It Will Be Mine moment (Japanese Washburn)

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paul_
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It Will Be Mine moment (Japanese Washburn)

Post by paul_ »

Was at the new Starving Musician in San Jose today in a terrible mood, and fell hard on the rebound for a 1981 Washburn Wing Series Eagle (none of these pictures are of the actual one I played, which had a bit more damage around the edges).


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Fucking nice. At first glance hanging on the wall between a couple of import les pauls it vaguely reminded me of Hodges's Westbury (which I'm clearly not too visually familiar with on a mental level I guess), which is why I picked it up in the first place... the drastic differences immediately apparent after picking it up, I was still very intrigued... I always liked doublecut gibsonesque designs like the ibanez artist etc.. and mostly play DC Juniors these days. The heel on this guitar is scooped-away at the back to allow better high fret access, and there is a belly contour which makes the top (bass side) edge of the body seem very thin... these are both pluses because this was a pretty thick-bodied guitar. It played like a dream and sounded purdy, and had a nice aged ivory look to it I really like in white guitars (not quite as yellowed as the lower pics; my '90s epi LP custom is a similar hue). It's a 1981 "B-model", which makes it probably a Yamaki (later ones and overlapping alternate models like the c-model were made by Matsumoku), and neck-thru with a 5-piece laminate maple/walnut neck; they were made from '79-'85, and I have since learned the coil-splits on the push/pull volume controls are stock. The pickups sounded like Super Distortions (which I have in my white Epi LP) but weren't real ones.
They were selling it for $330.
A definite new-trousers moment. I could not put it down and spent a great deal of time turning it in my hands and allowing the light to reflect off it.

The natural ones show off the construction

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Aug wrote:which one of you bastards sent me an ebay question asking if you can get teh kurdtz with that 64 mustang? :x
robertOG wrote:fran & paul are some of the original gangstas of the JS days when you'd have to say "phuck"
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gaybear
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Post by gaybear »

oh man, that looks like great fun.
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Fran
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Re: It Will Be Mine moment (Japanese Washburn)

Post by Fran »

paul_ wrote: They were selling it for $330.
:shock:
FFS Paul, buy it, like NOW. They go for £500 in the UK, my local shop had one in, they phoned me telling me i better get down there, they wanted £400 cash deal but i had no money at the time.
Absolutely superb instrument, up there with the Artists and Yam SGs.
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Joey
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Post by Joey »

Fuck....... buy that thing

I've got a thing for double cut away guitars lately. I haven't been able to come across an Artist yet, I know Fran loves em. Wish I had gotten my hands on Matt's guitar on ebay

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Ben79
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Post by Ben79 »

I picked up a Raven in pretty good nick for 100 notes and it's a really good playing solid guitar. Nice woody bass heavy tone. Would definitely recommend a Wing series.