Where are all those Washburn basses?

[W1_Pro]

Would it be fair to say that are few brands of  bass as under appreciated (this thread being the honourable exception)  as Washburn?  The Japanese ones are exceptional instruments, beautifully built and a joy to play. Still avaiable (in spite of relative scarcity in the UK) for very reasonable money.  Here are my two. The Scavenger came to me for £110 in a fantastic hair metal black and white zebra stripe. The neck plate is marked 'reject' apparently becasuse of bleed in the paint job. I stripped it, to reveal this beautiful ash & mahogany body. I was intending to paint it a solid colur but seeing the quality of the wood, I oiled it. If this is Washburns idea of a reject, I'll take them all.   My other Washburn- an even more hair metal black B20 which I can't find a decent picture of at present- I found on ebay in a pretty sorry state. My old mate Graham Parker (Lewisham luthier) undertook the daunting task of routing out the skunk stripe (the old one had sort of erupted from the neck, the truss rod having been over cranked), and replacing said truss rod and skunk stripe. The operation went very well and was a testament to Grahams skill and patience. The bass is now a joy to play and such a great shape. You have to love a bass with prongs...

[bass_dinger]

5 hours ago, patrikmarky said:

It did get a reprieve for a while as I had a old Ibanez bass neck which did fit perfectly but never quite looked or felt right ..

 

I read about your clever solution, and did consider doing something similar, but in the end I went for a new neck. To do that:

 

I found the original Washburn Custom Shop luthier in the USA. 

Sent out the old neck to him, so he can decide if it is repairable. £60

A new one was needed - $450

Post the neck back to the UK, $100

Pay tax, VAT, 

And I also wanted to prettify the headstock, and spent another £28 on an original Washburn Custom Shop headstock logo.

 

£625 bought me a new neck. That's pretty much what the entire zebrawood XB925 cost me.

 

Labour of love  - because common sense would have made me sell the bits...

 

 

 

[bass_dinger]

5 hours ago, W1_Pro said:

Would it be fair to say that are few brands of  bass as under appreciated (this thread being the honourable exception)  as Washburn?

There's another, similar, thread on Talkbass, and my own luthier tells me that they are good basses - but Washburn does seem to have slipped under the radar, when people are considering older instruments.

 

I have never tried a Japanese Washburn, but have instead stuck with one model, and one string layout (Bantam 5 strings).

 

One of the advantages of the Washburn is that they are so obscure and rare, that it's nearly impossible to amass a collection, even if one wants to. 

 

Well done for rescuing the two that you have. Looking forward to seeing your B20, when you get a better photo. 

 

 

[W1_Pro]

I could only find a picture of my B20 in a rack with a bunch of other basses- in fact you can see the corner of it (black with white purfling) on the right of this pic of   the Scavenger as it came to me. Plus a close up of the neck plate. For some reason it makes me think of  Motley Crüe...

Edited Sunday at 18:17 by W1_Pro