Washburn Guitars

All you want to know about Washburn Guitars

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A Washburn headstock
A Washburn headstock

Washburn Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer. It was established in 1883 in Chicago, Illinois. Washburn is known for many innovations in guitar building and marketing:[citation needed] for example, it was the first guitar manufacturer to use artist endorsements and build a large-bodied acoustic guitar.[citation needed] They are all hand built[citation needed] (some in Indonesia and China). The budget lines are marketed as Lyon by Washburn and Oscar Schmidt by Washburn.

Washburn is a part of U.S. Music Corporation.

Contents

History

The Washburn guitar company started making guitars in 1883 in Chicago. The factory would later be involved and located near a musical movement in Chicago in the 1920s. The movement was a “Delta Blues” movement, which came as a result of an influx of African Americans to the area. This type of blues would change the way blues music was played, and would also change rock and roll. This blues movement helped in the success of Washburn guitars. Washburn guitars were very popular during the 1920s.[citation needed] The musicians played the guitars as well as making them by hand. The Washburn guitar and the blues movement that it was involved with are associated with Maxwell Street. This street is only a few blocks from the factory, and where Washburn guitars were first embraced.

Washburn makes electric guitars, acoustic guitars, electric basses, acoustic basses, banjos, mandolins, travel guitars, and amplifiers. The company also makes accessories including guitar cases, clothing, and other parts like tuners, pick ups, and straps. Washburn is mostly known for its electric guitars and acoustic guitars. The company makes eight different styles or “Series” of both electric and acoustic guitars.[1]

Guitars

Electric:

  • Hollowbodies
  • Ian Series
  • Idol Series
  • Maya Series
  • Paul Stanley Series
  • N Series – Nuno Bettencourt signatures
  • X Series
  • Rocker Series
  • Anarchy Graphic Series – guitars featuring the anarchy symbol.
  • Lyon Series - named after George Washburn's family name - affordable electric guitars and basses featuring traditional Fender and Gibson designs.
  • "ML", Stealth, 333 and Culprit designs made for Dimebag Darrell of Pantera and Damageplan
  • Heavy Metal Series-Guitars
  • Disney by Washburn

Acoustic:

  • USA – guitars made in the Mudelein, IL factory.
  • Jumbos
  • Dreadnoughts
  • Folk Style
  • Classical
  • Acoustic / Electric – acoustic guitars that can be plugged into amplifiers.
  • Travel Acoustic – small guitars.
  • Paul Stanley Series – guitars designed by Paul Stanley.
  • Disney by Washburn

Voice Contour Control

Most Washburn guitars equipped with humbuckers have a feature called VCC which is currently available only on Washburn. VCC stands for Voice Contour Control and it is unique coil tapping system that allows players to incrementally blend between a humbucking sound and a single coil sound without the hum normally associated with single coils. In other words, it gives you the option of switching from the warm/thick humbucker sound, and turn it into a single coil sound at the twist of a knob. With VCC at 10 on the guitar knob, you get a more deep sound, as single coiled pickups normally do.

Notable Washburn innovations

Over the years, Washburn designed (patented and trademarked) several prominent guitar construction features:

  • Buzz Feiten Tuning System — a corrected temperation tuning formula, which uses a compensated nut and saddle to correct the inherent intonation problems of the Western tuning formula. This system comes standard on all USA made Washburn guitars and basses and is featured on select imported models.[2]
  • Voice Contour Control - a special coil structure that allows a blend between a humbucker mode and a single-coil mode on the same pickup[3]

Endorsers

Washburn was the first company to use the mechanism of endorsements:[citation needed] instrument manufacturer and famous artist secure a contract that states:

  • Manufacturer provides custom-shop instrument that suits the artist best, for free (or even paying artist).
  • Artists promotes his usage of that instrument and advertises manufacturer company.

This process greatly promotes the whole industry. Beginning artists often try to copy the sound of their favourite artists and thus try to use the same equipment. Endorsements help both manufacturers and consumers: beginning artists get to know what kind of equipment their idol uses and can copy their sound easier, and companies raise sales.[citation needed]

The whole list of Washburn endorsers.

Product lineup

Signature models

  • Nuno Bettencourt models are flagshipped by the American hand-made N4. The N4 guitar is a small reverse headstock super-strat which features the unique Stephen's Extended Cutaway neck joint for easy access to the higher frets. It also contains Bill Lawrence and Seymour Duncan pickups, and a Floyd Rose licensed tremolo. The production budget models of this guitar which are machine built in Korea are known as the N1 and N2 which feature standard bolt-on necks and lower grade pickups and tremolo systems. The N3 (discontinued) was also produced in Korea and sported the Stephen's Extended Cutaway but used lower grade pickups. Nuno has also endorsed several Washburn acoustic models.
  • Dan Donegan Signature Model (2003): Maya Series for Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan, named after his daughter. There are currently two models of this guitar, both using Seymour Duncan pickups.
  • Bootsy Collins Space bass (2006): Signature model for Bootsy Collins. Features Fender Jazz Bass pickups.
  • Dimebag Darrell ML body style Dimebag Signature series. Washburn's Dean ML-style Dime 333 and radical Gibson Explorer-like Dime Culprit models were the most popular. The Dime 333 had a stop-tail bridge; the Culprit, with its sliced-up Explorer-style body, featured a Floyd Rose tremolo, a mirror pickguard and a pair of hot ceramic humbucking pickups.
  • Steve Stevens Signature Model (1993) SS80 and SS100 models made in Chicago Custom Shop. The SS40 was mass produced in Korea. The SS80 was produced in black with gold hardware and a Schaller licensed Floyd Rose tremolo,Seymour Duncan JB model pickups. The SS100 featured black hardware and Frankenstein monster graphics.

References

  1. ^ Washburn History
  2. ^ Buzz Feiten Tuning System
  3. ^ Washburn Voics Contour Control (VCC)

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washburn_Guitars"

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