Okay, I'm going to play straight here, but in a roundabout way.
CHEAP GUITARS
&
GOOD REASONS TO NOT BUY A D10
I like Washburn guitars. A lot.
However: the company has to pay bills, & can't rely on 200-unit handcrafted guitars to fly out the door, so cranks out literal TONS of "beginner" guitars.
The sad reality is that people WANT
cheap guitars, & would rather compromise than pay a dollar or two more. So the brands cut corners, the factories cut corners, the retailers cut corners. It's usually in QC -- quality control -- so guitars go to market that are at least badly in need of a simple setup & in some cases are close to falling apart. It's a
caveat emptor world.
And when you're talking a "beginner guitar" (like, say, the D10
), it's almost always being bought by a non-playing adult to give to a kid who don't yet know nothin' about what a proper action LOOKS like. Therefore, thousands & thousands of cheap guitars enter the market every year. Many of them are parked in closets, where they sit for years, & eventually are trotted out & sold online as VINTAGE even though they're the same unplayable crapboxes they were a decade or more previously.
Fact is that the D10 (D100, WD10, WD100) has -- for 40-some years -- pretty much held the line as the CHEAPEST of the Washburn acoustics. I really enjoy my Washburns, but I cannot fathom why Blue Book says the unwired acoustics are worth ~$200 & the a/e ~$275. In my opinion, this is high even for the spruce-top versions, in perfect condition, with a professional setup.
________________
I have a sideline buying & selling used guitars... almost entirely electrics because even if there are "undisclosed issues" I can turn a profit by parting it out (like selling a twisted neck for $26).
In my not-so-humble opinion, the only person who'd buy a used acoustic without first thoroughly checking it out is either wealthy or foolish (& maybe both).
Most D10 are plywood throughout. Nothing wrong with that: I've got an Aria & an Alvarez that are my go-to dreadnoughts. If plywood "settles in" well, it can last a century, sounding & playing well all the way. And by that I'm implying that not all plywood DOES settle in.
Neither does all "solid wood."
Cheap guitars are built in factories, on assembly lines, & shipped out by the literal ton. There is a HUGE amount of potential unit-to-unit variation in tonal quality alone... as there is with USA Fender Strats & small-shop handbuilt acoustics, in my experience. Shopping for a new guitar, a sensible person would sit down with a bunch of them (10 would be good, 20 even better, but AT LEAST FOUR) & slowly winnow it down to the one that sounds & feel the best ("pretty" be damned), because I guarantee there WILL be differences.
Yours has a "solid wood" top rather than plywood.
There's going to be a LOT more variation in quality (physical & tonal) from one to the next, not to mention effects from any previous owners (high ambient humidity, low ambient humidity, sitting in the sun unplayed every day...). You are now experiencing why I prefer plywood tops for working guitars: CONSISTENCY -- if it sounds good early, it'll KEEP sounding good. A single ply can go all to hell quite suddenly & in a variety of interesting ways.
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All in all,
LostinKY, if someone had given me the symptoms -- like
action was a little high but not too bad, for the already low cut saddle -- I'd have had them check for
- neck curve (trussrod)
- heel separation
- bridgeplate separation
- top cave
I once had a 12-string (non-Washie) I loved... but had to dispose of because the ENTIRE body was beginning to fold in on itself.
Have you ever heard the colloquialism "
trying to polish a turd"? That's where you're at; blaming Washburn ("
Now I know why the only washburns that I see around here are electrics.") for getting a guitar-like gewgaw ("
she bought it for me because "it was pretty"") is inaccurate at best.
Dude: you WANTED a beater, you GOT a beater.
Your choice now is whether to spend a few hundred $$$ putting a new top on a guitar that will never be worth $300. Time to move along.
First,
buy from a reputable dealer, someone who will take a guitar back (or at least properly repair it) if you aren't happy with it. A place down the road from me will do a free annual setup,
forever, on ANY new axe it sells (which is an incredibly smart marketing move), & will do same for higher-end used guitars.
Second, figure out what you actually WANT, not whether you are willing to work with some semi-playable POS merely because it's handy.
Third, DO SOME SHOPPING. In your range, I'd push for a new Oscar Schmidt OG2CE, which can be had for under $170, available in "Natural, Black, Flame Yellow Sunburst, Flame Black Cherry, White" & even spalt maple. Their plain OG2 drifts past for <$150 new, & (having test-played five) is a bargain.
Cheaper still would be the Washburn WA90CE, normally $170 but being
right this moment blown out (possibly the end of the model) for $130, delivered --
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/washburn-wa90ce-dreadnought-acoustic-electric-guitar
