Washburn BT4

Nice bolt-on neck, small headstock, very compact. Small body, original design. Non locking tuners, not sure of the wood but gorgeous golden tint, vintage sunburst, thick glossy finish.

Fine with high overdrive with distortion, or light overdrive with effects. I use it for fusion and rock mainly, and it has more than adequate power to handle that. I find the pickups pretty responsive. The switch is pretty solid also. Not recommended for heavy metal, because it has no sharp edges or skulls on it :-).

Perfect finish, even on a used one, neck straight as an arrow, action medium, very comfortable to play hanging high or slung low. What I love is the small size, it's the smallest and cuddliest :-) guitar I've ever played.

If you don't whack it on the speakers, or on the floor, it looks like it will last a lifetime. Tuning heads have a bit of free play, but seem to hold pretty well.

Like I said, the transparent finish is very solid, withstood a few little accidents very well over 10 years or so. Strap buttons are very solid, so is the tremolo bridge assembly.

No idea

This is a high quality instrument, despite the low price, and perfect for home use. I do not use an amp, rather a mixer with stusio speakers, and the sound is very clean, so it's probably fine for recording. Definitely better pickups than the Ibanez GIO, with the same pickup combination - two single coil and one humbucker. A little static built up in the pickup changer, but that's easy to fix. This guitar is much maligned on this site, and maybe it's because people are using crappy amps. I had that experience too - bad amp, bad sound. Brought it home, plugged it into my mixer, the sound was amazing. Please don't judge the instrument before you try it in different amps. Anyway chances of finding one are slim, they are not in production anymore. So if you do, grab it. Cheers.

I love my BT4. Like a mistress. It is my practice guitar, before I wear out the frets on my others. My Les Paul is too nice to play 90% of the time. Anyway it is a modern world so we can all use the intamanet to look up features (bought 2004, rosewood fretboard, maple neck, SSH passive layout, between a C and a D neck, Dark blue, melted strat shape, tremelo bridge that I don't use, smallish/medium frets). From some of the other reviews I like to think that I have the best BT4 in the world. The action is awesome, it sounds great, there was only fret buzz when bending on 1 fret and it took 4 years before I found a song that used that bent note. Anyyway an 8 'cause it doesn't have a Kaoss pad.

Awesome clean tone, seriously perdy, especially in second position. The humbucker is low output but is disturbingly louder than my Ibanez S series. Does a range of sounds, but has its own sound, doesn't really sound like a telecaster or a strat for example as it is a 24.75 scale etc (but I don't own a tele so don't quote me).

This one is amazingly good for a cheap guitar on all fronts. It is 4 years old, no paint wear, the neck wood it hard and apparently does not dent, the guitar is pristine. Perfect practice guitar as it does not wear out. As described earlier it took until recently to locate a fret that would not bend a whole step. I could not be happier.

Live - yep. Hardware all good. Finish is thick. strap button solid, I have never tightened them. I could use it without a backup as it doesn't seem to break strings.

It was missing a trem bar which the store provided happily. But remember it is a discontinued model.

You know when you play one guitar for 2 years and then at a party someone hands you their guitar and the neck is weird and the strings don't seem to be in the right place. Well This guitar has a 41mm nut while I prefer a 43mm (1 and 11/16). So when I purchased other amazing guitars with 43mm nuts I decided to keep the BT4 to allow me to practice on an alternative neck profile. I have no intention of ever selling it. If I preferred 41mm nuts it would be my chosen guitar and I would collect BT4s and BT2s.

This guitar is very similar to the Peavey Wolfgang when it comes to shape. It's clearly a cross between a Strat and a Les Paul.

My guitar has a see-thru red finish and it looks ok, very good when you consider the budget. The tuners are reliable (thanks to the locking nut also) but the bridge is clearly a low quality Floyd Rose (in what both action and sound are concerned).

The guitar is very comfortable (like the Peavey) being small and having a great neck (rosewood on hardrock maple). The pickups are extremely poor, especially the humbucker (H-S-S configuration). The 5-way switch is fragile and noisy. For that reason, I upgraded them to Seymour Duncan pickups and the woods thanked me the next minute. I don't know how the guitar will age, but the woods seem to be quite fine. The volume and tone controls just work on the 10. Otherwise, they cut the sound too much (I'll have to upgrade this section too).

I play rock, blues and funk and the guitar was supposed to work well in these styles. With the old (factory) pickups, forget it. After the upgrade, I can do pretty much what I want...

Like I said before, I'm pleased with the woods which are resonant and have soft spots in the low-mid frequencies (5th ~ 12th frets). The higher you go, the more you wish you were playing a Wolfgang... they lack some personality.

The pickup and controls cavity seems well shielded but there always some noise.

Action is good, fit also.
For a guitar this price, finish is very interesting.

This guitar will be the backup guitar, not the main one.
I think that says it all.

Bought off eBay in good conditions.
Thus meaning I never dealt with Washburn.

Excellent value for money, definately.

With some upgrades (pickups, electronics and tremolo), it can be a reliable backup guitar.

Hand crafted in Indonesia is what it reads on the back of the fretboard. Mine's dark purple with a deep wood fretboard but lighter wood on the back of the fretboard. It's a string-thru body, pretty easy to change strings. Don't know what year, got it from a music shop with nothing else, just the guitar. (Note this is my first electric so I don't really know any hardware terms). Only 2 out of the 5 pickups don't buzz, the second one and the fifth and final one.

Only real complaint I have noticed after maybe 4 months of playing every day is that the little pickup selector switch naturally clicks over to the last pickup if I play too hard.

I'm using a Peavey Blazer Transtube 158 (the one with reverb). On clean it sounds very nice and rich, but I hardly ever use clean. I'm a huge metalhead, so it almost never leaves maximum distortion. After you use it for an hour or so it starts to buzz a little, maybe that's just the amp (remember, I'm a newbie to electric guitars).

There's only two dials on the guitar - volume and tone. The tone, when put to 0 makes a pretty bass-like sound. But between 2 and 10 on the tone dial there's really no difference.

For metal it suits me very well. Can make some pretty nasty sounds. My friend has a Squier and when we jam mine can make a little bit heavier, dirtier sound. But maybe that's just the amp, mine's bigger than his.

The fit and finish is very nice. Better, in comparison, to my friend's Squier strat. I don't know how the factory set up was, I got this used and nothing came with it.

The cluster of two pickups towards the rear of the guitar, are a little bit loose if you poke them.

Paint is gorgeous, very smooth, not a chip on it. Mine is a mean looking dark purple, in the light you notice it's a bit darker around the edges. I think that adds a cool shadow effect. Is this a flaw or a sign of attention to detail? I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

The wood on the fretboard is pretty nice, however if you try to pull a Hendrix or a Townshend and get too rowdy with it, you might make a chip on the fretboard and reveal a lighter wood underneath the dark paint.

The toggle switch on the pickup selector becomes loose after enough playing around with it and may move to the right when you rock out too hard. I advise you to be a little careful with that.

This is a pretty reliable guitar. Rock solid strap buttons, great finish, dependable. I would use it on a gig if I didn't have a strange tendency to break the strings, but that's not the guitar's flaw. You can count on it to be a nice playing guitar, it's held up very well over my rowdiness and really smashing on it.

Mine was from a local music store, said it had never been used (I believe them because some clear plastic stickers were still on it) but didn't come with a warranty, manual or anything. Simply the axe.

I've only been playing for about 8 months now, and I've only had this for half of that time. Got it for christmas. I love the color, I like how it looks and how raunchy the sound can be.

I don't like though how it's a basically unknown brand name. When people ask me what I play, I feel kind of embarrassed to say "a Washburn" because nobody has heard of it. They assume that because it's such a small brand, the company doesn't have good enough quality to get famous. I think it's nice quality, but people assume I'm not a good player and that I don't have good equipment when they hear that I play a Washburn.

Also I'd just like to add that this is a great site, a LOT of reviews on guitars I didn't think anybody had!

This guitar is a BT-4DB, 4 in. shorter then the normal guitar, 22 frets, Grover tuners, volume and tone knobs, 5-way selector, whammy bar, made in Indo.

This guitar fits my style pefectly( rock and blues.) I am using it with a Crate Rube-Driven 70. I play it through a Boss metal Zone petal. It is a good sounding guitar..... I love to play it! This guitar is noisy, especilly with #1 on the 5-way selector. I love to use the Qhammy Bar(i tune it a lot)!

I got this guitar off of EBay, so I dont know how it was setup. It held up through shipping,it even stayed in tune. The guitar had some buzzes in the headstock.sanding scratches evident on the back of neck.just the normal nitpicks for a guitar under $80.

This guitar will probaly withstand live playing(not sure about this.) Ithink the hardware will hold up awhile. I trust that I could use it on a gig without a Backup(again I am not sure about this.) I can depend on it. The strap buttons are solid. i think the finish will hold up and so does the hardware.

N/A

I just started playing and my dad's DeArmond was was WAY to heavy for me. This is a heavy guitar, but the DeArmond was A lot heavier. I have not played many other guitars, but I think this is a pretty good guitar(I luv the Whammy Bar). If this guitar was stolen or lost, I would consider getting another one of these. I am NOT regretting getting this guitar. I t stays in tune well and I love the sound of it. I have to say that the whammy bar is my favorite feature , but I like the 5-way selector.

1997 made indonesia, 5 way selecter h-s-s. All the regulars, grover tuners, wb 400 humbucker (crap) and two stock single coils. Everyone calls it a strat copy, but i think the shape is cool and very comfortable.

I currently own a wm3. amazing. Made in the usa, set neck, seymore Duncans, buzz feiten tuning, swamp ash. The bt4 is very similar looking other than the wm3 has a huge pearloid pickguard (too big). they are both from the maverick series. the bt 4 being at the low end, the wm3 being at the high end. I figure i bought a new maverick so must have liked the old one. it got the job done for me at the time. If you can afford it, go for the custom!!!!

As i said, the humbucker is garbage, the single coils arent bad, very clean and quiet. Pretty versatile. I know that the bt4 is a low end guitar, but the fret board was problematic with several place that buzzed. But at this price, i cant bitch too much.

Action was ok. Needed a few adjustments. As i stated before, the shape is very comfortable. I have a tobacco sunburst finish. Very unique.

Ive had the guitar several years, and it has endured.

never dealt with them, but i've heard horror stories.

Good things, looks nice, good shape, durable. bad things, heavy, humbucker is lame, buzzy fretboard, and goes out of tune just looking at it. For the price, it is decent.

My first electric guitar. 2002, made in Indonesia. Dark blue. 22/frets, vol, tone, 5 way selector, tremolo, S/S/H, Chrome tuner. Included a gig bag. I decided to buy it based on the review from this web site. I'd say for the price, it has lots of features. I could go for a fake Fender (Squirer) but I don't want to play something looks like Fender but you don't find the word "Fender" on it.

I mostly play acoustic and I have an Ovation Adamas. Of course, I know how much I paid for the BT4 so I can't complaint. Sound is OK. I use the VMP2 to drive my home HiFi stereo so I can get lots of effects and simulation. There is no noise problem with it. The A string seems to be giving me too much bass and the high E string seems to be a little low in volume. I tried different position of the switch and I can get different sound. I don't like position 2, it sounds tiny. If I want acoustic sound, I use position 1. I'm still using the factory strings. I think it may sound better if I use brand name strings. Maybe better sound if I change the pickup.

The guitar was basically un-playable when I first open the box. Factory setup is a joke. I used to be a mechanical engineer so I did the setup myself based on specs found from internet. Setup job was not difficult but took time. After spending 4-5 hours setting it up. There are still two minor issues- (1) The low E string still can't get an accurate (but it's acceptable) octave higher at 12 fret. The bridge for this string has been move all the way back. (2) the G string will have a slight buzz between 8-12 frets, and it's noticable from the amp. This is imperfection of the fret board due to mass production. Other than that it has low action for playing fast.

Finish is fine (in this price range). The color seems to be slightly darker compare to what I saw from the internet.

Don't know. I haven't been playing it a lot and haven't bring it out of the house. But it looks like it will last. I think I can depend on it and use it without a backup.

haven't use it yet.

I have been playing for many years mostly on acoustic. I have two other Ovations A/E. I may be 50/50 to buy it again if it is stolen. I love the price, but I think the quality can be better. I have to keep remind myself how much I paid then I'll have no complaint. I did compare to BT2 and Yamaha in the same price range. I personally don't like Yamaha. I mostly based my decision on this web site.

One other thing is I am always loyal to Musicfriends.com until I order this guitar from them. When I placed the order, the sales rep told me the bag is included. Their web page says include a free gig bag but it didn't come. I called them up and the customer service rep I talked with also said it should come with the bag. Then I was transferred to a "highly trained" rep who told me that I may not be getting it and told me to read the fine prints at the bottom of the page (which you have to scroll through lots of empty space down to see it). It says they are not responsible for any spec change or errors on description. I got pissed at that moment because the page says "Includes a free gig bag.". If they say this is a typo, they can ship me some gabbage for the BT4 too. Finally, they did send me a gig bag without any extra charge.

n/a

i love the sound of this guitar its one of the brightest and best sounding i've ever played.

The action was pefect when i got it . I changed out the humbucker for a seymour duncan invader and it sounds wicked. It a small nick in the wood and i got a steal on it .

This guitar is my main guitar when playing live and it can take the punishment of the road. Everything seams like it will last forever and i've been pretty brutal to it. The strap buttons are extrmely durable (i jump alot and do a ton of crazy antics) i haven't had a problem yet. I do gig without a back up.

never had to go to washburn.

2000 model, made in Indonesia (Probably by Samick)22 frets, solid mahogany body, s/s/h washburn pickups, bla bla bla...already stated in previous reviews.

I love the tone of this little guitar. I play it through a new Peavey Bandit 112 with no effects. Nice bright tone, good sustain, nice variety of tones with the humbucker in the bridge position. I usually play in switch position 2, 4 for clean. 5 way kind of thunks when swithing, but I haven't had any problems with it cutting out.

Do yourself a favor, pay a luthier to set the guitar up properly (Usually $80 including a fret polish). The QC people at washburn seem to be slacking a bit on their set up procedures. Tuners were a bit loose, but a quick few turns with a screwdriver fixed this, and helped it to stay in tune much better. (I blocked the trem-a must without sperzels)Nice fast neck, but I wish it were radiused a bit. Fit and finish is fine-no complaints there. The fretboard is made of a wood I have never heard of, but has a great feel, and is almost as dark as ebony.

I play this live with no problems at all. Grover tuners should last forever. As far as the finish goes, it's just fine, but I am going to sand mine down and shoot it with nitrocellulose lacquer to show the beautifully grained mahogany underneath. (I sanded the control cavity paint off, and found some great grain under that paint!) I always use backup, but te guitar is trustworthy.

Easy to deal with. I got mine cheap because it was a dropsy-some moron dropped it in the store and broke a tuner. Customer service was a bit slow in responding to my email, but very helpful and polite. Lifetime warranty-can't beat that.

Been playing for 20 years. I own lots of other gear-too much to list. I would buy another if it were lost. (People don't steal from me...I'm a biker...haha)I like the balance, neck shape, tone, and general playability. Love the headstock shape, too! I hate to say this, but it played better than several American Standard Stratocasters I played in the local shop. (C'mon Fender-fret buzz all over the neck on an $800 american made guitar???) Maybe that shop's tech just hadn't set up any of the fenders, but....

I bought this Guitar in 1998.
22 frets.
Solid Top.
Volume Tone 5-way switch.
s/s/h
washburn pickups I guess--
passive electronics
heavy and solid --
thick blue paint on body everything else natural
kinda modern like something new and cool
Stratocaster --just bends down,really tight.
Grovers
the neck is nothing really but it plays good.

I have always played acoustic guitars. I have an old National Electric but I still sort of play it like an acoustic. I bought this guitar from Mary's Music in Nashville a couple of years ago because it was a clearance and I wanted to play around with a solid body electric. It is a lot of fun to play. I get all kinds of sounds out of it. I can play Clash and Black Sabbath easily with it. I have a Maximouse and on the humbucker it sounds really cool destortion. With an overdrive I can get that really high pitch howl with the wammy. When I go to the neck pick up I can get really cool Lounge Lizard sounds --especially with some of those crazy Dano pedals out there. I love doing the Star Spangled Banner with a Chicken Salad Vibrato. I keep thinking I should get something better but I really have no idea of what would be better or more fun. I guess my next guitar will have to be really expensive.I have been playing around with the middle pickup now because that is what Carlos Santana uses a lot for some reason.

This guitar was just fine when I got it. When I compare it to my acoustics it is a dream to play. My National has very good action but it is an arch top so I can't really compare the two. I think I should do something to it to make it better but after playing it awhile I just can't think of anything. I am not really too picky but when I pull it out of the gig bag I think it is really cool looking.

This guitar is solid as a rock--it might be too heavy actually.
there is nothing new or unusual about it--just tried and true design.
The electronics are sound but sometimes I hit the switch by mistake. I may just cut it off or bend it over. Maybe I will just avoid it better. Anything will withstand live playing--just don't be stupid. I have yet to deal with the back up problem. If I busted up this guitar on a gig so bad I couldn't play it or tune it I would hate myself in the morning.

I have never worked with Washburn but Mary's Music is very helpful and I like visiting their web site.

I started playing when I was a kid in the sixties. I realized I would never be Jimmy Page and so I got a day job. I am an Electronics Technician. I always loved Tubes. I was surprised to find 20 years later that tubes were still popular. I started playing in earnest again about six years ago. I remember when a Les Paul was 800 dollars! A friend of mine bought a Martin guitar new for 350 dollars. A Volkswagen bug went for about 300 used! I think guitars are a great bargain today.