Washburn AF-40 V Ace Frehley

From the materials available from Washburn after my purchase:
Canadian rock maple neck with polished Carbonite fingerboard; solid ash body; single high output coil tap humbucker, black hardware,
black Wonderbar tremolo, custom finish with lightning bolt on body running up to neck and Ace?s signature below. Some other features not pointed out by Washburn include the locking nut, oversized strap buttons, and a full two octave 24 fret fingerboard. Two different color options were available. The guitar and fingerboard are a deep black in both options. The graphics could either be in white or red. I remember seeing a picture of Ace holding one of these that had the red lightning bolt and white signature.

When I first plugged this guitar in I was disappointed with the sound. The light body and stock pickup simply do not get that sustain I was used to with my '78 Les Paul. But over time I got used to the sustain and worked this guitar into my song list for certain songs. I doesn?t get that ?Ace? sound, but it does very well on 80?s metal. I ordered this guitar based soley on the first Washburn/Laney ad that Ace did in '86. I expected the guitar to sound like a Les Paul, why else would Ace put his name on it?

This guitar did not require any additional setup work once I took delivery. The neck is a bit chunkier than I prefer, but it was easy enough to get used to. The action was set a bit high for my tastes, but I kept it as it was. The finish was a very deep black that you could almost see yourself in ala Spinal Tap. I was not aware that there were options for the finish. Until I took delivery of mine I had only seen the black/white versions in the ads that Ace was in. It wasn?t until after I took delivery that I was able to get a copy of the Washburn catalog and saw black/red listed as an option. Initially I was very disappointed with my dealer who never mentioned the color option because I wanted the same exact color I saw in the ads. After a few years I realized that the black/red version might be a little rarer as I have not personally seen another. I have seen several black/white ones though.

This guitar has stood up well over the past 14 years since I first ordered it. It has taken a few chips in the finish here and there from hitting mike stands, etc. But those are operator error, no reflection on the manufacturer. Recently I experienced problems with the toggle switch no longer working. Thankfully it quit working in the humbucking position, so I not too worried about fixing that.

For the first 13 years of it?s life I never once had to contact Washburn other than sending in warranty information. Now that I need some help with the wiring diagram I contacted Washburn via their customer service email address. Suffice it to say I feel it would be easier to get a reply from Ace Frehley himself than from Washburn. They could learn a few things from other manufacturer?s web sites (i.e. Gibson and Peavey). Customer service is the one black mark on an otherwise very good report. But then again, do companies other than Peavey actually keep archived info and give out to people. Kudos to Peavey for their support via the web site.

Putting aside my initial apprehension over the color mix up and adjusting to the tremolo bar (my first and only guitar with one) and my recent bad luck with Washburn customer service the experience with this guitar has been very pleasant. Granted I was disappointed in the beginning because it did not sound like my ?78 Les Paul, but over time I grew to appreciate this guitar for what it is. It's a great little beast to unleash on stage for that 80's flashback. I?m not in a band now, but in the past this thing got a lot of attention on stage. A lot of people had never seen one of these before and asked if I had built it myself. I would like to hear from other AF-40 owners about their experiences with this guitar.

The Washburn AF 40V 'Ace Frehley' Model was advertised in the summer of '86 and became available in late '86 - '87. According to descriptions of the guitar at edromanguitars.com, it was made in Korea, but I am not sure if this is true of all the AF 40s. It has 24 frets. I believe it's a solid top guitar.
My AF 40V came with a single 'Washburn' humbucking pickup, one volume & one tone control, with a switch for single coil/double coil/ off sound for the one bridge pickup. The original pickup was a weaker passive 'Washburn' which I replaced with a screaming EMG'81. I am unsure of what woods the guitar is made of but it has a nice hard satin finish. It came in black/red or black/silver. My AF 40 (Black/Silver) has a relatively thin neck and came with a custom hard case and a set of allen wrenches for adjusting the hardware.
The AF 40V came with a locking nut assembly with micro-tuners on the Wonderbar Tremelo system....The guitar stays in tune very well!
My 'Ace Frehley' Washburn could have used a neck pickup but it's not a "show-stopper" with the Single-coil/Double-coil/Off toggle switch...experimenting with the switch and volume & tone controls can produce most desired sounds.

The guitar is obviously made for hard-rock/heavy metal guitar playing, but can produce a great fender type clean sound for songs like "sweet home alabama". Sounds great with any amp...primarily because of the high-quality EMG-'81 that I installed. The original pickup is WEAK.
With thick strings and a new battery for the EMG-81, This guitar is HOT! I play Ace Frehley solos and Eddie Van Halen solos. This guitar would work well in a recording studio as well as for live performances....very high quality.

The guitar was not set up well at the factory. Right off the bat we were filing frets at the dealership. The high e string is also too close to the edge of the fretboard so I had the dealership remove the bolt-on neck and shim it so the neck is pushed toward the high e string. I also unscrewed, slid over, and re-screwed down the Wonderbar tremelo to give the e-string more room.
Aside from my major setup, the guitar is a tough high-quality instrument that stays in tune even with heavy tremelo abuse!

I just played my AF 40V live with no backup. It stayed in tune the whole time! Even with my hitting the strings pretty hard!
The hardware is top-notch. The finish is withstanding quite a bit of punishment and is holding up fine. The strap buttons are solid. I use the stock buttons with a standard strap when playing live. It's never come unhooked.
This thing's going to outlast me!

Washburn guitar customer support is non-existent. The problems with my guitar were due to the basic construction, not materials or workmanship. I simply need the high e-string to stay on the fretboard since I use a lot of Van Halen type pull offs / hammer-ons. The guitar is fine now that I did some major adjustments. Washburn never replied to any questions I had, though. The Washburn guitar shop I went to did everything I asked no-charge, which was good.

I've been playing 20 years now. I own a bunch of Les Paul copies, but the Washburn AF 40V is the best quality guitar I've got. It really stays in tune! I'm quite an Ace Frehley fan and copy his music. If my AF40V were stolen I'd be pretty sick about it...it's basically irreplacable!
The only thing I don't like about the guitar is the fact that it's a typical '80s "heavy-metal" guitar. It's kind of dated. It's also kind of cool though because a lot of people recognize it when I play with it live. Everybody seems to think it's cool....even when I'm playing country music or something mellow with it.
Some interesting facts: Even though this is an "Ace Frehley" guitar, Ace has only been seen with it on his 1987 video, "into the night". I've been told that he hated the design of the guitar and would rather stick with his Les Pauls. The guitar is also of the same basic design as the Quiet Riot "Rudy Sarzo" bass which was in the 1987 Washburn Guitar catalog alongside the AF40V.