Washburn N1 Nuno Bettencourt Model

J have had an model made in china since 2005. J changed body pickup to DiMarzio Tone Zone. Wood is the same like in the strats.

It has bright sound. When I play blues, i turn on pickups on single mode and and i really admire this sound. When I play metal, it doesn't have so much power like ibanez rg, sound is bright as i said. But on the other side this is very oryginal sound. It is nothing to compare to this washburn. Try to buy something sunding better for this price.

Very, very good.

Yes, U can play a concert on this.

I've playing for 8 years. I play blues and metal, depend of mood :) But with my band i used this for metal music. For this price i don't see anything better on market. I would never sell this guitar becouse it was my first electric guitar and i can sa, it was a good choice. I recomend it to you.

I've had the Nuno Washburn for a few months now (I wanted to wait to write a review to really put it through its paces). Nice axe, I mean really decent. Nice feeling neck, jumbo frets. Cool design, with the paduak stain, it looks like nothing else, and I dont want to blend in. If I see another Ibanez RG, or Les paul, I'm gonna scream!
I've owned everything from Jems, to sabers, strats, and this thing is very well done. Plays like a much more expensive guitar.

Has eliminator pickups. Neck humbucker has some serious PAF pro qualities, bridge pickup screams!

What can I say, your buying a Washburn, not some Mom and Pop operation guitar. This is the reason people buy name brand.

They are there if I need 'em.

I compared to some Ibanez, some used jacksons, but it held it own. Nuno and Washburn did a nice job on this one

Padouk stain finish, Grover tuners, Samshin pickups.
Must be an older model the Neck has a plate were it
bolts on to the body and the newer ones don't seem to
have this feature. Paid $100 for it used, and it has
some personality beause it had some milage on it. Replace
the bushing on the tuners due to cracking. First axe I've
had that had one volume and one three way switch, gives an
unusual tone in the middle position. Replaced the pickups,
Tonerider Generator in the Neck and a Bill Lawrence XL500 in
the bridge. Everthing else has been hashed over earlier.

The original Pickups were muddy but after replacement.
This axe is fantastic. The Tonerider Generator in the neck
to me sounds as good as a Seymour Duncan and the Bill Lawrence
is the standard Bridge pickup for the N4 and is a great value.

Very well made. Solid small body, Great neck.

This thing is a Rock. Even look better after a fiew dings and scratchs.

Would like to know were to get a replacement switch, but have
not persued Washburn.

Only been playing a couple of years. I own three electics, a Hamer Echotone, Custom Strat and this Nuno N1. The N1 is the best Bang
for the Buck. I have a total of $200 invested into it, I'd like to
know a better value for that kind of money. If it were stolen I dought that I could find another at this price, but if I could yes
I would replace it with the same again. My favorite feature is that
everything, it feels great, sounds great, very simple and solid.

1995 about $70 new! made in korea,super strat body,color green,alder i guess from its bright tone.22 jumbo fret, ive refreted with jim dunlop jumbo,1 volume 3 way switcth.standart fulcrum"never dive it"bridge, or it will out of tone even if you dare to touch it hahaha,but ive just bought a fender hipshot(50 bucks in my country indonesia),planning to install it couse the tone is so amazing when you messing around the tremolo.---> wait a second, if you dig out that washburn shitty stock PU and replace it whit DIMARZIO SUPERDISTORTION on bridge position, and offcorse a SH1 duncan 59 nodel on neck, i used a 500k pot push(gotoh pot) pull to split it all

i play blues, 80 rocks, metal shredding stuffs. Change the Pickups and its sound better than your Ibanez RG whit stocks PU hehehe(believe me i have a RG550).i mean it will sound so much better, clear articulation, no muddy, very open,the guitar character comes out very well, warm nasally mid whit singing high,the low thight enough for palm mute,the guitar could TELL you that "he" is crying,happy,sad or MAD!!! harmonics are produces easily. when splitted it sound so much like strats--> Twanggy, clean ofcourse versatile no question in any POS

some frett are used, ive replaced it, still buzzed at 9th frett, i ve do the trust rod things, it wont work:( action not as low as RG550

its 10 years now and still ok, the most important is the neck is not deviated

never deal whit washburn in my country. There is no washburn agency in here

Everything been covered in the previous reviews, so I'll skip the details. I got this brand new Sept 2005. It has a push-pull coil tap as the volume control. I didn't read anyone mentioning this, but it makes this guitar a keeper! I got the natural matte color and it plays great. Washburn has the best entry level guitars. The pickups are awesome (don't change them). The control cavity is big enough to add stuff like a master tone control which I did. I moved the master volume up closer to the strings for pinky swells and placed the tone pot in the old volume hole. The nut is plastic, so you'll have to use some grapite or nut sauce or oil in the slots. Also, the trem arm tip was white (should be black since there's no white anywhere on this guitar). I changed it to a black tip. Good guitar for under $200!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not sure on the specific year of my N1, but it doesn't matter. I gave this thing a 9 because it has the features that I wanted, not every gadget in the book. Simplistic and clean. Dual Humbuckers (soon to be a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the Bridge and a Humbucker from Hell in the neck). Single volume and a standard 6 screw fulcrum bridge. I have the trem springs torqed down in the rear cavity so the bridge sits flush on the body. When I want to dive bomb, I have to work for it. The body finish is natural along with the maple neck w/ rosewood board. There are no sharp fret ends, nor dead frets. This neck plays like a dream. My big thing as of late has been Savatage, T.S.O., Iced Earth and Blind Guardian. This damn thing is perfect for all of it. I have owned high end ESPs, Ibanezes and fenders, and none of the necks on those even come close, nor are any of the bodies as comfortable.

As I stated, for what I play, this thing is perfect. You can do Jon Schaffer (the man who makes James "I used to rock" Hetfield run home to mama) styles speed triplet riffs, Andre' Olbrich melodies, and Criss Oliva/Chris Caffery crunch with no questions asked. this thing is honestly built like a tank. There is nothing that I don't love about this guitar. I use Ernie Ball .010-.054 strings, I switch between Dunlop Tortex 1.5mm and 2.0mm picks and this thing begs for more abuse. This has got to be the best bang for your buck guitar ever made. Nuno knew what the hell he was doing with Washburn. The set-up I use is very similar to that of the late, great Criss Oliva. I run an old 70's Marshall Mark II head on the CLEAN channel only. I run from the guitar into a Boss OD-1 Overdrive set wide open but with the gain turned all the way off (basically a signal boost/preamp). The signal goes from there into a DOD "Yngwie" pedal and then a MXR "Zakk Wylde" pedal (I switch between the 2 given the song or sound I'm looking for, Both bitchin pedals by the way) and then a Boss Chorus Ensemble before it hits the amp. This guitar sounds GLORIOUS with this setup.

I got the guitar off ebay, so obviously, the action wasn't going to be to my liking. Once I adjusted it for my strings and my desirable height, it's been beautiful. I gave it a 9 because I had to reset the whole thing before it was perfect.

I have done some extensive gigging with this guitar (I own 4 N1s) and I have played entire 2 hour sets with this very N1, as I have with all of my N1s. I wuld never play without a back up, but if I had to, I would use one of these with no qualms about it. As I said, this guitar is a tank. I've been playing 20 years now, and this is by far one of the best ever for the style I play. And if I somehow manage to destroy one onstage, they're easy enough to replace.

I get 'em used so I have no clue and never contacted them.

For the money? You can't beat it. Even high end ESPs, Ibanez and fenders don't compare. I'm not interested in using a PRS for what I do, but this thing is of miraculous quality.

I don't know exactly when the guitar was made, but i believe between the late 80's and early 90's.It has 22 frets.my guitar isn't painted so the grain of the wood is the colour.there is 1 volume nob,a 3 way pickup selecter, but no tone control (this limits the guitars versatility compared to other guitars).There is 1 bridge humbucker and 1 neck humbucker.The pickups are original (Washburn Eliminators).I have read several reviews by people overlooking the pickups and immediatly replacing them.DON'T!!!.I would advise you to keep them.Although they have a trebly tone, beleive me they are very good pickups.They give the guitar an individual sound.What people don't relise is that they fit Washburn Eliminators (The pickups on this guitar) to some of the higher priced Washburn guitars e.g 2000 pound guitars or about 2800 dollars US i think.Basically the N1 should be a 2000 pound guitar.I've played PRS,ES335's,LES Pauls,etc and this guitar is on a par with them.I've got a Les Paul as well and i would say this guitar has better playability, but its only downfall would be that it doesn't have a tone switch.The guitar is made of Alder and i think it has a maple fret board, but i don't know for sure.It is a super-strat body, basicly like a strat, but slightly different.It has a strat-style bridge,with a wammy-bar.The neck is quite thin and brilliant for playabilty and fast access.It has groover tuners.I got a case with it, but i got them to throw it in so a case is not included.

I play this guitar and a Gibson Les Paul.I play Blues,classic rock,jazz and a bit of metal.The guitar is great for chicago blues,clean blues,rock.It was designed as a metal guitar,so if you want it heavy its pretty heavy e.g. i played a jam with a friend who has a Warlock and it had the same level of grit.Because the guitar has a trebly tone it is great for chicago blues.I've also played it clean and the neck setting for clean sounds excellent.The guitar isn't that good for jazz.For high overdrive or distortion the neck setting is only good for rythem and doesn't deliver the sound quality for the higher registers.I'm after an all tube amplifier,but at the minute i'm using a Laney GC30 (Solid-state) and a Lexicon Mpx200 effects box.The guitar tends to shrill abit if you have the volume up espacially on clean.Turn the volume slightly down and the sound can be pretty impressive.When using overdrive i use the bridge pickup or middle setting.It sounds very high quality and clear.When playing clean i use neck or middle setting,the bridge sounds too twangy.When playing clean fingerpicking gives a simply beautiful sound especially from the neck.The guitar doesn't have a bassy tone,really it in my opinion is best for playing solos and lead riffs etc.Rythem is good,but not outstanding.I love everything about the guitar apart from it having no tone nob.

The build quality of the guitar is very good.Pickups are set in firmly and securly.Everything is still in perfect working order and its about 15 years old.It's been more or less everyday.Only downfall is that the pickups are a little too close to the strings,but i raised the bridge plate slightly and it sound great now.The screws on the bridge and bits of the bridge plate have bits or rust,but then again it is 15 years old and to be fare i could have taken a bit better care of it.To sort the problem just buy a new bridge plate and screws.Don't cost much.

I've played the guitar live and lent it to friends for live playing and never had a problem.The hardware is as good and reliable as i've seen on any guitar.The body is still in perfect working order.The only problem with the body is the strap nuts.If you have a loose fitting strap the guitar might just fall out.It's only happend to me a couple of times,but i bought a better strap and its fine now.I would never gig without a backup guitar,but i'm confident that i could reliy on it.

N/A never had to deal with them

I've been playing the guitar for 12 years.I also own a Gibson Les Paul,a Fender 57 Strat,a Telecaster deluxe,a Yamaha acoustic,a Laney GC30 amp(i use for practice)a Laney Mpx200,jim dunlop wah-wah and a Proteus 2500.If the guitar were stolen i'd have difficult finding another,but i'd probably try to find another,but if i couldn't i could live with it.Out of the guitars i've got i would say when this guitar sounds at its best it sounds the best out of all my guitars.I love the tone and the ease of playing and the ability to get outstanding sounds between blues and metal.

I'm not sure what year it was made, but it was made in Korea. It's got 22 frets, solid-top.. 3-way pickup switch. It's only got one volume knob, and no tone knob, this is one of the only complaints I have. H/H pickup config, strat-style body, strat-style trem bridge. non-locking Grover tuners. I give this category an 8 because of the lack of tone knob(I dont use them much anyway, but it's nice to have the option)

This guitar suits my music style fine, I usually play blues-rock-shred stuff, and it gets the job done. no effects, except occasionally a dunlop wah pedal, and it's not that noisy since it has humbuckers. It's a pretty warm/full-sounding guitar on the neck pickup, the bridge pickup sounds great distorted.

I've got no idea how well it was setup at the factory since it's a few years old and I bought it at a pawn shop.

I dont gig, so I couldnt tell you if it'll withstand live playing, but it does seem like a solid guitar. The hardware seems like it'll last a while, and the finish will also last from the looks/feel of things. Strap buttons couldnt be anymore solid, I could probably depend on this guitar, but I dont care how good your guitar is, you shouldnt gig without a backup when possible

I emailed them once or twice, I got an answer pretty quickly both times. dont know about the warranty, as I said, It's used.

I've been playing about 3 years(I wish I had started earlier). If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy it again if I could find it.. they're discontinued, Washburn only makes the N4 now (I think).. I love prettymuch everything about this guitar, I dont like the lack of a tone knob though. I compared it to two other guitars in the pawn shop, some 80s BC Rich strat(it was awful), and a Yamaha pacifica(almost cut myself on the frets). I give it a 9, since no guitar is perfect(at least none I've played yet).

Don't know what year it was made.
1 volume - 2 Humbuckers - 3-way selector
22 frets - Made in Korea (not sure)
Strat body - Natural color - Rosewood fingerboard

I play all sorts of Rock 'n Roll ... From Pink Floyd to Pantera. It's better on the distorded side of music ... Stock pick up are of good quality only ... I play through a Roland DAC and a Boss Multi-Effect ...

Action on it is very very good ... Minimal fret buzz ... Sustain is pretty good. May need some better quality pick up, but the stock ones do the job pretty good (depending on your personnal taste). Old-Style tremolo bridge (strat-like) ... It cracks a little when "bomb-diving" ... But Ok in normal use.

On of my favorite guitar ... No problem with it !

Never call them

I've been playing for 20 years now and I own all sorts of low to mid-price electric guitars (Charvel, Fernandes, Hamer, Other Washburn). To tell you the truth, I wish I had bought the N2 instead (because of the Floyd Rose and the better pick up) ... But still, I was amaze by the quality and playability of the N1 (It's even better than my other Washburn WG). It's light, small and confortable. The neck is thin and the action is set very low ... So with the bigger frets, it plays like a charm. I like it better than my pricier Fernandez (which have a Floyd-Rose and an active pick-up).

The only problem I see is that I would love to have cleaner sounding pick-ups but that's not a big problem since I usually play with lots of effects 90% of the time.

It's a great buy, but if you can afford it ... Try the N2 !

Not sure what year or where it's made, most probably Korea. 22frets, 1 vol, 3 way selector (like Gibson SG & Les Paul. 2 Washburn humbuckers, Black finish, standard strat-style trem, grover tuners. as simple as i want a guitar to be.

i play what ever is on radio and mtv so that basically covers everything. the first thing i did when i bought it is dump the pick up and replaced it with a DiMarzio Super 3 that's lying around in the bridge position. i replaced the neck hum with a single coil from a Fender HM. I the guitar apart and common for "cheap" guitars is they use cheap this wires to cut cost down. so i replaced it with beefier ones, changed the pot to a better 500K and it sounds so much better.
what i did't realise is that the humbucker was wrongly wired, i was getting a janggly single coil kinda sound from the bridge pickup. this is after a year of playing it the way it is. when i finally fixed the problem, the sound truly shines. i disconnected the single coil and put the original pickup to cover the hole.
i have a bunch of valvestate, a carlsboro a marshall superbass full stack. i usually hook it up to a mxr distortion+ or an ADA MP1. i just love the sound of this guitar. it's the first guitar i grab when i feel like playing.

i likke the neck very much. the body is a god send. narrower than a strat and small enough for me. i'm small so everything adds up nicely. i've tried the guitar with 9's and 10's but prefer it with 10s. had to adjust the neck a few month after i bought it to make it really really straight. never touched it ever since, solid as a rock. the neck is my favorite among all my guitars, it's a nice compromised to my charvel and epiphone SG. the fact that the neck i finished with oil is also a plus, i hate the feel of paint or clear finish on a neck.
the control is just what i've always wished on a guitar. one volume knob - that's out of my way when i'm strumming. it's located fither down than usual. the 3 way selector is the easiest wa to control any pickups and after i got this guitar i just don't give any guitar with a five way switch a second look. i angled the 3 way switched a bit so i don't accidently hit.
i had a few frankenstein guitar before this and it usually has 1 volume, 1 or 2 hum, 3 way selector, oil or no finish on the neck and for washburn to come up with this model at this price was like a wish come true.
the only thing i would change is the neck plate which is a bit thick for my liking. i have a slim charvette plate that'll fit there soon.

i don't gig but i do take it out for practicing. the hardware hasn't given me any problem. like i say it's the first guitar i'll grab from the rest. i don't really pet it and just throw it around, it'll stand next to the amp, on the sofa, lying on the floor, on my study table, i just make sure i don't drop it. i'll gig it if i have the chance. the construction is so simple and strdy i can't see anything going wrong with it.

never tried them before. phone bill will probably gonna kill me.

been playing more than 10 years. i bought this guitar because i cant afford N2 or N4. i thought it would be "good enough" for practising but it turned out to be my fave axe. i'll buy a few more if they still have it, white and the natural finish. i'll probably slap some EMGs.

I like the smaller body and neck. I didn't like the tuners and pickups. Nice wood though. Mine is a natural finish, but I don't know what kind of wood it is. Thin rosewood neck. Bridge is string through the body, like a strat. Two humbuckers. I would give it a 10 for the body and neck, and a 1 or 2 for the hardware. So I'm putting it somewhere in the middle.

This is an addtion to a previous review I gave. Since then I have added Sperzel locking tuners and put a Bill Lawrence (billlawrence.com) L-450B48 in the brige with a coil split (I had already put in an L-450A16 in the neck). I just want to say that since making the changes to this guitar, it is my favorite. I've been playing for many years and have had all kinds of guitars from all kinds of makers. But the BL pickups in this guitar give it such a nice sound. I play mainly light jazz and blues. I have also added a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Proco RAT2 distortion and MXR Dynacomp compression pedals. The sound is beyond anything I have played before.
And as I said in a previous review, the neck on this guitar is excellent. I have smaller hands, so it fits me very well. If you pick up a used Nuno, try the BL pickups - an L-450A16 in the neck and an L-450B48 in the bridge with a coil split. And you'll get a nice, fat strat sound when the toggle is in the middle position; plus you'll have your humbucking sound. And it's very crisp and clean. Although Bill says they're not high output, you'd swear they were.
This guitar has a great feel and now a great sound.

The action is very nice. The neck feels great to me. I'm giving it a 9 because the neck is a little more pliable than I would like. But it's still great. Whoever had this guitar previously, abused the finish. But that's not as important as the sound and overall feel of the guitar.

Dealt with them once. I'm giving them a 2 because they did offer to pay for s&h when I had to send something back to them. But they don't even know their own products.

If you can find a used one on eBay or at a pawnshop for around $100 - $150, get it and replace the tuners and pickups. And you'll have yourself a great guitar.
I've taken this guitar to some guitar techs, and they immediately tell me, without really looking at it or listening to it, that it's an inexpensive guitar (they use the word "cheap") and isn't worth putting any money into it....until they play it and hear it. Then they all have said it was an excellent deal.
I originally bought it for $100. Since then I have put about $200 into it. And it was well worth it.
The neck is a little tempermental with weather changes. But I have backups.

Don't know where mine was made, but it has 22 frets with one volume control, 3-way selector, Grover tuners, 2 humbuckers (washburn 421 and 423). Don't really need more to be honest!! Its black with Nuno's standard reversed headstock.... Wood is a fantastic finish, and although its an older model (picked mine up on Ebay from the states), it out-performs any guitar I have played.

Wow.. all I can say. Have you heard Nuno play? check out Mourning Widows - 'Furnished Souls for Rent' to get a good impression of how the guitar sounds. Simply - IT ROCKS... it has a screaming sound which I describe as a strat on steroids!!

Its all original, finish is still shiny! Build quality is excellent, it holds up fantastically when gigging. Never broken a string on it!

Very reliable, no complaints at all.

Never had to experience it...

I have had about 15 guitars, this is the cream of the crop. They are a superb buy for the money, my advice would be not to waste your money on Squier Strats or Yamaha Pacifica's when you can pick up such a uniquely sounding guitar at such a decent price. If I had had the money at the time I would have bought an N4, that will be my next purchase!

I'm not sure what year it was made. I picked it up used on ebay for $100. Whoever owned it previously took out the original pickups and replaced them with Ibanez pickups (?). But i put in Bill Lawrence. very nice. it has one volume knob; no tone knob. but that works for me.
i don't know what kind of wood it's made of, but it's nice. nice grain. it's a smaller strat-like body, and it feels excellent. the neck is thin and is the best neck i've ever played - and i've owned Fenders, Gibsons, Ibanez's, Yamahas - and others.
the tuners aren't the greatest, but they're ok. i don't use the tremolo bridge. i would prefer a tune-o-matic.

as i said, the previous owner put in Ibanez pickups, and they were horrible. but i replaced them with Bill Lawrence pickups (L-450A16). i play the Nuno through a Peavey Delta Blues. great blues and light jazz sound.

when i got the guitar, i needed to have frets filed. i prefer .10 gauge strings on it. the guitar was not taken care of very well, but now it plays very nice. the neck is the best i've ever played, and i love the smaller body. it's the best feeling guitar i've played or owned.

i've never played live with this guitar. when i first got it, the trussrod needed adjusting about every two weeks for the first couple of months. but now it's stablized. but i don't know if i trust it enough to play live. if i did, i would use a backup.

as far as email is concerned, don't hold your breath. but i called them several times because i needed a truss rod cover. they said they never made a Nuno N1 with a truss rod cover at the head. come to find out, they don't know that much about what they made. i've seen a few more N1's with a truss rod at the head, like mine.
but they couldn't help me on that.

i've been playing for 35 years. i do not regret buying this guitar. in fact, i've been thinking of getting more older Nuno's and putting different pickups in them. i'm not sure why i bought it, but i'm glad i did.
if it were lost or stolen, i would definitely get another - or two. if i could change anything about it, i would put in a tone knob, replace the tremolo with a tune-o-matic, and put in 3 Bill Lawrence single coil pickups.

Non Locking Vintage Trem jacked up to wammy Up, 2 stock humbuckers toggle switch,
and a volume knob. Black as Night. Rosewood Fingerboard. Came with HEAVY strings but my fingers adapted quickly. (The only guitar with heavy strings i truley enjoyed playing)

I play Metal And Rock i traded a 5 string vester bass, a boss pratice amp which doubled as a killer bass head and a Peavy bass Cab with a Black widow 15 inch speaker. My washburn came with a Marshall Super Lead Combo from the 70's or 80's and a G6 effects processor which I promptly traded for a Digitech RP12. It sounded Killer for all i played. Bulls On Parade Thru Crazy Train. I even played Death Metal on it and it didn't fail.

The strings where heavy as a stated before so when I foolishly traded my rig for a PA system the guy took the strings off to replace them and the neck warped back and twisted sideways so it turned to junk because of his stupidity. But For me it was the most comfortable and inspiring guitar i've EVER owned and I've bought and traded literally hundreds.

It played great everytime I picked it up at church, jamming with friends, or just practiceing. I NEVER broke a string.

Not really applicable because it was a friendly trade.

I wish I had that rig back the whole thing amp guitar and RP12 It truely inspired me I traded it for the PA so I could sing for a Metallica Tribute Band (which lasted 3 weeks)I wish I would have stuck with my Nuno

Basicly a cheapo guitar made in Indonesia. But suprisingly the body and neck work are exellent so it looks good and plays very well. Vintage style tremolo, two humbuckers, three-position switch and one volume pot.

The original sound was OK for distorted stuff. The output level was exepionally high. For clean styles, the sound was very distinguished, even weird, which is probably due to a low resonance peak of pickups. I changed to Seymour Duncan 59' pickups to make it more versatile. Although I sometimes miss the original sound, I'm very happy with the guitar and new pickups, the sound resembles now a high-dollar vintage Les Paul.

Maybe the shop owner had made the adustments, I don't know. Everythin else but tremolo system was well adjusted. Never got the trem arm to work satisfactorily, so I unscrewed the arm and threw it away. It seems that the tremolo system will need some modification.

I've played this guitar a lot for a couple of years with no problem at all.

Don't know

I've played some 25 years altogether. After pickup change this became my main guitar which almost beats my old strat and Gibson ES-335 but costs only a fraction of their price. I't fits perfectly in my hands and plays like a dream, when properly adjusted. Thanks, Nuno, for the design.
I don't like to use the tremolo arm often, but maybe some day I'll fix that, too.
I'd guess it would be difficult or even impossible to find a better guitar for this price, including the pickup replacement.

1998, 22 fret rosewood fingerboard on a maple neck. The body is made from alder and mine is stained in cherry red, thoughit does come in natural. It's like a small strat shape body, not like three quarter size or anything, just narrow. No pickguard and two black uncovered humbuckers. One volume control, no tone, three way selector switch on the bottom horn. Vintage style tremelo, mine came set up capable of only down bend, but I don't know whether that was the factory or the shop I bought it from. White 'end' on the tremelo arm, chrome hardware [bridge, strap buttons, tuners] Grover tuners and a plastic nut.

It sounds great to me, I play mostly Hendrix and Metallica and I think it suits both those styles well. The pickups are a litle trebly and so I think that compensates for the lack of single coils while playing hendrix . I am using it like this:
Guitar ->Boss TU-2 ->Crybaby Wah GCB-95 -> Visual Sound Route 66 Overdrive/Compression -> Boss BF-2 Flanger ->1979 Marshall 2103 Mk II Master Model 100W Lead 2x12 Combo.
It can get a little noisy while playing but I think that's due to the Route 66, the pickups themselves are fine apart from being a little bright. I do anything and everything with this guitar from Nu-Metal to Rock, from from Metal to Jazz and anything in between, the guitar copes well enough but with no tone control you've gotta use the amp/effect EQ for variation.

I could do with a better set-up on -my- guitar though others' may be better. The action is a little high and it doesn't stay in tune exceptionally well, it seems to change with the tides - sometimes it will stay in tune for ages, even after a load of vibrato abuse. But sometimes it just won't stay in for as long as I think it should, I dunno, maybe I play harder than necessary. there are a couple of hard 'lumps' in the finish, like hard red grains.

I've played live with it and it did fine, managed to stay in tune and sound good all at the same time, what more could you ask for? I'd gig without a backup, have done everytime. The strap buttons are ok, my strap fits them pretty tightly, but once the front strap button actually ripped out, but that was easily fixed with some car body filler by just putting it in the hole and shoving the screw back in and leaving to set. Still, it could have happened on stage! I may fit straplocks one day if I'm feeling flush. The finish is real thin, but pretty hardwearing, I pulled it off in a few little specks when removing a sticker [i covered my guitar in them a while back and then decided to take them off last week] but it tends to dent not disappear if you knock it.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 2 and a half years now and have had this guitar for 2 years and I'd buy the guitar if I went back and did it all again, but this time I'd get them to set it up for me, perhaps at no extra cost. It's really lightweight, but not so much so that its incredibly neck heavy, I don't know if I'd buy another one if it were stolen though, I would maybe wanna try something different. When I got it, I only compared it to a Billy T, stupid I suppose but it worked out pretty well. I wish it had a tone control so i could get rid of some of the brightness -sometimes-.

My N1 is a '98 model. It was made in Indonesia. It has 22 frets that are all easily accessible cause of the Stephens Extended Cutaway. It's a solid Alder guitar with a matte Padauk finish. It's absolutely beautiful, especially in the right light, the Padauk (reddish) finish seems to almost glow and looks kind of 3D-ish. There is only one knob: a volume control, which kind of sucks, cause the N1 (its the stock pickups) sounds a little bright. (I have to turn the presence completely down on my amp so my ears don't bleed). It's a downsized strat style guitar with two humbuckers: washburn 200 series. It has a solid maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. It's got a vintage style tremolo. The tuners are grover (they are exceptionally good, even when you don't consider that I only paid $180). It is my opinion that grover doesn't make crappy tuners. I like the neck, while It could be a little thicker, it's not as thin as a wizard neck, and it is extremely comforable. I'm not sure , but i think it has a compound radius. It came with a trussrod adjuster and a cable. I give it an eight because it doesn't have a tone knob. I bought this instead of the N2 cause i don't like floyd roses, so the tone knob is the only thing bugging me. Also, the pickups (while better than the pickups on my RG550) are too trebly. Another thing, the pickup selector is really easy to move and it's extremely quite, you don't hear any pops when switching pickups. I also love the position of the selector, right next to the neck pickup, since I mainly have my picking hand over the neck pickup, it's alot more convenient to switch than standard 5ways.

I think this guitar suits my style very well. I can turn up the gain on my amp, and get a really good metal sound. If I back it off, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. Bluesy wise, well IMHO, single coils get better bluesy sounds, so I'm not gonna knock the guitar for having humbuckers, that's why I bought it. I am using it through a Fender M80 Chorus. (I know, it sucks). It gets kind of noisy on distortion when you are not playing, but all I gotta do is change the pickups. I'd describe the sound as Full/Bright. On the clean channel, it has a pleasantly surpising sound. All I do is roll back the volume to like 8.5 and it cuts some of the highs. like the other guys with the N2s and N4s, it's very original sounding. doesn't sound like anything other than itself.

Ok, here are where the problems start, nothing really wrong with the setup, action, finish or pickups....the one thing that pissed me off when I noticed it(I noticed it AFTER I bought it) is that the bridge is misaligned by like 3/32" of an inch. now, it actually has imroved intonation on the bass side, cause i don't have to push the saddles back as far, but it pisses me off cause of asthetic purposes (you can't tell if my arms in the way) but I know I only paid $180 but still. The quality of everything else is superb, though, honestly better than some strats I've seen in the $500 range. although the bridge thing doesn't affect comfort as far as playing, or sound, or intonation, I have to bring the rating down .

I would give without a backup, the finish seems solid, etc.... one thing that scares me is the postiioning angle of the top strap button. it could have been put in a little more facing the floor. I'm thinking of getting straplocks for this reason. I'm not gonna use it for gigging, so the rating is for the strap button

WASHBURN SUCKS. I emailed them over 2 weeks ago to see if they could send a replacement guitar cause of the bridge (which i think falls under faulty craftmenship, don't you?) not even a reply to say thankyou for purchasing our product but sorry we can't help you. bastards.

Been playing for 10 years. I own a fender classical, a Vantage acousic/electric, and an Rg550 electric (which now sits in it's case). I wished I would have noticed the bridge before I bought it, but oh well. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy it again. I love how comfortable it is, how elegant yet understated it is, I love how easy it is to switch pickups. I love the color. I hate the fact that the bridge is crooked, and that i could fix it, but not without screwing in three new holes for the bass side of the bridge. i wish it had seymour duncans, but I just got some birthday money. so that dream is probably gonna come true. One word of advise, if your looking for an N2, or an N4 but can't come up with the cash, or if you wish the N2 came with a vintage trem instead of a floyd rose, get the N1. just make sure you're not a schmuck like me, and check the bridge before you buy it. other than that, simply put: YOU CANNOT BEAT THIS GUITAR FOR ITS PRICE (even when you include $100+ bucks for new pickups and installation) It's that great a sounding aguitar.