It Will Be Mine moment (Japanese Washburn)
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:46 pm
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).
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
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
