And So, It Begins: The Great Washburn Hot Rodding Thread

smitty_p

smitty_p

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Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, here we are again. There's been a pause of a few years, but those that know me, know that I can't leave well enough alone and I take a certain degree of masochistic fulfillment in taking something that is designed for something, and making it do something else.

So, if you're the type who can sit in a perfectly good airplane and think, "Y'know, it would be fun to jump out of this!" this thread is for you! If you're the type who cheers for the guy who brings a knife to a gun fight, this thread is for you!

What we're gonna try and do here, boys and girls, is turn a humble, Washburn HB-30 semi-hollow guitar that was just minding its own business in a Guitar Center into a hard rock/metal guitar.

I can hear the naysayers now. "It'll feed back!" To this I say, "YUP!!!" Seriously, though, I realize I may have to address that at some point, so I do have that in mind..

So, without any further adieu, let's get started.

There won't be much in this first post. Just laying some groundwork.

By way of reminder, here is the unsuspecting guitar as it was when I got it home yesterday:

Washburn HB30 Front_sm.jpg

First, I wanted to put my preferred gauge of strings on to get a baseline of the sound. I was all out of my Stringjoy strings, but I picked up of some of these. They'll do for now.

ErnieBall_9_42_sm.jpg

With the strings off, I decided to pull the pickups to see what I was dealing with. The last HB-30 I had used a set of Washburn 621/623 pickups. These are something called "Custom 62N" and "Custom 62B".

WBHB30_Pickups_Stock.jpg

Any the who...

After reassembling and restringing, I plugged in to see what I was working with here.

As expected, when used with a lot of distortion, the sound is very flubby with a wooly bass response. So, these have gotta go. The clean sound is, as expected, suitable for a smooth, warm, jazz sound - not what I'm after with this project!

I know from my prior HB-30 that this guitar used 250 kOhm pots and .033 mF capacitors. So, those will have to be replaced, too. Normally, I'd just do the pots and caps to see what that does, but since it is more of an effort to make these sorts of changes to a semi-hollow guitar since everything has to be fished through the F-holes, I'll wait until I get everything I want and only go through the effort once.

There will be some aesthetic changes, too.

So, sorry I don't have more, but the journey has begun!
 
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I had a friend of a friend back in the 80s took a 335 and put an original Bill Lawrence in it and was playing it thru a Mesa something or another. At first it was feeding back like crazy. From what I was told he stuffed it full of cotton balls, as many as he could cram in it and it killed after that. I heard it from a distance at a show, but I didn't get close enough to see if it was full of cotton balls. I didn't know enough to question it back then, all I know is it sounded amazing.
 
I had a Washburn HB35 maple flame looked well changed pots pickups not much of a change
did the same with a Gibson 335 same not much of a change
I got the HB35 form a amp repair a little time $35.00 in parts traded for a G&L 5 string bass.
 
DirtySteve said:
I had a friend of a friend back in the 80s took a 335 and put an original Bill Lawrence in it and was playing it thru a Mesa something or another. At first it was feeding back like crazy. From what I was told he stuffed it full of cotton balls, as many as he could cram in it and it killed after that. I heard it from a distance at a show, but I didn't get close enough to see if it was full of cotton balls. I didn't know enough to question it back then, all I know is it sounded amazing.
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I won’t be using any cotton balls, but I am prepared with some high-density foam, if necessary, to pack behind the F-holes.

That is only “If necessary”!
 
DirtySteve said:
Just don't cheese it up. :grin:
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For realz. I totally agree. I’m gonna go little bits at a time. There’s a fine line between “The Metal” and cheese.

As I mentioned in my New Guitar Day post, the idea is to create a Street Rod out of a grocery-getter.
 
I was just thinking...I don't think I've ever played a Washburn. Are they considered to be any good?
 
DirtySteve said:
I was just thinking...I don't think I've ever played a Washburn. Are they considered to be any good?
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Well , they are a very old brand. They go back to 1883 with Lyon and Healy. They are mostly known for their acoustic instruments. Currently, their only significant endorser for their electrics is Nuno Bettencourt. But, at one time Paul Stanley was an endorser, as was Dimebag Darrell. At one point, they were considered a meaningful competitor to Gibson, at least with their acoustic instruments.

Here’s an old ad with Paul Stanley and Washburn:

1725423819588.jpeg

Here’s a pretty decent video about Washburn guitars.



I have to admit that I have always sort of had a soft spot in my heart for Washburn. They are kind of an underdog. Unfortunately, they are now owned by a conglomerate that doesn’t really put much effort into them. For some reason, I’ve always liked them.

My personal experience has been that the instruments are decently made; though, they have rather mediocre electronics, hardware, and pickups. Also, sad to say, they don’t have their HB-series of semi-hollow guitars, anymore. The subject of this thread is Chinese. It is more recent than the one I sold to @chilipeppermaniac . That one was Korean-made by Samick. I actually think that one was a little better than this one; though, this one is functionally very solid and is a very decent modding platform.

As y’all have seen, I do have some high-value guitars, so I know what an expensive guitar is all about. But, I get a real sense of satisfaction in buying lower-dollar guitars and turning them into something unique and suited just to my personal tastes and preferences. My highly-modified, cheapo Jackson gets played at every gig. This cheap Washburn is gonna see a stage at some point as well. It’s not gonna spend the rest of its life in a bedroom.
 
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