Washburn AB-20

This is a mid-90's instrument of Asian manufacture. Mine is a Sunburst version with a very nice finish. The 34 inch scale is a plus in the world of acoustic basses as it allows for a more "open" tonal spectrum that does not pinch off the lows as the shorter scale instruments do. All hardware is top notch. The feature of both standard 1/4" and XLR outputs is great.

This instrument has a sweet sound. I use Fender light guage Flatwounds on all of my basses. The flats really add to this instruments tone. I get rich harmonic overtones all across the board. A side benefit of using Flatwounds is that it virually eliminates the string noise that is common to all acoustics when using those nasty bronze rounds. I run with no effects through a variety of amplification depending on the size of venue. For smaller rooms I either run direct to the PA, an SWR California Blonde or Ashdown Perfect 10. One thing....despite the slotted sound ports this bass is just like all acoustic basses in regards to being "feedback" prone on stage if running through stand alone amplification. Eliminating feedback is still dependant on your proximity to speakers and tonal setting choice on the bass and amp. This is not an issue running throug the PA.

I do my own setups.This bass is very well constructed and plays as easy as my old Por J basses. Nice fast neck. I can find no construction issues at all and it holds up well under "gig conditions".

This is definitely one of the most "gig-worthy" acoustic basses you will encounter. I have owned several makes over the years and this is still the most fun to play and best sounding of them all. Action, fit and finish are superb!

Never needed.

I ahve been playing for 40 years now in almost every genre of music. While I wouldn't do an "electric gig" with anything but a P or J, this is my only choice for "acoustic/electric" gigs. I have owned acoustics by Fender,Michael Kelly, Epiphone, Morgan Monroe, etc., and keep coming back to the Washburn. This is the 3rd AB 20 I have owned over the years. If anything happened to it, I would immediately find another one. One thing, the new AB10 IS NOT THE SAME! It in no way, shape or form comes close to the qualities of the AB20. Just my opinion.

Bought it in 1996. I was looking for a cheap Acoustic-electric bass but fell in love with the AB20. It has a Washburn (Equis Gold) active pre-amp & 3-band eq with a phase switch (which I've never used) & notch control for reducing feedback. It has a single under-bridge piezo pickup & schaller tuners. I got the black finish but it was also available in blonde. Washburn advertised that it had jumbo frets but they appear fairly standard to me. I had to buy the Washburn hard case as I couldn't find a generic case to fit.

I like the acoustic sound but it is prone to feedback at high volumes. It is punchier than most electric basses I've used. The electronics are very quiet & the eq can give a huge variety of tones. One weird thing about the contour slider is that it only works when the treble slidfer is all the way up. I mainly use the bass slider live & never touch the mid. I use it with the Hartke H3500 350W head & a JBL E-140 bass driver & compression driver in a wedge. I have just bought a Behringer Bass V-Amp but haven't really tried it out.

Likes
Punchy tone
Dislike
Contour only works with the treble slider fully up (this is not a fault - it's in the manual)

Action is great (bridge is not adjustable so I was a little worried about what I'd do if it went out but that hasn't eventuated yet after 5 years of playing. I'm pretty happy eith the finish although I should have gone with the blonde finish as the black now looks old-fashioned.

I play regularly but I'm not hard on a guitar. With a new set of strings, it plays like new.

I've never dealt with Washburn so I can't comment on their support, but I've had 2 guitars I've been happy with.

I've been playing bass for 15 years. I've just bought a Belman Standard bass to try to get something which could be played loud without feedback. However, the Washburn still has a punchier sound

I just bought an AB-20 fretless that was on consignment at the local music shop. I have no idea about the age but it appears to be older, maybe 80's by the yellowing bindings.
It has an EQ with volume, bass, middle, treble, that is very effective. And an in-bridge piezo.
It is a tobacco sunburst and without the frets is really stunning. It has subtly, and tastefully marked frets spots at every fret. the top is solid mahogony. The neck is very thin for what you might expect and is perfectly comfortable for my guitar oriented hands.

The sound is as warm as you can get from a bass. With the bass turned up on the EQ and treble down through my home studio mixer and headphones the sound is etherial, beautiful, smooth. Really I don't know how you could get a sound like it with any other means. The size of the instrument gives it a range that is unique to fretless acoustic bass. Messing with the EQ it is appearent that there is much more to the sound than I have discovered. I have only had the guitar for two days.

The action is very good I wouldn't change a thing. The finish is, well, used. The nut is loose, something that didn't know until I got the thing home. Strangely, I have three Washburn guitars right now and all three have unglued nuts. They're all very different guitars and from different eras, one I bought in '73' so I don't know if that's just a fluke or what.

I can only say from other Washburns that I have, and have had (5 in all),that I wouldn't hesitate to buy one for a minute.

I did contact Washburn once to get some information on a rare, white, arch-top Eagle that my son now has. They sent me some literature and background info, other than that I have never had to deal with them. However I e-mailed them this morning trying to get the dirt on my new (used)AB-20.

I am not a bass player but I do home recording so I am forced to pretend to be one. I bought this bass for two reasons, one is that I saw it in the store and literally couldn't stop thinking about it. The other is that I used to have a fretless and have always regreted geting rid of it. I will have this guitar forever.

This is a 1999 Washburn AB-20 four-string acoustic bass guitar. It has a mohogany body and top with a rosewood fretboard, Chrome Schaller tuners and 23 standard frets (Washburn says they're jumbo but I'd qualify them as standard, they're not that fat and not that high). The bass comes with Washburn's Equis Gold preamp system and a Fishman transducer. It has a black finish with creme binding, a florentine cutaway and the coolest looking parallelogram-slashed sound-hole. The guitar came with a hardshell Washburn case with the most laughably hideous hot-pink shag that sheds like crazy. I have to pick pink fuzz out of the strings for a couple days every time I re-string.

This guitar sounds damn good and I was stunned when I played it. The acoustic body gives off a rich, warm, mellow bass tone amplified or not. When amplified the tone gets more electric but the warmth is still there and by adjusting the preamp settings you can really get a powerful and smooth bottom end out of it. Note: This guitar, like every other acoustic bass I've played, does NOT sound like an upright. It sounds like what it is, a low-note acoustic guitar with a deformed (cutaway) soundbox. The range is not that great even though the Equis Gold system lets you adjust treble, bass, blend and volume. I bought the guitar so that I could have something to take to the beach and jam with all my friends by the bonfire. Bad news: It's too quiet to do much in that environment and is pretty much drowned out by an unamplified acoustic guitar. Good news: I haven't played an acoustic bass that was appreciably louder and the bikini-clad girls love the look of the black beauty even if they can't hear what you're playing.

The body of the AB-20 is wonderfully thin for an acoustic bass (or guitar for that matter) and is very comfortable to play. I have owned seven different basses and have never been able to adjust *one* of them as well as this. The factory setup was good to begin with and a couple minor adjustments got the action to my ideal setting. The guitar has the unfortunate (but common to acoustics) tendency to go tune-crazy when you experience humidity changes so don't forget your tuner for that outdoor barbeque. Like most Washburn's (and Asian-built guitars in general) quality control is suspect. I had to go to three different stores before I found this one. The others had fret problems or headstock buzz. The QC on the AB-20 is superior to that of the AB-10 so if you're considering between the two I'd suggest springing for the mahogany top and the better preamp system. I wouldn't reccommend buying without a careful playing session or buying by mail-order but if you find a good one, the AB-20 is a joy.

For an acoustic bass it's pretty damn durable, though it doesn't *feel* it. It feels a bit more flimsy than it actually is. I haven't beat it up at all even with some heavy playing and carting it around to all kinds of different places. It handles sand better than an acoustic with a round sound hole. :) The hardware seems to be quality, though the battery replacement system on the preamp puts some strain on the contacts and re-soldering would be difficult. Strap buttons are securely fastened to the body and aren't just pegs held in by tension, which is very nice. The truss rod needs to be adjusted to compensate for humidity but it's very simple to get to and responds extremely well. I wouldn't want to have to fight anybody off with this guitar but it's survived a direct-hit from a volleyball serve so I'd say it's pretty tough.

Washburn's warranty is the "Send it back to us and we'll fix it" policy. While I haven't had to take advantage of that myself, my friend has had very good experience with Washburn customer support. It seems it's cheap and easy for them to send you a replacement if you break yours so you don't waste time waiting for your toy to be repaired.

$710.00 was probably a bit much to spend on a beater acoustic bass but I wound up with a really cool sounding and looking instrument. I like this thing a lot but probably wouldn't replace it if it got stolen or destroyed. I'd rather use the money to buy a cheaper, unamplified beater acoustic and apply the rest of it to other stuff. One of the groups I jam with insist that I bring it when I play with them. They love the mellowness of the amplified sound and I have to agree that it compliments the guitar and piano quite nicely. I also have a Rickenbacker 4003 and a defretted Hondo II (P-bass replica). I don't know if I would've purchased this bass if I had sat down in the store with some guys playing guitar and heard how easily it gets drowned out but I definetly feel like I have a great acoustic/electric bass. Reccommendation: Get rid of the factory steel strings and buy a set of phosphor bronze or you won't get *any* kind of volume out of it. I'm planning to get an SWR acoustic amplifier so I'll have to let you know how it sounds through that.