Washburn A-10V

The Washburn A10-V was probably made in Japan. It's a solidbody, dual passive humbucker, Explorer-esque shaped, non-locking trem-equipped electric with volume & tone for each pickup, 6-on-a-side headstock and a flashy finish. It was a typical early 80's hard rock guitar.

Mine had a metallic magenta finish, rosewood fretboard, maple neck. Played very well, looked very cool. Don't know what was used for the body. It was lightweight.

The workmanship was great, the neck was one of the nicest I've played on any guitar, with a comfortable, slim, V profile. The tuners were fine. The Achilles' Heel of this guitar was the trem. It was for all intents and purposes unuseable! It would not stay in tune. That is partly because the headstock was designed so that the strings crossed the nut at a steep angle. This guitar was introduced before the advent of locking nuts. So the strings would bind in the nut. I tried putting an LSR rolle nut up there, which helped a bit.

The other problem with the trem was the bridge itself. The metal was so soft that the fulcrum points got dull from being pressed against the trem posts constantly! Using the trem caused knocks through the speaker because the trem didn't smoothly pivot on the fulcrum points like it should have. And needless to say, when set up to float, it would never come back in tune.

The bridge saddles were what looked like brass. But they had to be some soft metal too . The strings dug little grooves in them. That caused sharp burrs that would break strings. I never broke so many strings as on that guitar.

Sound was typicall for an 80's rock guitar with hot pickups. Super Distortion pickups or equivalents were popular in those days. The tone of the stock pickups wasn't bad. What was bad is the neck pickup was poorly potted, so it squealed horribly. Again, unuseable.

After trying to pot the neck pickup myself and only succeeding in partly melting the bobbins and making a horrible burnt plastic smell, I replaced the pickups with a PRS HFS in the bridge and a Duncan Seymourizer 2 (the neck version of the Duncan Distortion). Vast improvement.

Here's where my old guitar gets a 10. The neck was one of the fastest, easiest playing, most comfortable necks I've ever played. The finish was very attractive. That metallic magenta was an eye catching color.

If only they'd used a better trem and pickups...

I gigged with it. It came with a nice case that protected it well. I never had anything go wrong with it at a gig.

I ended up trading it in for an ESP that I still have and really like. If the current owner isn't a heavy whammy user, I expect he/she is quite happy with the guitar. I left the PRS and Duncan pickups in it when I traded it in.

Never called Washburn

Cool looking guitar. I had it for several years. I bought it in '85. It was far more "80's" than my Fender Str@t. And I got it at a great price from a music shop that was closing. I was a poor student in the mid 80's so this was a nice break for me.

I loved the playability but the shoddy hardware ultimately made me decide I couldn't gig with it. I wish it'd had a decent Floyd-liscenced trem. Or even a non-locking one that was made of hardened steel for crying out loud!