Washburn Force 8

The Force 8 was my first bass. Mine was black with cream (might have been white originally) body binding, bolt-on neck with exterior bullet trussrod adjustment, one P pickup that seemed to have allen head posts similar to some DiMarzios, one volume + one tone with Gibson style speed knobs (God I hate knurled pots!), one tone, string-thru body with top loading option on the bridge, single ply black pickguard, Schaller style tuners, no body contours kinda like a Ric. It was a p-bass style bass pretty much, and I've been told there was a J-bass version as well. They were made in the early 80's, not exactly sure on the years.

Very basic P-bass sound, the single passive p pickup worked well, but wasn't real spectaclur. It worked well with effects, I played using an Ibanez CM10 distortion, DD10 delay, FL10 flange, and a Dunlop Bass Crybaby. Soundwise, it worker for rock, blues and it worked ok for metal. Not a tone machine like a Spector, but neither is a Fender P-bass.

The action was better suited for finger style then my 97 P-bass. Neck seemed to be set well. The bass was a few years old when I got it, so I'm not too sure how the finish was out of the box. The binding was a nice touch.

The down side to this bass was that the neck went out of whack, and when I took it in, I was told that the neck could only take light gauge strings (weird, I know). I've been mainly using gauge .40-.95 evr since.

For a first bass, it was perfect. Simple to use, and a decent sound. Far better in my opinion then alot of "Beginner" basses on the market today. I eventuall y traded it (and a bunch of other gear) for the Modulas Spi Custom Sweetspot, and later bought a Am. Std. Fender P-bass to kinda get that sound back.