos with it on my channel. Still a killer axe!
@@TheKey304 Yup, exact one I have. Mine is due for a fix up but I've neglected it as I've moved towards X/star shapes and superstrats. Would love to have it finished with just oil.
Much of what a think of guitar companies are just Middlemen who contract Indonesian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese manufacturers .
Washburn will always be related to Nuno Bettencourt....🎸🤘👍
Used washburn guitars and basses since the 80's. My main superstrat is washburn, my current active bass is a washburn.. My recently modded axe is a washburn.. they are awesome...when people realise then they will thrive again, when that day comes maybe guitarists will also realise that the best strings in the world are, and have been since the 80's are Dean Markley.. Korean Washburns and Japanese 80's Arias are up there with the best guitars ever made..
I still have my Washburn acoustics too. They are absolutely amazing instruments. They have the history and heritage to compete with other companies' sob stories, yet they fail to capitalize on that heritage.
Bit of a head scratcher that Washburn is both Walmart and Amazon sold. Not sure if it says something about either the guitar maker or the retailer. They do appear to somewhat randomly drop a container or two of really cool guitars, then be "out of stock" for ages, but consistently kick out the starter acoustics and electrics. Seems like the Taylorish-cut Dreadnought is their meat and potatoes, but you can score Washburn Custom Shop electrics...from Amazon. From my perspective, it just looks like something previously cool that the initial principal got out of a long time ago. A brand that is now owned by a vacuum cleaner umbrella corporation that owns a nice C&C mill to slap Washburn on mostly non interesting stuff with an occasionally upscale model to remind us Washburn was once cool. I guess the neat thing about Washburn is that theres a lot of them, with people mostly liking them as good players to have survived resale and becoming good kick around guitars. Liken it to a bowl of vanilla ice cream, occasionally with some sprinkles-hard to fuck up the recipe and make people mad at you.
I have a mercury series Washburn and holy god that guitar has been my favorite ever since !! Heck even the knockoff Floyd competes with my original Floyd rose on one of my schecters !! Got it for like 60$ and I play that more than my esp explorer. Awesome guitar and definitely awesome company :)..
Is it the black hsh one?
@@AntonGubkin yes
You raise some really interesting points here actually. I'm in the UK and in the early 90's many of our guitar shops were a bit "stuck in the past" and only really stocked the mainstream brands as well as budget copies. I'm talking Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Squier and the copies thereof.
Jackson, BC Rich, Ibanez etc were reasonably rare in the local shops but one thing they did tend to carry was Washburn. Price-wise they were between a budget and a big name and they punched way above their weight.
Then, around the mid 90's the big names like Jackson, BC Rich et al started releasing their performer/entry level type guitars and it made the Washburn stuff much less appealing, both visually and financially.
The other point was Randall amps. We had very few people selling them here but by Christ they were good and they didn't cost Mesa Boogie money, or indeed, Marshall money. Had they expanded their range into smaller combo's and practice amps they could've cleaned up the market here, especially with the Dimebag connection. I could not believe the tone you could get out of those things when I first played through one in a shop.
Two very large missed opportunities on the part of the companies behind the brands in my opinion.
The Washburn factory was in Mundelein IL. They closed it down around 10 years ago, and there were a few videos of people walking through the empty building. I believe it's been torn down. Washburn was owned by US Music Corp which had an office in Buffalo Grove, but I believe that's gone, too.
They had some really good value guitars back in the day esp the x series and idols they'd come loaded with seymour duncans etc for alot lower cost than the competition. Also the cheap acoustics at one point were definitely up there when I was at a local college like 15 years ago for music they had a bunch of the cheap Washburn acoustics and I always thought they were pretty exceptional for the price.
On another point you made gibson have fucked up by not taking advantage of the Steinberger name to release some more updated models with the resurgence of headless guitars in recent years.
I love Washburns! Ive had a few over the years and ive loved them all. I currently have a Torus bass and its awsome! One of the best bang for the buck deals ive ever found.
I have a washburn mini jumbo western acoustic guitar. I still love it and so does my guitar tutor.
I have a late 90's Washburn HSH superstrat in a (now) aged pearl white fish. It has a Washburn branded licensed Floyd Rose and genuine Grover tuners.
Unfortunately, the pickups are a little meh and don't clean up as well as I'd like to, when rolling back the volume. I plan to swap the pots for higher quality VAT pots in the future to see if that may solve my problem, otherwise I'll have to swap the pickups for something better quality than the stock Washburn-branded ones.
Other than that it's a great guitar! Only mods at this time are Schaller strap locks and a replaced whammy-bar, both of which got a light relic to match the rest of the 25+ year old hardware
What actually happened was Washburn decided to stop making electrics, and start ONLY make acoustics.
Solar effectively IS the electric side of Washburn.
Except Solar isn't Washburn anymore and hasn't been in several years.
I just bought a Washburn acoustic for about 250 USD and I love it. I also have a strat copy, an HB-30 (ES-335 copy) and another older acoustic. All great guitars. Really sleeper guitars - good value. It's too bad that the venture capitalists or whoever are just skimming the profits and neglecting the brand. Same thing happening in health care - where I have my day job. But that's a whole 'nuther kettle 'o fish' as they say.
Venture capitalists and equity firms are vampires
This corporate raiding has ruined more companies than anything else. And it's not just venture capital firms doing it, companies are doing it to themselves. Peavey seems like they're desperately clinging to life with their 6505 amps, their Trace Elliot Class-D bass gear and the rest being pro audio and other companies.
I remember when you couldn't go to any venue or A/V supply house and not see a piece of Peavey gear sitting there, still delivering the goods. Someone in the band or the sound guy was using Peavey gear of some type. I owned a Max Bass 700w amp and it was an absolute monster. Heavy as all hell, probably nearly 70lbs on its own. But it had a magical control on the front called Contour that lived in the EQ section. You could set a basic EQ for whatever you were playing and then use the Contour knob to deliver whatever bass tone you wanted. Leave it down low in the 1 or 2 setting and it was happy to deliver some Motown mud. Crank it about midway and it brightened up the mids and highs and you had an amp that would do funky slap and pop. Dime the Contour knob, dial up the gain and it became a metal bass amp. About the only drawback was that this amp did not do quiet. There was no quiet practice with that amp, it basically ignored the lowest Master Volume settings entirely and didn't wake up til you hit 5. At that point, the GIANT transformer in this thing was finally doing its thing and you were absolutely shaking the windows. Crank it up and give it a healthy dose of gain and it would absolutely flatten any SVT.
And it was Made in the USA and rugged as hell. That amp took a nose dive off a pickup tailgate after a gig and my heart sank. No output at all. All it did was break the Master Volume pot. A new one for $6 and she worked mint again.
I feel like washburn as a compant were getting more known for their cheap beginner guitars they had stocked in walmarts and kmarts than their more expensive custom guitars.
I still have my 1st Washburn X-10 HSS superstrat. The trem system isn't working anymore, and neither do the pickups. I'm gonna bring it to a local luthier and have it upgraded to Sambora's HRR from the early 90's.
Idk but I got a Washburn SS-40 Steve Stevens Model, with hand wound Schecter Pasadena pickups, Grover’s, and a hard shell case for $90. It’s awesome.
From a thrift store.
Really enjoyed this story of Washburn! Definitely seems like the brand was done dirty by the corporate people! Can you do a similar video on what happened to Hamer guitars? They were also bought by KMC and died out for a while in 2013 but had a comeback in 2017. Nothing was heard from them since though...
I wish Washburn brought back the HM, and Force series. I can't believe Washburn hasn't done a Wayne's world signature guitar. However, Washburn doesn't care about their electric guitars now-a--days.
Thank you for the extensive knowledge shared.
The Washburn "Parallaxe S20FR", or the "Parallaxe PXS 100" in White with Floyd and the Reverse Headstock looks so cool !!
I have a LTD - M1000 wich looks almost identical to the Parallaxe PXS 100 in white, but the Washburn has a special touch with that weird bolt-on neck heel design !!
Just came across your video, not a guitar player but a bass player, got back into playing a bit during the pandemic
I was really disappointed when I found out that the Washburn bass line up is pretty well non existent now, I bought a 6.string bass back in the mid 90s, love it
I have picked up a few more Washburn basses on the used market
I feel like Washburn and Dean guitars have been disappearing from the map a lot since they lost/stopped making their Dimebag guitars. Those Dimebag guitars are the ones I am thinking about most when people are talking about those brands. I do not know if those were their most popular models or not.
Dean recently picked up Kerry King as an endorser, so they're not gone.
Ampeg is owned by Yamaha now and they are doing good with it so far. The 50th anniversary SVT is a good head, they revived the rocket bass combo amp series, and the SGT-DI pedal
Washburn got hammered for importing guitars built but not finished from oversees. As in all the wood and fret work done, but without the hardware or finish. Then they were finishing them in America and labeling them "Made in USA". this was toward the end of the Dimebag run when he had jumped to Dean. This is not conjecture or a rumor. For real.
You have a link to that legal case? Or even a link from a reputable music site that covers it? Never heard of this. I mean, without some reference links, what you said is indeed nothing but conjecture and rumor.
I’ve had a few Washburn guitars in the past and have two now. I love them. I think they are very well-made and a real bargain.
He have the AliExpress "i eat kids" shirt
I remember Washburn being a really big name back in the early 90's. My first gigging bass was a '93 B-200 that I had from new. I now have another '93 B-200 which is my #1 bass. I have had a few others in between, Scavenger, Hammerhead, Idol, all great instruments. It is really sad to hear what has happened to them over the years.
My current one is Midnight Blue, my first one was Sunburst finish. It took many years of waiting to find another for sale in the UK!@@PaulWhitcomb-ty6md
I just picked up a 2002 USA custom shop Washburn today. Where is that shop and is the doors still open? Great video.
I've got a really nice Washburn mg 104. USA made. Built during the time, grover jackson worked at Washburn.
My first electric guitar was a Paul Stanley PS80, still have it to this day but what’s funny is that I have never seen Paul using that specific guitar 😂
Dude i hope you succeed to the fullest with this youtube channel so you can go to create your own guitar brand
WASHBURN have done some great guitars, my 1989 KC40v is still going strong with a neck sat perfectly between a charvel and an ibanez. My Washburn WP50 les paul is just stunning, good weight, amazing neck. I had to replace the pickups to toneriders which suit it perfectly. My Washburn wd32sce acoustic is truly a thing of beauty and sounds and plays better than ( now sold ) Taylor and Epiphone acoustics I had. I have fender and Gibson guitars which are great.....but so are the Washburns.
Great doc! A few points to make (maybe others have posted the same):
*Those bastards at Gibson also bought out Garrison Guitars (from Newfoundland, Canada, they were known for their polymer skeletal/bracing system), not to continue the line but to kill it altogether, just to get Garrison out of the way.
*Around 2000 Washburn got caught taking their import guitars,
slapping USA labels on 'em and charging accordingly.
*The only Washburn I had was an Indo-made travel guitar, 1/2 size, unique shape but VERY deep, at least 3". Build quality was jungle-like, sounded like playing a tree trunk 'CHOKKA CHOKKA CHOKKA'. Paid only $100 for it, but soured on it before too long.
*A few years ago I emailed Washburn asking them to consider reissuing the 5270 Bell Guitar, a popular parlor model from the 1920s that poet Carl Sandburg among others played. Never got a reply.
*Their travel guitar sounds horrible, even compared to other companies' models.
I have a Washburn Parallaxe LP style guitar.
I quite like it.
It's not unprecedented for a company to buy out the competition just to put them out of business, and at a guess that's what's happening here. Kind of sad, truth be told, Washburn had a lot of innovative ideas.
Pity Dime didn't stick with them. They were much better built than the Deans of the 00s onward.
A USA Washburn Dime and a Dean USA Dime are basically identical in terms of build quality at least the ones I own are.
Wow I actually didn't realize Washburn has such a rich history. I've always associated them with affordable acoustic guitars. I forgot they actually made electric guitars too.
If you want a bargain on a guitar that can go toe to toe with a Les Paul, check out the Idol series of electrics. Generally well built and playable right out of the box. Some of the more budget line guitars cheaped out on the tuners, but lots of them are still going for less than $300. If you can get one cheap, you've got a great platform for some upgrades.
It's likely they wouldn't talk to you because they thought you were going to ask them why they've been lying about their heritage for decades. The Washburn that (just about) exists today was established in California in 1973. There is absolutely no connection between this Washburn and the original Lyon & Healy Washburn other than the word Washburn.
1928 - L&H sell Washburn to their Chicago rivals the Tonk Bros. This sale consisted of a brand name and a factory and was either rather fortuitous or very smart as it was only a few months before the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Great Depression. Production of Washburns by the Tonks was sporadic and they also used the factory to produce Regal instruments (another brand acquired from L&H several years earlier).
The Regals proved more popular and the Washburn name gradually faded away with the latest known original Washburn dating to 1940.
US law requires trademarks to be renewed every ten years with evidence that it's still in active use so when the Tonks went bust in 1956 while many of the brands they owned were sold off to other companies Washburn wasn't one as there was effectively nothing to sell.
1973 - A Californian couple quit their jobs to start a distribution business importing acoustic instruments from the Yamaki factory in Japan to sell on to US retailers.
Like all the Japanese factories Yamaki were happy to put any name you wanted on the headstock as long as you ordered a certain amount and for whatever reason the Californians chose the name Washburn (possibly one of them had an old Washburn acoustic they really loved and discovered the name was up for grabs, so took it).
This was the company sold to the German (mentioned in the video) and his backers around 1976.
At some point in the early 80's they started putting 'George Washburn' on the tuners and hard cases (Washburn being George Lyon's middle name) before progressing to the 'we go back over a hundred years' nonsense, though you can still find late 80's/early 90's Washburn strat copies with 'Est. 1973' engraved on the neck plates so they may have had their knuckles rapped at some point.
I still own the Washburn RX22F, Its a killer guitar. Still plays beautifully and looks awesome.
I saw a Washburn Strat copy being advertised at my local Walmart, so they aren't dead yet.
I like this! Well, not the decline and disappearance of Washburn, but the video!
I have a Washburn HB30 semi-acoustic guitar, basically a 335 clone but cheaper, made in Korea. With two very nice sounding Washburn humbucker pickups, marked 621 for the neck and 623 for the bridge. When I bought the guitar I was planning on swapping them for Seymour Duncans, but I liked the original ones so much I kept them. And it has the Buzz Feiten intonation system! (It was all the rage back then, and involved a license fee to Buzz.) I guess I bought it in the mid 2000's. The serial number starts with 02, that might be the year of manufacture.
Well, this is the reason I watched this video, I guess! That Washburn is so nice, what happened to the company? I guess it is just a brand name now, and in limbo at that.
It's kinda sad. They went from having dozens of featured artists, countless signature instruments, and impressive catalogue of guitars to selling Strat copycats and Nuno Bettencourt guitars.
Interesting to hear that the parent company owns LAG aswell, pretty sure they've stopped making electric guitars and just do acoustics.
It's so sad. I was fortunate enough years ago to pick up a Washburn xm120 e pro c (carbon black) for a great price in near mint condition.
I got it from a private seller, no paperwork (manual) so i only know the basics, (body, fretboat, pickups etc...) but not the exact year it was manufactured. I 'think' it's a 2013, but i have no idea. I'd love more detailed information on the guitar. Who played that style, if anyone? It's almost like it doesn't exist. I dont even know how many were made, but it sounds amazing! (At least it does through my Yamaha THR10X).
It's like a unicorn. Except there's a lot more information available in a google search for a mythical creature than the tangible guitar I own. 😕
Your video was extremely detailed and yet vague because you seem to have run into similar issues in trying to extrapolate any info at all, but what you did was dizzyingly amazing.
this video for me is an unexpected surpise! FINALLY somebody acknoledging the excistence of thsi Guitar Brand...i always said washburn should have been in teh place Gibson have been, as arock'n'roll guitar brand icon
LOVE my Washburn B-15 banjo (#44/144), Mahogany wood, brass tone ring, made in S. Korea (2006/07 ish) by craftsmen and women who obviously understand how to make a fine banjo. As a side note, it is a copy of late 20s/early 30s Gibson “master tone” banjos (RB3/RB5 mostly), which at that time Gibson had copied Paramount (mostly), which had evolved from Vega and, wait for it….Washburn 20-30 years prior. Washburn instruments (although not seamless for 140 years like the some might suggest) value is generally very good. I love my Washburn banjo, in the living room and on the bandstand, it stands up well against banjos that cost thousands more.
7:58 They have Lâg? I think they like acoustics a lot, and thus another electric guitars comapany is going to be acoustics only...
(Just a joke, but I seriously miss Lâg electrics)
Shame Lag doesnt make electrics. They made some dope models.
I'm an aging old fashioned boring LPs and Teles kind of bloke. Never thought much of comical demonic looking heavy metal pointy headstock axes. However, for some odd reason I have a great fondness for early 80s Washburn Stage Series guitars.
Face it, Washburn is not a company at this point, it is just a brand.☺
I've got two Washburns. A Scott Ian signature Vindicator from 2008 which I love, though it's not built for easy shredding on the higher frets. The other is a rare 2001 Rouge Star 980 that sold for $880 when it was released. It was in rough shape when I got it and I've just about brought it back to life to the point where it's currently my number two guitar behind the Vindicator.
I'd love to get my hands on some of the 80s Washburn shredders, especially the HM-5V, as it's literally my dream guitar.
I used to have a Washburn Solar 7 string V. They seemed to be gaining some traction in the market when Ola came onboard after a bit of a dry spell after Dimebag left them but seem almost dead in the water now. A real shame. A company I have a soft spot for and would love to see thrive. It is strange that nobody is talking about it really apart from you doing this video. Ola had metioned people leaving the company from time to time and I remmeber when he announced his departure from Washburn and Randall shortly after.
To this day i have may first guitar cheap Washburn X10 (hardware suck but plays very well) i always think that guitar ist overall not so good because of price but when i try some of my friends guitars (like still cheap Ibanez GRG or somthing like that) i was: wait a minut is my guitar ar not so bad?. Overall i think they make good instrument but when people think about you as: "that cheap guitars for baginners" then you lost clients for more expensive stuff. Same problem was with BC Rich, Cort and even Schecter but they star to manage this and start to make people to buy there guitars
You missed the most important owner of the early 70's: "Tom Beckmen and his wife Judy Fink Beckmen in 1972 left careers as music salesman and teacher (respectively) to launch a wholesale music business in Los Angeles, Beckmen Musical Instruments. It was Beckmen Music that resurrected the Washburn name, and beginning in 1974 applied it to a series of quality imported acoustic guitars, made in Japan by Terada, as well as a selection of mandolins and banjos.
Then........Fritz Tasch, Rudy Schlacher and Rick Johnstone, as Fretted Industries, Inc., acquired the Washburn name in 1977 (for $13,000)"
Ive got a '87 super strat style Washburn with a licensed Floyd Rose. Someone before me replaced the humbucker with a Seymour Duncan JB. Its a shredder, even though i cant lol.
Was it that with red-black tear varnish (made in Japan)? I absolutely ❤ed it. But later exchanged it with a friend to an Ibanez Bass.
@@martinkasper197 I believe I got this exact guitar. It's a KC-70V , got a Floyd Rose and that Red and black tear varnish. It got handed down to me, I don't know how old unfortunately. Would love to know!
I remember seeing Alex Sibbald using a Washburn bass when he played for the hardcore band, The Accused back in the 80's and that was the only kind of bass I wanted. A shame to see them fade away like this.
Washburn Chicago Series KC-45. My beloved❤🎸! It's 34 years old, yet it's still going strong.💪
If you were wondering, Nuno used the Nele on the "Other Side Of The Rainbow" solo from the new album. Or at least he did in the video. I seem to remember Nuno saying he actually used it in the recording and not just for the music video but I can't remember what interview that was from. Perhaps the Rick Beato one?
Years before the album came out, in a short video about the Nele, he said he’d played a solo on it and to look out for the song “Rainbow”
I'm the fanboy who wrote most of the current Wikipedia entry. I like this video -- but PLEASE do not buy an antique Washburn just because you think it's somehow "collectible"!!! Don't take "they were renowned for their extremely high-quality acoustics" at face value, any more than any random Epiphone is pretty much of equivalent value to any other Epi. Many of the top-end "presentation" Washies were intended for display, NOT for play, and usually need extensive rehab to not fall apart. And the vast majority of L&H Washburns were intended for big-box retail, so student models and camping mandolins are by far predominant. True that L&H pioneered the big-body acoustic before Martin took control, but that was also an era before steel-reinforced necks -- let alone adjustable trussrods!!
I am glad you got that sponsorship, but it seemed pretty random, that they made you only use stock footage. Why would they sponsor someone who didn't try out their product? Seems a bit dishonest, but that’s none of your fault. But even if I lived in the US, I would not be convinced. But hey, their choice to sponsor someone from Germany, even though their product isn’t available there. I hope you got paid well.
I know their stuff is good cause they're a subsidiary of HelloFresh, which is available in Germany and fantastic. This is just those same fresh ingredients, but already cooked. But Factor is a bit smaller and therefore not international (yet?).
@@sixstringtv1 Oh, that makes sense. I had HelloFresh for a month and thought they were pretty good, but I also found them a bit too expensive.
Who's working with Nuno?
Love yourself like Nuno loves Nuno. Goddamn what an ugly signature guitar that goober has, the cutaway is kinda goofy too, its not like he plays Allan Holdsworth type lines, whom had no problem playing fairly stock Charvels in the 80's, although I'd take the compound fretboard Radius of a Charvel or Jackson 12 - 16 over just 14 that so many other companies, from Washedupburn to Ibanez to ESP use. Allan liked flatter fretboards so much his later Carvin and Kiesels had 20, as did Shawn Lane's Vigier and even Scott Henderson's Suhr, it seems to be a predominant feature in the extreme (not the weak band) side of fusion shred. I'm sure it has somthing to contribute to Roy Marchbank's playing, as he plays a Vigier, although Roy's not human.
Martin? The website says Martin 'strings.' I have a Washburn nylon string guitar. I was stunned by the quality issues I found in a name-brand guitar. On the positive side, it has a great neck and terrific action, cutaway with B Band preamp. I don't love the tone; a solid cedar top. Not my favorite. I have another classical with a solid spruce top that sounds much better. Both have laminate rosewood bodies. But I really do like the Washburn's action.
I actually have a Washburn CB-15 bass that I absolutely love. Never had a guitar hold tune as well as this one does, and it's absolutely beautiful to boot
Maybe we'll get lucky and Yamaha will buy Washburn like they did Guild, then we could see some amazing acoustics again.
I tried to order a custom N4 and was told their custom shop has been closed since 2016. It doesn’t bode well for Washburn.
I have a BT4 Maverick. Just acquired it recently and brought it back from the dead. Solid guitar.
I have a 2014 washburn g55… its good… plays very easy, its maybe slightly quieter than other guitars, i assume because its koa… solid top koa though… every person who i have ever let play it, compliments it, and even notes the washburn name as an “older” name that they thought was gone…
I own maybe 20 Washburn Idols( mostly early to mis 2000's, a couple PS-7000, a P2 & CT-2QCS. I think I have 2 Peavey guitars and a Mark Tremonti PRS SE.
I got an acoustic guitar and an acoustic bass and they’re amazing
Production criticism: Are you absolutely _positive_ that you need 4 different jump cuts per sentence? The problem is that you guys all think you're keeping our rapt attention, but once we notice the ridiculous cuts, they are actually all we notice. Try making a video without them. If absolutely nothing else, at least you won't look like every single other "RUclipsr".
Washburn has always made me think of traditional and acoustic instruments. I have a Washburn banjo and its the best (and only) banjo I've played!
Washburn is still around
They some really good acoustic guitars
Not cheap
I’m a dealer please reach out to me
Washburn seems to just make ugly-as-fk Strat, Tele, and Super Strat style guitars nowadays. If they brought back their original 80s Wing Series style guitars they would get my interest.
Holy shit i had absolutely no idea Ola England owns Solar guitars, lol thats crazy thats like finding out years later that Rob Dyrdek owns DC company lol and i was just asking on another video why i see everybody playing Solar guitars?
I haven't owned any expensive guitars but out of all the budget guitars I've had my Washburn x30 was the best guitar I've ever had. Ive owned 2 of them and only paid about 150 used for each of them. Killer pickups and amazing feeling and sustain. Had grover tuners from the factory too. Never needed to do any setup on them
@2:56 In a jug under the desk?
my first guitar, a KC40v in 1989!
My wife's 1st cousin Frank Cavanagh was the bassist in the band Filter. Washburn issued a Frank Cavanagh Signature Model bass, they are very rare, Frank says they only sold about 25 of them.
His bass tone is sick! I love that bass intro to Hey Man Nice Shot.
Frank is a great guy - he still has a couple of his signature basses. These days...he is farmer, raises organic crops. He lives on Music Street! That's for real!! He came over a couple of months ago and gave me a Sears 40 X L amp(made by Danelectro).
This amp is an oldie but goodie! I'll pass on your message to Frank.
Roger Waters had a signature Washburn acoustic guitar at one point. No idea if it's still made.
I bought one too weeks ago and it was a piece of junk. Washburn is now on my guitar tree of Shame.