My bounds of Washburn guitar knowledge is very small, for the record. Prior to this red G-2V coming along, I had never owned or played a Washburn guitar. I never really thought about checking them out over the years. Nothing against them, of course, it's simply unknown territory for me. From what I do know about this particular model, it was produced in Japan in the 1980s. There seems to be a split production among these, as some of them came with the T600 Floyd Rose-licensed trem, and the others came with the Kahler Wonderbar. This particular guitar is equipped with the latter. Some of them also came with pickguards, and others didn't. I didn't think to grab the serial number when I had it in, so I'm gathering basic data with my magic Google powers.
This rare specimen from the 1980s has a certain charm to it.
The first thing I noticed on this instrument was the gigantic tremolo. This is a Wonderbar system made by Kahler, and stamped with "Washburn 2001" on the upper portion of the block. I've owned guitars equipped with Kahler Flyers in the past, and this tremolo feels like two Flyers put together. The most noticeable thing about this trem is its sheer size - it's almost like an engine block strapped to the body! Serious chunk of metal there.
When you pick the guitar up, you can feel the definite weight of it. Quite a significant difference between a Floyd Rose guitar and this one. The thing about Kahler trems is that they don't require any body routing, whereas a Floyd Rose-equipped guitar has full through-body routing done to it. The demand for the Floyd Rose's routing shaves a considerable amount of weight off the body. So apply that knowledge and combine it with the Wonderbar's size and sheer weight, and you've got a fairly hefty instrument at your disposal.
Everything on this guitar is excellent, overall. It's been very well maintained - a very small amount of noticeable blemishes and dings. The frets had little wear on them, and the 24.75", 21-fret neck played smoothly. The fretboard was in excellent condition as well. It had a neck profile similar to an older BC Rich NJ series or an ESP - not quite as thin as Jackson or Ibanez, but still comfortable to play.
The ol' Washburn getting ready for some doctoring.
The electronics were the main cause for concern. This guitar is equipped with a humbucker, two single coils, tone pot, coil tap, and an old-school 5-way switch. This guitar had two failed pickups and some less-than-par connections in the circuitry, so that's where it needed the most attention. The owner brought some nifty replacement pickups for installation - a Bill Lawrence 500XL for the bridge, and a Dimarzio Super Distortion single coil for the neck position. As it turns out, the original middle and bridge pickups have failed. What I did was install the 500XL in the bridge (of course), and installed the Super Distortion in the neck. The original neck pickup was functioning, so it was moved to the middle to replace the faulty pickup there.
And of course, a full rewiring was done to ensure solid connections on the coil tap and the rest of the circuitry.
Before shot of the cavity. It's difficult to tell in the picture, but there was some iffy connections in there. A full rewire was imminent.
After shot, after the full rewiring and pickup install. Nice, clean connections everywhere with new wire and fresh solder joints.
I wasn't able to hear the original tones of the guitar, due to the faulty pickups. But the new pickups breathed new life into this G-2V. The owner had intentions on using it in a heavy metal project, so the 500XL he opted for fit the bill quite well. The coil tap adds an interesting dynamic with the 500XL, and it sounded fantastic. The Super Distortion single coil was a great fit for the front end, providing some snarly neck position tones. The middle pickup doesn't hold its own in comparison to its next-door neighbors, but it sounded alright in its place. The owner wasn't too concerned about middle pickup use, so it stays stock.
Back in action with some hot new pickups at the helm.
Following the pickup install and rewiring, the next order of business was the restringing and setup. 10-46 gauge strings were provided for a setup in D standard. Setting up and restringing this guitar was pretty straightforward. The strings are pulled through the micro tuners, retained by the string balls - no need to cut them off with this tremolo. They then get fed underneath the main roller, and then over the saddle roller. As you actuate the trem, the strings freely roll forward and back through both rollers. What I noticed about this design - the mechanical nature of it doesn't allow for nearly as severe of a dive, compared to a Floyd Rose. There isn't as much "freedom" in the movement. They are two extremely different tremolos, for sure, but they both work great in their own ways. The Wonderbar trem works great for applying some tasty chord vibrato of some sorts, but doing a soaring divebomb? Not so much. However, the Wonderbar seemed to keep stable tuning after some tedious whammy action, so I'll chalk it up as a success.
Intonation and action adjustments are also easy - each saddle has their own height adjustment screws, much like standard hardtail saddles, or vintage trems. This guitar actually needed very little adjustment after the restring, which is impressive. It wasn't difficult at all to get it dialed in just right.
The result - we have a heavy-set, Japanese-made superstrat from the 1980s, with some interesting features and more modern pickups. The bridge is a bit cumbersome underneath the hand (which will vary depending on your style anyway), but the neck felt smooth and comfortable. The 24.75 scale brings everything in nice and close, so getting around the neck is no issue. The weight of the bridge and the body seems to help reduce the effort it takes to move the neck around... perhaps a very distinct advantage in some cases. Great tone and solid playability overall - and in extremely good condition to boot. It's got a peculiar character about it.
We've all seen the plethora of superstrats that are out there, but I think any player can admit they each have their own charm to them, in some sort of fashion - this guitar is no exception. It's like a very niche, hidden part of the 1980s guitar world that I didn't know existed. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work on it and play it, because I honestly have no idea when I will come across one again.
We've all seen the plethora of superstrats that are out there, but I think any player can admit they each have their own charm to them, in some sort of fashion - this guitar is no exception. It's like a very niche, hidden part of the 1980s guitar world that I didn't know existed. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work on it and play it, because I honestly have no idea when I will come across one again.
One last note - as I have disclaimed before, I know very little of these early Washburn guitars, so if you do have some insight on this guitar, feel free to comment! There really isn't that much readily-available information that I was able to find, so please let me know with any other juicy details about these guitars.
Thanks for reading!
- Kyle C.
