Washburn HB30 Hollow Body Reviews 4

i bought this guitar one day on a spur of the moment extravagance, ah the wonder of credit cards. anyways i had been talking to the owner of the store who had an original 50's gibson 335 a lovely guitar in imacculate condition, needless to say i spent a lot of time playing it, then was comparing this to some other hollow bodied electrics he had in stock, but as funds dictated i bought this one for just under $1000 australian with a brand new case included

i tested a lot of hollow bodies, and i guess i was looking for that real low end power sweet bluesy tone that you only get with hollow bodies, this guitar gives of loads of tone and i was quite suprised, the pickups were more active than the gibson ones i tried and the set neck and centre block construction really cut a lot of feedback, and when it did it fed back gradually and smoothly, on a nice rising curve, not harsh and sharp with the grating of frequency harmonics that you sometimes get with hollow bodies, i loved the alnico humbuckers, having had mostly single coil strats and tele customs, i play this guitar so much my fingers are hurting again, enough said, i love the tone that the alnico magnets give, and ive seen these guitars advertised for as low as $700 australian so for the price you cant go wrong,

the action was set a little low at first with some buzzing on the frets, my toggle switch was a little loose, but it had been on the rack for a little while....

the build quality was excellent, the pickups are bright and active, the tobacco sunburst paintjob and satin polish is remeniscint of the old jazz archtops and is just beautiful, definitely one of the more striking guitars ive owned

value for money, good build quality, and that bright hollow body tone, coupled with some of the most active and loud pickups ive used for a while, this is great for old rock, jet style stuff, and everything right up to queens of the stone age style tones. i am definitely happy, and with the low cost something you could change pickups to taste and still have a quality gutar at less, way less than gibson prices

jesse watson, australia rated this unit 4 on 2004-10-26.

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