Washburn AG-30S

I am not sure what year the guitar was made, I bought it online in hte summer of 2002. 14 frets to the neck. Solid top but back and sides are unidentified--sawn oak? ash? I don't know. This guitar has a lot of abalone. Good bright color to the abalone on headstock, neck, around bout (front and back), around sound hole and across the two piece back make this the prettiest guitar I own. This guitar takes on more of the parlor look because of the absense of a pickguard. All the promotional pics I've seen of this model have a pickguard so I don't know if this is a submodel, a change in manufactuing or if someone just decided not to put one on. It has a very shallow body and a shallow neck. the neck is not particularly wide but it is much flatter than my other guitars and this caused some hand cramping at first (I play about an hour a day and have played for about 30 years so I was surprised at the cramping but I learned to adapt the way I hold hte istrument.

This has a decidedly different sound than my dreadnaughts and jumbos. The tone led me directly into a Bruce Cockburn tune that I like (Indian Wars), it has a slightly droning and far away sound if that makes any sense to you. I finger pick or strum without picks and I do like the difference in sound between the full bass of my D35 and other guitars. The tone is lighter. It is bright and has nice high end sustain.

Action is veru nice--again the flatter neck took some getting used to. Workmanship and finish look good. BEAUTIFUL Abalone is well inlaid.

I've just had this for a couple of months but it feels like a solid instrument that will hold up well. Hardware turns easily and does not slip.

Well, I emailed Washburn a couple of times with questions but they apearently feel email addresses are for show only.

This is a gorgeous guitar and I suspect it sounds better to the listener than it does to the player. I own about 7 or 8 acoustics right now and I enjoy playing this one a lot. I'm not going to give up my Martin for it, I could be persuaded to give up one of my 30 year old Alvarez's though (back when they were knocking off gibson's and martins) and I do like those guitars. If I lost this one and got replacement money though I probably would buy the Washburn Parlor Reissue...that's really more what I wanted to add to my collection.

This review concerns a 2002 model, made in China, 21 frets (if I remember), solid spruce top with laminated sides and back of a wood I can't identify. The entire guitar is highly glossed. The tuners are good quality and there are lots of extras like abalone inlays all over the guitar. The guitar came with minimal documentation. The guitar is absolutely beautiful. Visually, the only downside is that the frets were unpolished. For the price of this guitar, I give it an 8.

I really wanted to like this guitar, so it hurts me to say that the tone is tinny, thin and weak on bass. I blame this in part on the size of the guitar. Although it's marketed as an auditorium model, the guitar is really a parlor model.

The action was real high. I adjusted the truss rod until I was afraid to give it any more turns. It helped, but the action was still too high. Filing down the saddle might have cured it. I'll never know, because I returned the guitar -- not so much because the action was high, but because of the tone (see below).

I'll never know, because I returned it.

See above.

I post this review only because I want others to benefit from my mistake. Nobody else has reviewed this guitar model, anywhere. As far as I know, only MF sells this model -- it's not even depicted on Washburn's website.

Again, I really wanted to like this guitar. No other inexpensive guitar looks like it. But the description and model number were deceiving. The guitar is not an grand auditorium model, but a parlor.

I therefore sent the guitar back. I have to say that Musician's Friend couldn't have been better about accepting the return. They even paid shipping. They lost a sale but they won a lifetime customer.