Washburn A20V

Here is the new one. A Matsumoku or Yamaki(depending on who you ask)built Washburn Stage Series A20V. This one may be an early pro model since it is a neck thru instead of a setneck?? Anyways. It's in good shape(has some issues) Broken nut, low E string??? May tackle that one myself. The action is a bit too low so to compensate for that they put washers under the Wonderbar tremolo, lol. Sounds great even with all the small issues.

Fabulous, great catch. I'm still after one of these but they rarely come up in the UK, and when they do, they're expensive. How much was this, if you don't mind me asking?

I agree; there's something strangely compelling about these; nice!!

Congrats!!

Most of the highend A series guitars were Yamaki alright. An A20 is supposed to be neckthrough when Yamaki,and that one in turn is a BBR. Ie;black ,black n red.

To figure out the wonderbar,which IMO is the best trem ever made,check with the boys of Washburn forums. There´s a "how to" floating around which i have used myself on occasion.

Point is that the Shift trem needs service as it contains all in all 14 small ballbearings and these WILL pick up dirt asf over the years. With that done tho..there´s nothing that comes even close to a Shift/Wonderbar in my POW.
Word of caution is that if and when you decide to take it apart be VERY anal about your workspace. The pts are VERY small and if one single piece is lost...let´s just say that happy hunting for spares.
To clean it out regular WD40 works wonder. Massive doses to be used as "detergent" for lack of better words.
The trem works a little different as it does not use springs but a profile cut torsion bar instead. This is one of the key items that makes the trem so stable when worked over.
This is fixed by two small allen screws at the bars end. When you unbolt these make sure to unload the torsion bar or you will damage the threads of these screws,and the screws in turn are modded allen stop screws.

Hey Racing

Where is the serial number at? I"ve looked everywhere. I took the pickups off and removed the tremolo. Looks like it had a floating one before. However I've seen a few others with the cover on the back to hide the spring cavity like the one I've got. Also has a cover under the tremolo to hid the post holes?

Any reason why back in the day they did this. Did they have a few laying around when they changed them over to a BBR?? Definitely a neck thru.

What year was the first BBR's.

Thanks in advance.

There is a Washburn site, as I remember, with lots of useful info.

I said in a previous post that Stage series guitars rarely come up for sale in the UK and as usual, Ebay proves me wrong. Duh !

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Washburn-A5-Relic-Matsumoku-MIJ-1982-Relic-Nitro-/180638659846?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2a0ee73506

But just check this one out. John, knowing your penchant for 12 strings, I guess the GAS card is already out !

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rare-WASHBURN-Electric-12-String-Prototype-Guitar-/260753184442?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cb619d6ba

Despite just starting a new dream job, I'm afraid that finances in the short term are still tight. So I wont be bidding at present but later ....Mmmmmmm... watch this space

She's beautiful girl, looks a bit dark with that black and red, gives a lot of attitude! Looks like she'll go well with your collection.

That tremolo is crazy, never seen one like that before!

That's.... different, eh?! I'm not sure about the crazy angle some of those strings depart the bridge to their tuners - looks like a recipe for string breakage!!

I'm spoiled, really, by having played, and played with, a Vantage VA912 in Australia... nothing else will do... unless a 12 string Spectrum comes along!

I´ve owned some Yamaki made BBR superteles asf and in turn good friend Oscar even more of them.
They´re really great guitars when given a work over and setup correctly. The A series in turn rather bright to the tone.
Kewl guitars none the less tho.

If Yamaki it´ll sport a serial at the back of the head. Clearly visable.
If Mat...we´ve seen ém lack visable serial,but that´NOT saying it isn´t there!! We´ve also FWIW seen the "black" be almost black/green metallic to the shade.

That with the Wonderbar replacement...again...we´ve seen it on Mat made BBRs. This has by no means been aftermarket jobbies,but stock Matsumoku and i have no idea why that is.

If you pop the hood of the engine cmpt at the rear and take a good solid shot of the cap and pots it´ll be even more evident if Mat or Yamaki.
Regardless it is one of the two.

Oscar owned a A series that was converted from Kahler to Wonderbar i believe(it didn´t have any cutout at the rear) and you could have fooled me until we unbolted the bridge. This BIG *SS cavity showed its ugly face underneath.

Racing here is the pic.



We"ll what do you think? Mat or Yam??? Pleased with it either way.