Washburn XB-500

late 90's with pickup blend knob, 5 string blah blah blah, same as the other ones, all my ratings of this are for if you can find one for $2-300

looking for a cheap beginning or intermediate 5 string, check this one out, preamp while a bit noisy, can get some pretty good sounds, bright to dark, but try not to boost too much. its pretty heavy, close strings.

i dont remember what this bass was like 10 years ago. sorry, but over the years i have changed gauges of strings alot, used it with high c, then tuned b string down to g# and have had only a few probs with truss rod adjs., never any problems except for a loose knob, hey its 10 years old, could be fixed for $2.

this was my primary bass for about 3 years, and still use it off and on, its seen amy shows, practices

dont know

this is my only 5 string, and i still use it occasionally, i also have 2 p basses, and washburn xb 900, this is actually the most diverse sounding of all of them (not the best), but you can get some very useful tones out of it, i primarily used this bass with a metal band, i have bought an sold many basses over the years, but i have no plans to sell this one, if it were stolen i wouldnt necessarily buy another one because i rarely use need the 5th string, but if i needed an inexpensive 5 string, this would be the first place i would look

94 Korean 24 fret 5-string
Alder? w/flamed top
1 vol, bass, treble, pickup switch!
2 soapbar pickups
active with 2band preamp
standard neck: maple/rosewood fretboard
LowPro neck

Plenty of features for a bargain priced bass.

I play primarily gospel, but I also do rock, pop, and funk. For a bargain basement bass, it handled those chores very well. This was my first 5-string so it kind of shaped my sound, and became the (believe-it-or-not) standard by which all other 5's are judged.

Much has been made of the on-board preamps shortcomings, but since I boosted very little, I got more of the bass's natural sound and was very pleased.

It had a FAT fenderish sound with the neck pickup soloed and it was very guitarish with both pickups on, (but I mean that in a good way). I did not care for its bridge pickup soloed.

Boosting the bass a little fattened things up nicely.
A very small treble boost was sufficient to brighten things up. Any big boost brought hiss and/or mud with it.

It made three or four good tones, mostly fender-y and thats about it.
They were however pretty good tones. There was the P bass big bottom, the acoustic-guitary tone, and a few slap tones basically controlled from the amp.

It was better suited to the practice room than the stage or the studio, but I used it in both areas and it aquitted itself nicely.
Likes? create tones fast and without a lot of fuss.
Dislikes? Only a few tones...and whats up with the pickup switch? And what no blend knob? (this was an early model, washburn added a blend knob later)

The action was set up medium-low, so it played fairly fast.
It had tight string spacing...not good for slapping. As for flaws, it didn't have any glaring errors. It did have some file chatter marks on the fretboard plus the typical neck joint instability with no neck plate.

It lasted for 5 years until an accident in the trunk of my car broke its neck at the glue joint. But it was in a gig bag (people get hard cases please)

When the neck broke I tried to buy one from Washburn. The model was discontinued and after going on a waiting list for a part they knew did not exist, I was told, in the nicest and most diplomatic way possible, to buy a new Washburn or go to hell.

Polite and courteous but worthless.

been playing for over 20 years. Have owned several Fenders. A Yamaha TRB-5II, and currently play a Peavey cirrus 5 with a Fender mexi-Jazz as a backup.

It broke. I did not buy a new one; but its purpose was only to get me used to 5 strings anyway. But I do have fond memories of it.

I gave it prety low marks because I am comparing it to all the higher end 5's I ended up playing as well, but it was a good little bass.

This is a good 5-string/24 fret active bass, which doesn't cost a lot of money. With 4 pods (volume, element choice, treble and bass) you always can find the good tone.

It sound pretty good, but I should listen to it when its plugged into a other amp to hear what it sounds like for real.

The bass finished well, nice paint job

It never broke (not yet)

Never used it, the bass has never broke.

This bass isn't a hand-build bass, but what do you expect for that price. But I definetly recommend thiso one to everybody.

This bass have a great (Cyan/wood finition finition) This is one of the best bass for the price.

Good Song But Too Bass.... This bass dont have a nice Funk song...I have make a lot of shows whit this bass and each time,... A lot of people say Wow Alex Your bass have a Great song... Good song for play Punk...Pop...Blues...Rock

This bass is made in Korea...2 pick up actif...24 frets... THe finition is just too beatifull i have never seen this kind of finition before... The neck is tinny and Easy to play....

I have this bass since 2 year and the song is alway the same...Good song... Strong bass made whit strong wood...!! i never need to adjust the neck....but my plug for the cable is scrap :|....

Hmmmm sorry i dont know ........

Great bass !!! the best bass you can have for the price and maybe more !!!!

It sounded great, i picked it up, and the bass almost looked murdered.. I replaced everything, took of the finish, and basically turned it into a custom Bass, its great for upgrading, and placing a wilkinson locking bridge!

I adjusted the action to my needs, like i said before, its a awesome bass to buy used, and strip the paint, sand it down, and customize it and make it your own!

I replaced the strap buttons with locking stap buttons, i have dropped it, everything the neck is awesome do it its uni-lateral design.

I have had it a couple of years, put a awesome paintjob, Dimarzio Humbucking J Style Pickups, Replaced the Pots with HJ Ultra Wires and Pots.. its my favorite bass, new frets, now it rivals a Tobias

96 Washburn XB-500 5-string bass; 24 jumbo frets; 2 soapbar pickups; active electronics (volume, pickup pan, bass, treble); natural satin finish

Really big bottom, great for holding down the low end, and it doesn't wimp out on the low B string. I don't use any effects, and I prefer the sound of this bass through SWR workingman's amps. The sound is very full across the spectrum at reasonable EQ settings. I have used this for a lot of jazz gigs, but it wouldn't have been my first choice (however, it's been my only bass for several years); it does the job okay. But in a pop or rock group, watch out, because you will dominate the floor. Be deliberate and know your place in the group and it will blend great, especially live. I wouldn't recommend it for any sort of soloist. The sound on this thing is loud and proud, unfortunately, my tastes are changing, and I'm going to go for the single-humbucker sound soon.

I don't remember how it was set-up, I got it 5 years ago. It is easily adjustable, though, and I've barely had to do any of that. DOn't expect to be able to lower the strings super far; the neck just isn't built well enough for that.

This is an excellent bass for playing live. You really feel like you're in charge of the lowest notes, and this often helps you lock in with the singer. The hardware is very durable. I have dropped this thing millions of times (and even driven away with it on top of my car), and it's right there for me. The satin finish on the soft body is delicate, and this thing has been through a lot of abuse, so there are a good number of scratches and stuff. It's been in a lot of smoky bars and hasn't become discolored, though. The biggest difficulty this thing has given me is that the jack is finnicky, so make sure there are no crackles before the gig or session. It's super-reliable, and it's been the only bass I've owned for the past 5 years. I have never broken a string on it, either.

This was my first 5-string. I learned bass on a featherweight 4-string piece of crap. When it was time to move up, I tried all sorts of 5-strings. This thing had such a bolder look and sound than anything in the price range, so the choice was obvious. It doesn't have everything, but I highly recommend it to eager young rockers who want a kick-ass sounding band. The most notable thing about this bass is that just about every single gig or session I do, people always comment on what a cool bass it is right when I put it on(before I even plug it in).

Made in 1994 in Korea. It's a 5-string bass with 24 frets. The neck is made of hard maple, the body is soft maple. The fingerbouard is rosewood. It has 2 soapbar pickups washburn 951 and 953. The circuit is active. The sound can be controled by 4 knobs (volume, balance, treble, bass). I have a bolt-on with black finish.

It's a good starting 5-string. It's not so expensive. Fine for rock and fusion. It has a very dark sound and it's noisy in all situations (especially if you turn on the trebles). It sounds good live, because it has the bottom, but it is not good in the studio, because of the dark pickups and hissy EQ.

The bass was set good, when I bought it(new).

It looks good, but that's all there is to it. After a few years you have to cope with non-stop neck adjusting, bridge adjusting, especially the B string never sounds good. The sound is poor, but the construction is good. I used all sorts of strings (Blue Steel, Rotosound, D'addario...). D'addario string sounded the best. It's reliable (the strings do not crack so quickly, it stays in tune after one hour of rock music on stage..)

The warranty was one year, but I never needed the service.

When I bought this bass I knew nothing about bass guitars (my first bass). I played a lot of better and a lot of worse basses. If I lost it, I would probably get something else. I don't like the sound and I hate the small gap between the strings (it's not the same bettween the strings and it only about 15mm - average).

24 Fret Korean bass with volume, treble, bass, and pickup selector knobs. Washburn active J - J style pickups. Transparent red finish with a Washburn bridge (not string-thru body). Came with Washburn case.

Mixture of rock/blues/funk and church music. I ran it through a '77 Fender Bassman 10 (hated the sound-massive distortion), and a Crate BX160 (not too bad-really hot pickups with a lot of low end).
Dislikes: The first guitar that I bought had a "pre-amp problem", according to the guy at the store, so they ordered another one and sent that one back. On the second guitar, the pickups were just too dang hot for my taste. As soon as you touched the volume knob, you were flooded with sound. I could never get the amp sounding right because I couldn't turn it up and get the tubes working. Low B string lacked definition-muddy.
Likes: It felt good, played good, and stayed in tune fairly well. The tone of the guitar was very good when you ran it through a system instead of jacking your amp up.

When the bass reached my hands, it was in great shape. After a fairly substantial change in string gauge, action and intonation needed adjustment, but other than that it was good. The first guitar was a beautiful passive burgundy color (I liked it a lot) the second was more of an in your face red, which I did not care for.

I'd give the first guitar a "1", but the second wasn't bad. Everything about it was really solid for a lighter guitar. After the problem with the first, I always had a back-up, but never really used it.

I got a new bass when the old one broke, so I suppose it was good.

I've been playing for over 2 years and the XB-500 was my first (and only) 5-string. I love Washburn high end basses as I also have an XB-925 and a Washburn acoustic/electric. I got rid of the XB-500, so I suppose I didn't like it enough to keep it. It was just not up my alley. Too much pre-amp and distortion for my playing. When playing it in the store, it sounded great (mainly because I couldn't really turn it up and find out about the high gain) and the pure, deep bass sound blew the other guitars away. It wasn't until I got it home and turned it up that I was displeased.
Overall, it is a good starter 5-string bass guitar.

It's a Korean bass made in 97 (I think). It's got 24 frets and is a bolt on kneck. It's a solid black paintjob with bare wood kneck and chrome hardware. It has 2 j-type pickups (Washburn) and an active setup. There is 1 volume control, 2 tones (bass and high, I think), and a 3 way pickup selector switch. The body is ash with a rosewood fretboard. It's pretty standard looking as far as basses go. It has a typical fender style bridge. It has Washburn tuners. The kneck is really thin for a 5 string bass.

It has an interesting tone, but the strings are old and worn out, although they still sound somewhat decent on it, I can't wait to get new ones on it. When you have both pickups on it is quiet as can be, but when you go to just one of them it gets really noisy. It has kind of a smooth tone unless you mess with the tone knobs and you can get a nice thin sound or basically most of anything except a nice twang. I think that having dead strings may be part of that, though. I just wish I could mess with the pickups more w/o them being so noisy, and that it had more of a twang.

There was 1 nick in the wood that was painted over right near the 24th fret inside the horn. You really don't notice it, so its no big deal. It also needed some intonation done to it, but everything else was basically perfect.

This bass is pretty decent. I think it would last for anything, just have to be careful taking it places as I just have a thick gig bag for it.

I asked them for some info on this bass as it does not seem to have the standard pickups/electronics, and they never responded.

I have been playin bass for 2 years. I've plugged this bass into different setups, and it sounds great in most of them. It has rock bottom low end. The low B can be kinda touchy and muddy at times, though. I think once I put new strings on it it will feel/sound much better. The old strings seem to be muddier now, much looser, get out of tune more often, and sound very dead. I never changed the strings during the whole 2 years I played and they were not changed at the store during its minimum 6 month wait there. But, the bass itself is great. I just wish the individual pickups weren't so noisy, of course the battery could just be getting low. This bass is alittle pricey, but it is extrememly playable and instead of worrying where the strings are and whatnot you can focus on just playing and having fun.