Washburn CTS Custom Shop

Dont know why my first review didn't get posted,so I'll try again.Mine is a natural,satin finished,one piece,GEORGEOUS ribbon mahogany body with a two piece mahogany neck.Grover tuners,chrome tunamatic bridge and tailpiece.The neck profile is smaller than most Les Paul style guitars I have played (and I have played Scores of both real and copies)12 in. fingerboard radius,rosewood.Big,fat 110x56 frets(nickel silver,not stainless steel)Seymour 59 neck and custom bridge pickups,both passive.Came with a custom fit Washburn case.Top bout mounted 3 way switch.Patterened loosly after a Les Paul.It weighs 6lbs 12ozs.I can wear it all night!!!!

These pickups sound great. I often get asked by other double humbucker style guitar players what this guitar is and what kind of pickups they are.The 59 neck is very sweet.The custom bridge has all the growl I need.The 3way switch would cut out till I cleaned it(and I mean THOROUGHLY)with tuner cleaner.Also this and every other USA Washburn guitar I have (4 all together) is NOISY!!!It's a common complaint in these reviews.Why dont use better electronics,is completely beyond me.If it weren't for those flaws I would give it an 11,because it sounds THAT good.I dont use any effects for the purpouse of a review,because we aren't reviewing the effects.

Allright,here's the rub.This guitar should have been a second.It has a hump at the 14th fret.I did a fret leveling on the entire fretboard which helped alot.But I have to set the action a little (not alot)high.I bought it from an online dealer thru Ebay for $379.00 with the case,(Custom Shop Guitars) who disappeared shortly afterwards.Having said that.I decided to keep it because of the light weight,GREAT sound,and the fact that it will sustain from now till JESUS comes back.I have a vintage 59 Les Paul junior (a real one,not a re-issue)A 77 Hagstrom Swede,78 Swede,98 Les Paul DC Standard,68 Tele,and a boatload of other guitars.THIS GUITAR BLOWS THEM ALL AWAY IN HOW WELL IT SUSTAINS!!!!!!!!! So it is my main twin humbucker style guitar,while the others just sit in thier cases.Let me add a note about the action versus sound controversy.I have demonstrated it with this and several other guitars.I can set the action very low WITH NO BUZZING, and the guitar sounds like it has cheap pickups in it.Raise the action (usually,a little more than a 16th of an inch)and the sound difference is like night and day.THEY SOUND GREAT!!!! AND THAT IS WITH THE PICKUPS SET WELL BELOW MAUFACTURERS SUGGESTED SPECS.Your strings need a certain amount of space from the fingerboard in order to OPTIMIZE your tone.I've never seen a professional Blues player with his action set low.So you low action guys out there may be pleasantly surprised at the sound difference if you try this. The fit on this guitar is very basic set neck cunstruction and solid as a rock.The finish is thin,but unlike some of the other reviewers, I have not had any problems withit coming off.The acid and toxins in your sweat are what causes the finish to come off. A GOOD DIET with correct that problem.However the finish does ding faily easily. Because of the problems I've listed I'll give it an 8

My grandkids will be playing this guitar long after I'm gone.It is solid and will last a lifetime.I put oversize strap buttons on all my guitars.(although most Washburn Custom Shop Guitars come with Strap lock buttons,this one did not)

I have not dealt with washburn on this guitar because I lost my receipts when I moved 2 years ago. But I have called them concerning other guitars I have and they were extreamly helpfull.Washburn needs original reciepts to cover warranty work.I even called once to ask about a guitar on Ebay being sold as a USA made guitar,and the guy looked it up online while talking to me,and told me it was an import.

I have owned a guitar for 35 years,but will never stop learning how to play. I have a bunch of equipment,which is irrelevant. I will just say that I recently bought a Carvin X100B I'm running thru the speakers of a Carvin Belair and a Fender 4x12 cabinet.NO PEDALS.(If you cant make your guitar sound good without plugging into ANYTHING,THEN YOU REALLY CANT PLAY GUITAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Except for the problems I've listed,I think this is a FABULOUS guitar.If it were stolen I would hunt the culprit down,have him Monkey Stomped to death,and mail his brains back to his Mama.(thank you Major Payne)

My guitar is just like the others in this review.1 piece BEAUTIFUL striped(ribbon)mahogany body.2 piece mahogany neck,although mine is nowhere near chunky. It's thinner than what you find on most Les Paul style guitars.I absolutely love it.Seymour Duncan 59 neck,Custom bridge pickups that sound FABULOUS!!! I get LOTS of Les Paul players who ask "what is that,and what kind of pickups are they". Satin finish that is still perfectly intact after 4 years.But then again my hands dont sweat a bunch of acidic or toxic junk that would destroy the finish. the body thickness is reminissent of an old melody maker.Mine weighs 6lbs 12oz yet it will sustain from now till Jesus comes back.(so much for a 10lb Les Paul).I could wear it all night long.I bought mine new on Ebay for $379.00.It should have been a second because there is a hump at the 14th fret which had to be addressed.I did a fret leveling and since it has such Huge frets,(nickel silver)It now plays like a dream.For that reason I cant give it a 10

I play rock and blues and this guitar meets every need I would have in a double humbucker guitar.Now for they bad news.I have 4 USA custom shop Washburns.A WM4,WM3,THE NAMM PROTOTYPE TO THE WM3.And this CTS.All are noisy.The CTS is the least noisy.I cant understand why they dont put better pots and wiring in guitars that list around $2000.00. I have 2 Korean made Billy T's that are dead quiet.The USA Custom Shop guitars are Great guitars ASIDE FROM THE FACT THAT THEY ARE NOISY!!!!.Therfore I cant give it a 10. The neck 59er is VERY sweet. The bridge Custom could be compared to a wild animal with extreamly lage testicles.Other than the noise,which is very minimal on this guitar. I LOVE the way this guitar sounds.Ill be replacing the pots and wiring soon,as well as the jack,if necessary,

I had to set the action kinda high to accomodate the fret board hump untill It was tweaked a bit(trussrod adjustment,and fret leveling)and now it plays like a house on fire.I do alot of 1 to 1&1/2 step bends so I cant have action extreamly low.Besides If you dont have a certain distance between your strings and fretboard,the strings cant vibrate properly to maximize your tone.I set the action extraemly low but with no buzzing and the guitar sounded like SHIT!! Pick it up a 16th of an inch and it sounds FABULOUS!!! I've done this with other guitars with the same results.Remember you got it here first as I've never had a luthier explain that to me.The fit is excellent and I've had no problems with the finish coming off,however,it does ding faily easily.Stiil I'll give it a 10

My grand kids will be playing this guitar long after I'm gone,and it will just sound better.

I bought it from a dealer who went out of business right after I bought it.I have dealt with Washburn one a number of occasions and they were always helpful

If it weren't for the problems I listed previously I wuold give it a 10.But I wish there was a 9&3/4 catagory

Don't know the year but this guitars were made for about two years around '99-'00. US made custom shop. One piece solid african mahogany body and two piece glued neck. The set-neck system is the typical PRS style, really solid and well done. Transparent natural oil finish, really attractive and beautiful but saddly this finishes doesn't last long specially if your hands sweat a lot. The neck has a 60's LP-like profile, very comfortable, thick but not chunky. Fretboard is a nice and beautiful plank of (brazilian?) rosewood rarely seen these days with perloid dots and 12" radius a la Gibson. 22 chunky jumbo frets, incredibly well done fretwork. Those huge wires are not my favourites but they work well. 24 3/4" scale. The body shape is a incredibly ergonomic odd Les Paul style, you can play for hours without fatigue or neck and shoulder pains, you don't need your right hand to hold the guitar in place, your hand is just for playing, the guitar holds perfectly stable in the right place, simply great! Also you can easily reach all the frets without effort. A really well designed guitar.

Tuners are Grovers, they work nice. Bridge is a typical vintage Gibson slim ABR-1 style plus a stop bar. Seymour Duncan 59 and Custom pickups, I think they're perfect for this guitar. it has a master volume and tone placed in the Les paul volume positions, perfect for me, I play mainly Les Pauls and I rewire all my guitars with just a single volume right in this position, so it's very natural and comfortable for me. The pickup toggle is a bit further tha in a typical LP, so this is one more bonus, Most LP players had to fight against this switch while playing, unintentionally changing pickup settings. On this guitar you hardly knock the switch.

The bad thing about this guitar are the electronics. Cheap and bad pots, they're scratchy and with dead spots, flimsy unshielded wiring, and a cheap jack socket. Incredible for an expensive Custom Shop guitar so well done. They were retailed around $2000+! I cannot give a 10 due to this thing.

I mostly play hard rock and metal with Soldanos and vintage Ampegs, no Fx. This guitar is perfect for that styles. It sounds full, defined, detailed, warm and punchy, defines all the strings of a chord even with heavy distortion, I never spected this guitar would sound so great. It has an incredibly sustain. It really sings. I bought it as a spare for touring and has become my main touring axe. I changed the pots with good CTS ones and all the wiring, now the electronics are perfect. Though tone is amazing but I plan to switch the bridge and stop bar with aluminium Tone-pros, this will become a guitar to die for. try it in yours, you won't be disappointed. The Duncan Custom is a hot pickup, perfect for me. But if you are in the vintage tone mood maybe you like better a Pearly Gates or a '59.

The guitar arrived perfectly set up, but with a .009 gauge. I use .012 to .060 and the strings simply doesn't fit the nut, I had to replace it with a new bone nut without the buzz feiten mess, I don't want to buy a new programmable tuner, old school guitars tune well enough for me. so this one does it too. I had to reset the action and truss-rod, but it holds stable and perfect the heavy gauge.

Pickups were adjusted in a so-so way, as always in most guitars, they needed a fine adjustment, but this is the normal approach on most new guitars of any brand.

This guitar is a live playing beast except for the finishing, oil is not hard enough. Hardware seems to be good and keys hold the tuning even with my ususal agressive playing style.

Strap buttons are big and well fitted but I replaced it with locking ones. I do it on every guitar.

This guitar is solidly built and except the original electronics is a reliable guitar.

Never contacted Washburn

I've been playing on bands for 15 years, I had a lot of guitars and this particular one is one of the best guitars I ever played. I will keep it for sure. Now is my main touring axe, and I plan to buy another one or a P3/P4 as a spare, if I can find any.

Besides the poor electronics this guitar is amazing. I was looking for a spare for my trusty Les Paul Junior styled Warmoth. I bought a '79 Gibson The Paul, a Gordon Smith GS 1.60 and this one with the idea of keeping the best of the bunch and sell the rest, this was the true winner of the contest without any doubt and even replaced my great Warmoth, my main live guitar for years! Now is a simply spare since this one arrived. I love my warmoth but this one is best, even I want another one due to ergonomics, CTS can't be beated on this area.

not sure on the year... lets say 2001. made in the USA custom shop in good 'ol mundelein, IL. It has 22 magnificent jumbo stainless steel frets with cool mother of pearl teardrop inlays on a flawless ebony fretboard. It has a 1/2" carved curly (not flamed, but looks kinda haunted... scary.) maple. it has the standard les paul 2 volume 2 tone, three way switch configuration with coil taps on the tone knobs. The pickups are my usual Duncan Jazz neck/ Duncan Dimebucker bridge combo direct mounted to the body. Passive electronics. the body is a single piece honduran mahogany body with the aforementioned curly maple top. the neck is also mahogany (not sure if the neck is honduran or not) with the ebony single creme bound fretboard. the finish is a PERFECT tobacco sunburst over a single creme bound flame maple top. the body is modeled after a les paul, but has 2 cutaways. it has a german hand-machined fine tuning stoptail bridge by gotoh, locking grover tuners and a 25.5" scale neck.

i play in a very versatile band that covers everything from free jazz to death metal/grindcore. it came with a duncan 59 and a custom custom. those pickups sucked horribly. i swapped them out for the ones i have now. washburn took care of that for me. I run it into a snarlin dogs whine-o wah, a boss tu 2-tuner, a boss phaser, and a boss dd-3 delay into a mesa boogie dual recto with a danelectro cool cat chorus for the clean tone in the fx loop. the guitar is perfectly silent even on insane levels of gain. The bridge pickup is metal incarnate on high gain untapped, the pickup can also be split for a great ballsy blues tone that breaks into overdrive when you play it hard... very cool. The neck pickup on medium overdrive sings forever. roll the tone back to around 6 and you got a really awesome fusion lead tone. at lower gain levels, you can milk some sweet jazz chords or glassy stanley jordan stlye tapping stuff if you turn the tone back up to full and crank the treble on the amp.

the guitar came set up pretty decently with light strings. I play 11's so I had to do a setup myself. it intonated perfectly because it somes with one of the coolest hot rodding upgrades ever: the buzz feiten tuning system. I put the action as low as humanly possible without buzzing. the pickups were a little high, but that took all of 40 seconds to fix. The top was perfectly bookmatched, the bridge was routed with no wiggle on the studs holding it on. the only flaw it had was a little imperfection in the neck finish. oh well... mechanically, the guitar is flawless. esthetically speaking... who gives a shit about how it looks?

ive toured all over with this thing. it is bad ass. it will last forever. the finish will eventually get hurt, but thats life. I changed the strap buttons to schaller straploks so they are solid as hell. ive used this guitar as a pillow before, i would stake my live shows life on its reliability. i would never ever go to a gig with no backup. thats a really stupid thing to do.

david karon and larry english are awesome dudes. i said "hey david, fix this damn thing. make it sound better!" he said "OK." and it came back to me a few days later hot rodded and ready to rock. washburn and everyone at US music corp are stand up people.

Ive been playing for 10 yrs. i only own the gear listed above and a washburn WI66 as a backup. i would either get this one again or buy a Washburn NX6 if this one was stolen. i love everything about this guitar except the weight. it weighs a freakin ton but thats the sacrifice you make for awesome tone. my favorite feature is the buzz feiten tuning system. i compared it to lots of other guitars but this one was special. i only wish it had the ability to clone itself. buy one. or a WI68. bye.

Washburn CTS custom PROTOTYPE. Built in 1998, a year before these actually came out. 2 Duncan pickups that sound fantastic. 1 tone pot, 1 volume, and 1 3-way switch. Awesome fret job and inlays. Buzz Feiten tuning system. Nice Grover tuners. No finish, just a dark, thin coat of sealer. You can FEEL the wood. Great feeling neck, better than LP or SG. Fretboard is Rosewood, neck is mahogany. Body is almost like a reverse strat... completely original. Bridge is a very well made Tune-O-Matic style. Headstock is like most Washburn customs, very old. I like it, but it's a little outdated and doesn't match the body. Body wood is awesome striped mahoghany. No accessories were included. I bought a case Washburn custom shop case afterwards, which is great. like a Gibson without the thin piece of silk.

I play solo fingerstyle guitar (like Chet Atkins or Jerry Reed). This guitar fits my style perfectly, but most players of this style prefer a large hollowbody. The great thing about this guitar is that you can go from Atkins to Hendrix with the flick of a switch. This is the most versitile electric guitar I've ever played. Awesome pickups, like a cross between a Les Paul and an SG. You can even get good Strat tones out of this baby. I really have no beaf about anything reguarding Tone on this guitar.

Guitar was set up fairly well at from the factory. The action is too low, and I'm just too lazy to work on that. Pickups were adjusted pretty well, but I toned them down a little bit. Wood is great, not a bad piece on it. The only problem with this guitar was the jack, which I have had to replace twice, now it works perfectly. I imagine it had been played a lot, the owner of the store really wanted to get rid of it. List was $1300, but I got it for $500! One of the sting saddles gave me a little trouble (there was a burr in it that kept cutting my high 'E' string) but I was able to correct that easily with a piece of really fine sandpaper.

Now this guitar is perfectly fit for live gigs, and I have gigged with it. Before I fixed the jack, I wouldn't have taken it on a gig though, too much crackling and popping. The finish is really great because of it's "uniqueness", but it does feel like it wouldn't be to hard to scratch through. The great thing is that you could easily sand it and re-seal if you scratched it up too bad. I would and have gigged without a backup. I think this guitar is very dependable. Very well-made parts.

I have yet to personally deal with Washburn support. I did e-mail them 2 years ago to find out the specs of this guitar, since it was a prototype, I didn't have much to go on. I have yet to hear from them. I have heard that thier e-mail support is terrible, and like I said, I have yet to hear from them after 2 years.

I've had this guitar for 2 years. I play it through a Vox Cambridge 15, and it gives me great tone. I would much rather have this guitar than a Les Paul or an SG or a Strat. It replaces them all, and playes better than them all. If it were stolen of lost, I would hunt down and shoot the idiot, because I probably wouldn't be able to find onther one anywhere. This is the first and the last one I have seen anywhere. I would definatly buy another one IF I could find it (the key word there is IF). I compared this to HUNDREDS of guitars before I bought it, and I chose this one because of price, tone and playability. Did you see the price?!?! You can hardly even find a USA made *anything* these days for less than a grand.

American Made within the last 4 years, I think. 22 frets on a 25" scale (ala PRS). Solid Mahogany (sanding sealer only, lovely piece of wood) with a Rosewood fretboard and two Seymore Duncan Humbuckers. Not sure which. Schaller stop tail piece and a set of Grover tuners. Jumbo frets. Vol + tone only and a three way switch. It's a double cutaway, very minimalist design. Looks very retro 50's-60's futurist design. Easy enough acess to high frets Top of the line woods and components, including a very nice TKL case. Buzz Feiten Tuning System as well. Yeah, it does seem to work very well. Neck is a very comfortable, somewhere between a Gibson and a Jackson. Not as sfat nor as skinny as the two. Very comfortable "D" profile with some meat. Flatter, 12" scale radius fretboard with jumbo frets. A benders dream. Yeah, yeah, not bad for chording either.

Sound is very dark and smooth. Kinda like a SG on steroids. Hits the highs very nicely, but not screeching. Bass is appropriately Les Paul like. Smooth and comforting. Like a favorate Aunt's hug. I'm a blueser with a healthy dose of metal and this guitar seems to suit just fine. T-Bone chord comps and some Otis Rush stings are easily acomplished, and with the step of a pedal, you're Angus, Randy or Hetfield. A very versital guitar. Excellent balance tonaly. I don't know which Seymore Duncans are on it, but I'm pretty impressed. The guitar and the pickups let you hear the WOOD. No discernable noise, seems pretty well shielded. One nicety is that the control covers are a black anodized metal. Very nice touch. Good, solid jack as well. Have had a problem with that coming loose, but a lock-washer fixed the problem. Something that should have come on the guitar though...

Well, I got it as a shop worn piece, action needed a bit of lowering when i got it, but the intonation was still spot on. The Schaller Tune-O-Matic/Stop Piece are excedingly high quality. Nice and heavy. Pickups adjust well, put 'em where I like 'em (for now). But the body and the treatment blew me away. It's two pieces of bookmatched Mahogony. Usually, not the prettiest of woods, but this is nice. Has a subtle flame to it. Same goes for the neck. The neck and body join is very nice. Obviously taking a que from their previous work with the luthier Stephens (the Stephens Cutaway on the Nuno Bettencourt). It's similar, not a dead ringer for. Access is not hampered in any way to the top. Fret Job was very well done. Needed to polish up the frets (hey it was shop worn. And did you see the price I got?!?! A little fret polishing is no big deal) and oil the fretboard. Doesn't in any way detract from the axe. Only little gripe would be the actual finish. It is very delicate being only a little coating of sanding sealer. you could put a right nasty gouge in the wood. Love the raw feel, but it makes you very careful with it. I don't think that it would survive a gig in August at Freemont Park in Atlanta. This baby would be warped by the sweat pouring out of you and the beating from the Georgia heat. But then again, so would any guitar, but this one especially. Definetly needs a spoiled home to go to with this finish. Nice thing is, if one were so inclined, you could continue doing the finish yourself. A nice gloss clear maybe...where is that air compressor?

It would be great to play this axe live, because the weight belays the sound that comes from it. It is light (in weight) comparative to the sound. The finish wouldn't do well if you are an arena wannabe. If you are playing gigs for weddings, then this would do you fine. The axe looks classy enough to be donned with a tux, yet rock enough for jeans and a t-shirt. I just worry about the near raw finish. But the build and the components are solid and top notch. And, SHE STAYS IN TUNE!!! But one never gigs without a backup.

Never had to deal with them. But how lousy can they be? They have been in buisness since 1876.

Instead of boring you with a list of ALL the toys I have, let's talk about THIS guitar. It's a great chunk of wood that plays very easily and has great tone, amp on or off. Balances very well on my lap or on my shoulder and doesn't weigh a few ounces less than an anvil. The only thing that I would change would be the headstock. It's too, turn of the century for the body. Six in a line is fine, but they could've been a little more creative with the design of. Same goes for the logo. No, I'm not about to take a bandsaw to it. This definetly fills the compulsion to own a Les Paul and an SG. You really get a nice balance of the two. If it were stolen, I'd probably pop a vein. It's a great axe. I doubt that I'd find one, just as nice, at even twice the price. How much do I like it? Straight up. My G&L S500 is getting jealous.