Washburn HM Series WV40MRK Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)As a guitar player who grew up with 80's 'hair bands' and Heavy Metal, I was immediately intrigued by the design of these new Washburn V's when I first saw them advertised.The body ends up being somewhat of a cross between a classic (ie Gibson) V and the slimmed down Jackson Rhoads.For comparison, my Dean V fits nicely inside the Washburn gig bag, huge headstock and all.

The Washburn is thick like a Les Paul, yet light enough so that it's not a back-breaker.The neck is on the thin side and the fretboard has a flat radius allowing for even play along the entire surface.Mine came with the phenolic resin board that is smooth, hard, and fast.

The first thing I noticed when I received this guitar was that the finish is MUCH nicer than any of the pics that I've found online.It has a nice deep metallic look to it that's hard to capture.

The second thing that I noticed was that there was a HORRIBLE bow to the neck; as if the truss rod was completely loosened prior to shipping.I had to give the truss rod about 2 full turns in order to get it straightened out!I also found a high fret in the upper register that I had to file down to fix.These are NOT things I expect to have to do on a guitar that was supposedly 'set up' at the factory.For the price paid (Gold Box deal), I was willing to put up with a few inconveniences, though.To their credit, I found that the intonation was nearly perfect once I got the neck straightened out.

Opening up the control cavity revealed very tidy construction & quality components (full-sized alpha pots, etc).I also discovered that a coil split switch could be easily added to the Randall pickups, so I installed a push-pull tone knob with an orange-drop cap.

Regarding the sound of the guitar, it's loud and aggressive and sounds great on it's own.However, I found that the natural 'scooped' EQ of the pickups leads to it getting a little lost in a live mix (nothing a little re-EQing can't take care of, though).

All in all, the Washburn WV40 is a great guitar; easily as nice or better than ANYTHING that I've played in it's 'regular' price range.

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Product Description:
Solid Mahogany body Mahogany/set neck Phenolic fingerboard Grover® Exclusive 18:1 tuners 25.5" scale Randall® UL neck & Ultra XL bridge pickups Stop tailpiece Buzz Feiten Tuning System™

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