Washburn B-5

Mine is 1984, made in Japan by Matsumoku. 4-string, 22 frets, 34" scale, string through body, 3 piece bolt on neck. Pick ups are split single coil "p bass style" and volume/tone knobs.

Bought it from a friend who collects a weird array of musical gear. He got it of a friend who got it off a friend who got it of a.... you get the picture...

Acording to the limited info i could find on the net it has an ash body, rosewood fingerboard, and... ooh... deluxe machine heads... the things actually hold tune pretty well, so they must be very deluxe indeed...

Mine is a really weird kind of yellow, with bound edges. One night I could have sworn it was glowing in the dark, but it doesn't. It's just very um... shiny? It also has a very weird 80's rock god kind of shape, which can be good fun, but a little uncomfortable to sit down with. Oh, and it is one HEAVY mother too.

Manufactured as a cheap bass, but theres something about it... I cant seem to stop playing it...

It's kind of ironic that I bought this bass in the first place because i play in bands that are more oriented to pop rock, country or jazzy styles. Yet this bass was designed to make it's home with a bunch of neon spandex clad lads with big hair and amps turned up to 11.

But I gig with it all the time, and it certainly gets some looks at least.

Not the most versatile as far as types of sound, but OK. Very loud and punchy, with a little bit of grit/edge added. The sound certainly has a lot of balls, which I think could be partly credited to the fact that it weighs a ton. Plenty of mids. I run this bass into an Eden Nemisis head which runs into a Trace Elliot 210 cab. Pretty even too once I set everything up and adjusted the poles on the pickups.


There are alot of better sounding basses out there, and this one defiently wouldn't suit a pretty style of music, but having said that its actually quite good for some things.

I don't mind the pickups so much, but I would like to try put in some seymour duncan SPB-3 pickups in soon to try it out for size.

I've used it in the studio once. The engineer liked it, and it worked well with the pop rock it was being used for.

When I got this bass, the action was pretty medicochre. I'm pretty average at setting up axes to tell the truth, so it took quite a bit of fiddling to do it. Now its settled in, its alright actually.

I've been using this bass on the road for about 8 months now without backup. Its pretty solid, I wouldn't want to drop it on my foot...

This bass is old. I couldn't find much info on it, and I doubt its still under warranty.

It's damn heavy. And a little awkward feeling standing up or sitting down, but it has a unique sound and look. Lets just call it one of my latest quirks. left shoulder is getting increasingly sorer these days, and I blame it on this bass. However, I think I'll gig with it a little more, cause its fun. And then, when I am lop-sided from the weight of this bass, hopefully the novelty will have worn off and I can go back to using boring p bass... ;-)

22 frets, 34" scale (i think), string through body, bolt on neck, tone/volumecontrols, black spray paint finish (originally orange, repainted several times), black hardware.

Sounds pretty good, although i've heard many better.

This bass is very beat up. I bought it for $15 in non working condition. after some soldering and new control nobs, and a fix to the warped neck, i had a 35 dollar practice bass. it had been spray painted pink, and i redid it in black(i wasn't very careful. it was originally orange, so im quite sure it was made in the 80s. it has a fun body style that looks very glam-rock. looks nice from a distance. =)

this bass is a tank. if i was locked back stage i would use it to break down the door, and then play it. i made a few adjustments when i first got it, and it's been pretty steady since then. it has some buzzing frets, and a strange pickguard buzz when you play certain notes that i have never seen before. it's really quite odd. it does it no matter how tight the screws are. i wouldn't play a show without strap locks, and i might bring a back up just in case, although it's never stopped working on me.

Bought it at a garage sale.

This bass is fun to play while pretending you are a rock star. not very comfy sitting down though. someday i may take out the frets for fun. i've seen it done before. i don't think they can be purchased new anymore, but if you find one it will probably be too cheap not to buy. with the simple passive electronics, there is almost nothing that can go wrong that you cant repair with a little effort (and very little $). don't try to break it at the end of a show (ie the who), you may get hurt. =)