MY TAKE --
Truly, it is GREAT to see the Idols back, considering that (to this outsider) the WI-64 looked like a solid seller AND used to have good endorsements & metalhead cachet.
...but the line was brutally terminated almost a decade ago, flushing all that goodwill & top-of-mind presence down the toilet.
The price -- rather, the perceived price:value ratio -- will probably kill this exuberance quickly.
Right this moment I'm considering a flametop WM-100, asking $725 delivered, with OHSC. And there's a walnut-top BT-6 seeking $350 & a semihollow WI-67 ($300) -- the change from that $799 buys a LOT of upgrade.
I can admire pretty wood, but it takes cachet to sell it at a premium, & those buyers seeking cachet tend to go toward "names" -- Gibson, Fender, PRS.
At the end of the day, the model numbers themselves make clear that's a WI-26 & a WI-16 -- so NOT top-of-the-line. I'd feel weird passing up a perfect WI-64 for under $400 in order to spend much more on a "pretty pretty" axe.
Strip it down!! You don't have to stoop so low as bringing back the WI-14, but why not the WI-18?? If you're gonna go after LP players, then renew the WI-45, & make it an upgrade path to the WI-66PRO. Certainly the WIT-16 ought to RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT be being relentlessly flogged as a quality option to a Tele (especially with that pickup wiring!).
And whose bright idea was it to demote the WIS-26 rather than make it a proper heir to the WI-64DL???
Make the BFTS a $20 option; if nobody thinks it's worth a double sawbuck, then you'll maybe realize it's nonsense. Better yet, get Buzzy to pay Washburn $20 per axe, seeing as how this is the last company to be giving him so much free publicity in EVERY press release & webpage & stamped on all those guitars.
Make the VCC an OPTION. Personally, I like it, & could see myself paying an extra $40, maybe a bit more. However, it loses track of the unshakeable FACT that guitarists are a primitive, superstitious people -- many believe their frets are made of silver!!
-- & easily frightened by anything new that isn't being fobbed off on them by some Guitar God. Therefore, the VCC needs a full relaunch: multiple YouTube demos, paid articles in the magazines, its own corner of the NAMM booth, a prominent or soon-to-break endorser who gets LOTS of media exposure & raves about the VCC in interviews.
Without those things, it's a total waste, & very few people are going to rip the guts out of a NEW $800 guitar when they could just get a standard Epi LP.
