Messages

1

Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: Washburn's "ELITE" series of acoustic guitars

« on: May 17, 2018, 11:07:23 AM »

Now that I've had my WSJ60SKELITE for a while I thought I ought to post again about the instrument.

When it arrived the sound was not as impressive as I had expected, but this is one of those instruments that improves with some better strings. I put on Dean Markley GoldBronze .011-.052s and the more they stretch in the better the tone gets. I suspect that over the years there will be further improvements in tone as the solid cedar soundboard ages in...and one of the nice surprises regarding this instrument is the volume it can produce without "breaking up", like so many cedar soundboards do when played vigorously. Perhaps it is the large soundboard (it is a pretty large guitar), I don't know, but it has gotten much better over time, including the balance across the strings, which was not so good until the GoldBronze strings were installed.

In the beginning my goal was to have a nice camping/road guitar. This is SO much more than that, but since it's been growing on me I think I'll take it to the next Pearl Bluegrass jamfest. At first I thought it would just be a "looker", now it's become a "player", too.

Good job, Washburn!

Cheers!

Dugly

2

Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: Trying to get UPS to pay on damage claim, need original value for 1970s D62SW.

« on: May 16, 2018, 01:12:37 PM »

Thanks,  Jim! One of the docs we sent to UPS was the price charts you posted. Thank you VERY much!!!!

Cheers!

Dugly

3

Guitar Care, Repair, Modification & Lutherie / Re: WT-92 Preamp System

« on: May 16, 2018, 11:10:08 AM »

Try contacting Washburn customer service from their website. It's highly unlikely you'll be able to source just the battery compartment cover, but Washburn might have some...

Dugly

4

Announcements & News / Re: Time for a break

« on: May 16, 2018, 08:25:36 AM »

Yeah, Jim's been doing that for quite a while now. He'll post something and then return and delete it later...and not much later at that. He's been a huge help to all of those who needed to know about prior Washburn history and products. Losing him as a source of information will be a huge blow to the forum.

Dugly

5

Vintage and Rare Washburns / Re: Identify if possible..

« on: May 11, 2018, 10:05:22 AM »

Well, it's a Washburn dreadnought guitar, has a V-head. It looks very much like some of the Yamaki made guitars from Japan, which were quite well made and good sounding instruments.

There ought to be some sort of model and serial number information on a label inside the body, you should be able to see it through the sound hole. All of my Washburns have one and that's where the model number can be found.

If it's gone (and I guess there must be a lot of people take them out for some reason), you can look into the body of the guitar through the soundhole and if you look up where the neck joins the body there should be a "block" glued inside the body (called a "neck block")...most likely that block of wood will have a model number and/or serial number on it.

Keep your fingers crossed you got a Yamaki-made Washburn...but even if you just got a baseline D10S then you'd be lucky. It was one of Washburn's most popular instruments for good reason...solid wood spruce top over laminated mahogany sides and back. They sold like hotcakes and there are a lot of them out there.

Cheers!

Dugly

6

Vintage and Rare Washburns / Re: Washburn D-68 Made in the USA???

« on: May 11, 2018, 08:55:07 AM »

WOW, Buck...that is one truly GORGEOUS guitar! It looks like the pickguard is cocobolo (which is a very hard variety of rosewood)...it has that same "coffee&cappucino" color as the sides and back on my WSJ60SKELITE.

I have always admired the 3 piece back instruments, and the issue of the neck and volute is certainly one with which I'm familiar. I had an Ovation with a multiple-layer neck (it was absolutely the most miserable neck I've ever played...that fretboard would have had to struggle to be even 1 1/2" wide...I didn't even mind when a burglar stole it during a break-in...I never liked it and it didn't get much play time). Given adequate width, though, a multi-layer laminate neck is a great idea...multiple woods each have different "drying" rates and so the issue of a warped neck is not usually a problem. 

I have a love for the volutes, too...once I get my D62SW repaired I'll post a few photos of the volute on that one, it's unique in my experience. The head on the D62SW is a "Martin-style", not the V-head (which yours is) or the crown-head.

It's obviously a well made instrument and possesses great beauty, too. Congratulations, Buck...we all dream of having these well-made instruments from the 70's and 80's. When I joined the forum around 2008 there was a custom shop that made acoustic instruments, IIRC the main luthier for that production line at that time was John Stover. Model numbers like WD64SW were those custom-shop pieces.

Here's hoping you'll stick around and join in our discussions here. We're all here because we're Washburn fans.

Cheers!

Dugly

7

Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: Trying to get UPS to pay on damage claim, need original value for 1970s D62SW.

« on: May 10, 2018, 12:17:59 PM »

Well, folks, it's all over except for the waiting. Our forum member who posted the instrument for sale received the insurance check and it is enough to cover the repairs and pay for the shipping. We were both surprised that UPS paid for the shipping...although upon reflection it appears reasonable to me that UPS would not charge for the time they spent damaging the guitar.....

I'll be transporting the guitar to Houston in June for delivery to my luthier. If his work is as good this time as it was when I damaged my 2005 Tak LTD, the repairs will be impossible to see.

This saga still isn't over, though....multiple repairs on the soundboard need to be cleated and a 6" crack in the lower bout on the back has to be repaired, so it'll take a while...but certainly not as long as it took to get UPS to pay off on their damages, I'd bet!

But, regardless of all that, it's CHEERS for UPS...they did the right thing in the end, it just took some evidence to prove that they needed to.  Good for them!

Dugly

8

Vintage and Rare Washburns / Re: Washburn D-68 Made in the USA???

« on: May 10, 2018, 11:16:09 AM »

Here's a tutorial on how to post photos...Photobucket priced itself out of our range (they wanted like $400 to "release" the photos we had already stored on PB and for a "membership" that I'm pretty certain would be an annual fee).

http://forums.washburn.com/index.php/topic,21807.0.html

We've had a lot of forum traffic lately about the older Washburns...take a look around the forums and if you see something authored by Tony Raven, he's done a lot of work in the archives and has a pretty good handle on these Japanese made instruments...and you can take anything from bigcity2 to the bank, he's a huge Washburn collector and has an incredible knowledge of how the company worked.

My WD61SW ("CE", but it's not on the serial number, although if you look at the guitar in my avatar you can clearly see that it is a CE model) is a Yamaki made guitar, and it has great tone as well as wonderful playability. [Edit...I forgot that PB was hosting my avatar photo...so it's not on my forum profile any more]. My D62SW (soon to be dropped off at the luthier for repairs to cracks in the soundboard and back) is also a Japanese product...I THINK!!!...but I could be wrong about that because the area on the back of the head where the neck joins is unlike any other Yamaki guitar I've ever seen.

Hope you'll hang around and let us know how it works out for you. Pics are always welcome if you find a photo hosting website.

Cheers!

Dugly

9

Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: New member. What is this. Can't find the info or specs

« on: May 06, 2018, 04:05:14 PM »

https://www.amazon.com/Washburn-Dreadnought-Acoustic-Electric-Sunburst/dp/B00X637DZI

Nice looking piece...all laminate construction, dreadnought (large) size guitar, Vintage Tobacco Sunburst.

Not an especially valuable or exciting piece...but certainly usable as a beginner guitar or a stage guitar, where the electronics will make this sound like other, more expensive guitars.

The forum software is telling me that it's been 90 days since this was posted...let's hope the OP "subscribed" to this thread so they'll get a notice.

Cheers!

Dugly

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Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: Trying to get UPS to pay on damage claim, need original value for 1970s D62SW.

« on: May 06, 2018, 03:59:42 PM »

For those who may have been following this saga, here's where this stands:

I sent photos to my luthier down in Houston and he sent me a very nicely prepared repair estimate. It's actually fairly inexpensive, considering the size and location of the crack...less than $200.

UPS has "accepted" the claim, which means they find merit in it.

The seller and I both obtained some period documents (a BIG THANKS to bigcity2!!!!) that showed varying retail prices for the Prairie Song, but the one UPS could not dispute was when the original owner's wife found the ORIGINAL sales receipt, with the price clearly marked and the model and serial number right on the receipt.

Let 'em try to dispute THAT 

Cheers to TimBee (the seller) for hanging in with this process. Insurance companies don't like to pay claims and try to find a way to deny every one...it'll be tough to do that on this claim!

Dugly

11

Guitar Care, Repair, Modification & Lutherie / Re: Washburn ab20 flea market project

« on: April 25, 2018, 11:07:35 AM »

Here's a tutorial on posting photos, hope it helps!

http://forums.washburn.com/index.php/topic,21807.0.html

Cheers!

Dugly

12

Show Us Your Washburn / Re: My J-5, J-6, J-7, and J-600

« on: April 25, 2018, 09:10:37 AM »

Yes! Ship is right.  That is a mighty fine collection you have there!

Cheers!

Dugly

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Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: Trying to get UPS to pay on damage claim, need original value for 1970s D62SW.

« on: April 24, 2018, 08:40:06 AM »

Thank you SO MUCH, BigCity2!

I have copied the price sheets and will send them on up to the person from whom I bought the guitar. I have high hopes that UPS will see fit to pay off on the damage claim now, as this is the last piece of information they asked for.

Cheers to you!!!!!   and, again, THANKS! from Dugly

14

Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Trying to get UPS to pay on damage claim, need original value for 1970s D62SW.

« on: April 20, 2018, 01:01:34 PM »

Geez...UPS's gorillas were not so kind to the D62SW I bought. I knew it had some cracks on the soundboard (which I am NOT asking UPS to repair), but when it arrived there was a 6" crack on one side of the back that hadn't been there when the guitar was shipped.

Of course, I insured it...always do...but this time UPS is dragging its feet and they want to make sure that they aren't paying more than the guitar is worth.

Is it possible that anyone might have a Washburn document (old catalog page, some sort of advertisement, a price list, that sort of thing) that might have what would have been a retail price on it? We provided a copy of the check I sent the owner to document the price that was paid before the guitar was delivered to UPS, but I guess that wasn't enough.

Is there anything else anyone can suggest? I use to work for an insurance company...believe me, insurance companies LOOK for ANY reason to deny a claim, it's how they make sure they make a profit.

Thanks for whatever you can do to help. If you can post a photo of whatever you find, I'll print it off on the computer and send it on up to New York.

Thanks!

Dugly

15

Acoustic Guitar Players Post Comments & Questions / Re: Washburn's "ELITE" series of acoustic guitars

« on: March 23, 2018, 08:31:15 AM »

I had noticed that the 60 model had dropped off the inventory list at WMS, glad to hear you got one!

It has taken a while for me to develop an appreciation of my SJ60ELITE...it took a while for the strings to settle in and in fact I still have the factory strings on mine. My 60 was at a disadvantage because I had recently purchased a couple of WG26S guitars and they appear to my old, noise damaged ears to have better spectral balance as well as greater volume than the 60. Having said all that, though, I'd have to say that my 60 is in the top half of my collection regarding play time. It's a pleasant guitar to play and there's something about those slope-shouldered dreads that really helps them shine in a group.

I had wondered how the 50 model sounds...I expected it to have a more woody sound because of the Koa used for the sides and backs.

Cheers!

Dugly