Washburn BTM Mini

Purchased in 2003, made in China, Blue finish. I bought this for my 8 year old son. It is the perfect size for him. It balances great on his body and is the right size and reach for his arms. It also looks very cool and his friends were very impressed (this is an important feature to an 8 year old boy).

With this guitar, he was able to learn to play rather quickly and got into bar chords in no time. He now rocks to AC/DC tunes.

After some initial set-up issues (described below), the guitar plays well and is much more solid than comparable starter guitars in this price range.

The only on-going issue I have is that the tuners (not Grovers) go out of tune easily.

It sounds very good, a nice sound from either humbucker. The humbuckers have drive. AC/DC sounds great feeding into a cranked old 60's Fender Bassman.

The bridge hardware was loose, a pickup was ready to fall out, and the jack never seems to stay tight no matter what I do. The set-up from the factory was poor and I couldn't get the intonation set at all. I went back to the music store I bought it from and they had to move the entire bridge forward in order to get the intonation correct. Once this was done, the guitar plays great, but the cheap tuners go out of tune all the time.

The finish and frets were great.

Although we haven't used this live yet, it appears that it would be OK in any situation. The tuners do, however, get out of tune often.

No dealings with Washburn yet, but the local Music Store (Robbies Music, Totowa, NJ) remedied the bridge issue and did a set-up at no charge.

I play guitar and bass. As far as guitars to compare against, it plays better than several low cost Epiphones and mini Epiphones that I have tried. I am actually quite impressed with Washburn....decent guitars for low bucks. There is absolutely no need to consider a 'no-name' brand guitar for a budding guitarist when you can get a Washburn instead.

Made in China, blue finish, most features already covered in previous reviews. The tuners on mine do not appear to be Grovers, though. I just got it in January, so maybe Washburn has started trying to save money. I don't have any problems with it going out of tune so far, though.

I like light rock, hard rock, metal. It works for me.

The intonation was excellent from the factory, though one of the pickups came barely attached to the guitar. The only thing keeping it from falling out was the strings. Screws weren't missing, just not holding the pickup.
The finish was flawless and the frets were niiice.

It feels solid to me, though I haven't had it long enough to tell how much banging around it will take.

I tried to email Washburn to ask a question about something and never got a reply. That does not inspire confidence.

I've got a Fender Princeton amp and a Vox AC-1 that I play with and a couple of other small amps floating around that I haven't had a chance to try it with yet. I keep it in the gigbag Squier makes for their Mini Strat, and not only does the guitar fit nicely, but the AC-1 and a cord fit in the pocket on the front of the bag. Totally portable. :)

The first reviewer gave all the features. It has every thing I need. Another thing I like is that even though it is small, it is not made like a toy. It is a serious guitar.

It has great tone. I play it through a Laney HCM15R amp and they sound great together. I like the bright sound. We were able to set the pitch on all the strings, but on the low E we had to remove the spring and even then could only just barely get the string long enough. They should have set the bridge back a quarter inch, but other than that it sounds great.

I'm only 9 yrs. old, and it feels good in my hands. I like the color {blue} and its paint. It seems well built.

I expect it to last a long time.

Haven't called 'em.

I have been playing it 2 months. My favorite features are the sound, size, color, and tone. These small guitars are hard to find, but at least this one is really good.

This is one of the very few small size travel or kid size guitars made that has some semblence of quality to it. It is basically a scaled down version of Washburn's BT2. I Don't know what year it was made but bought it new in 2001. Was probably made in Japan by Japanese or maybe Korea by Koreans. It has 22 medium size frets that seem to be filed decently. The body, according to Washburn's website, www.washburn.com/products/guitar/btm.htm it is plywood but feels very solid. As far as controls, it has one vol. knob, one tone knob and one three way toggle switch. It has two open humbuckers (Washburn K-10s). I play it through a Fender Champ amp and a pignose 7-100. It really kicks and is a blast to jam on. It features a maple neck with a rosewood fret board. The neck radius feels a little wierd but hey, this is a pretty small guitar. The paint job is pretty cool. Mine is a beautiful deep royal blue that is holding up pretty well considering it's usual storage location is on the back seat of my Buick. The bridge is a little cheap but then again so was the purchase price. Tuners are real honest to God Grovers. It stays in tune very well even when bigtime bending. Thats rare with guitars with such short necks (22.75" scale). Down fall is that Washburn doesn't offer a gig bag or case for this little gem.

Sound is great. No fret buzzing. Through my Champ amp it really screams. Mostly play bluesy little riffs and chops on it when we're travling around. Also run it through a pignose. It's a lot of fun and I like to rip it up when someone else is driving. Hosted quite a few traffic light concerts. Only dislike here is both pickups are the same and produce the same sound. You would think for the $99.00 price tag, Washburn could have installed a Seymour Duncan for the bridge unit (hee hee).

Setup from the factory wasn't great but was easy to fix. Basically just had to lower the action a bit and install slinky strings (factory Washburn strings SUCKED). Overall fit and finish was suprisingly good.

I haven't broken it yet! It should last a while. So far it's dependable. This thing has the largest sprap buttons I've ever seen. I have gigged with it a couple of times. The chicks absolutely love it. It's so Cute they say. They like the guitar too. Don't know about going without a back up though. It's always good to have a spare just in case one bursts.

Haven't had to call them.

I've been playing for about 3 years, My other axes are a Fender Tele made in Mexico (by Mexicans I presume) peice of crap and Smoken hot Epiphone LP. If this little guitar were stolen, I think I would probably buy another if for no other reason than the chicks like it. It's so Cute.