For reference, the shirt in the beginning says “love yourself like malmstoon loves malmstoon”, malmstoon, for those who don’t know, is the name of kaylen’s legally distinct sidekick character.

I have 7 Washburn guitars. All from the 90s and very early 2000s. Love them. Wish they still were as big a name today as they used to be, because they made quality stuff.

this is the most of my attention span I've ever dedicated to Washburn but between the pace and lengths you went to try and produce more info for us....I salut your efforts!

This was the best, most concise history, analysis and commentary of Washburn that I've seen. I learned a lot today and really enjoyed it, thanks!

There’s so much good history to the Chicago Custom Shop (‘92-‘00) and US Music Custom Shop (‘01-‘17). I was lead assembler in Chicago from ‘96 to ‘01 and stay in touch with the entire team to this day. Once Rudy sold it, that marked the death of Washburn, it never made Rudy money, it was a labor of love, he made his money in real estate, they tried to grow it in ways that’d surprise you like exclusive Feiten agreement, and buying parker technology but relying on the old school marketing model failed them too. Anyways sad no one responded to you. -Chopper

Lived outside of Chicago growing up. You could always find a gem Washburn from the 80s in a pawn shop. Now they are rare.

The Parallax line were really excellent metal guitars, well built with top hardware and electronics, and killer designs. They were very well received with great reviews...then they disappeared. Seems like that was the last real push on electrics for them.

I think it would be cool if you did one of these videos on hamer guitars. They were really big back in the 80s but have seem to vanished. Google says fender closed them down in 2012 but it also says that another company re openend them in 2017 to make import models.

During an online conversation with someone from Fortin Amps, it was vaguely implied that Mike Fortin was trying to buy the Randall brand, but I haven't seen any indications that this has taken place let alone that Randall is going to be available in any significant way in the immediate future. On the Washburn front, a dealer who is/was listed on their very inactive website they aren't replying to emails to place orders let alone fill existing orders. I think Washburn is about to become a memory.

My first guitar was a Washburn Lyon Series, a cheap series from them (I still own it), and I have a special place for the brand in my heart.

Yep, about halfway through this video I was going to mention Steinberger if you didn't. That's a criminal case of neglect, though it wasn't surprising. Imagine a child prodigy adopted by a traditional family who lives in the mountains. That was Steinberger being brought into Gibson. They brought it because it was getting all the attention at the time, but then didn't know where to go with the brand they acquired. Ned Steinberger was and is a genius (Fun fact: His father won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1988, the year after Gibson purchased the company). Ned wanted to get away from day-to-day operations of a company and stick with with he loved: Designing instruments and components (e.g., several innovative tuners such as the track tuner or automatic string-trimming tuners, all the trem systems including several incarnations of the Trans-trem that transposed everything). He used to consult for the company even after he sold it, but all his creations and ideas were pearls before swine. Gibson is a company that missed out on the Floyd Rose 40 years ago and still hasn't caught up. Steinberger guitars from the early Gibson years are worth a small fortune now, not because they're collectible so much as that they were attractive, well-made, and you just can't get Trans-trems anymore. Every once in a while Gibson will put out a new Steinberger model with little research into what players want (See their "Demon" guitar, for example: Looks metal, but no tremolo. Has a piezo pickup for... ballads, I guess?), barely markets it, then shrugs when it doesn't sell, concluding that "no one wants Steinbergers anymore." Meanwhile, Strandberg (with a conspicuously Steinberger-sounding name) is killing it with many of the features that made Steinberger cool to begin with: an ergonomic body, headless design, striking looks, and even the colors the Gibson-made Steinbergers came in before the company squandered the opportunity and downgraded to mostly just black or white. It's unfortunate that corporate mismanagement effectively killed a great brand. Today's players won't have easy access to the amazing instruments we had a few decades ago, and tomorrow's players won't get to benefit from the cumulative effect of what all those innovations were moving toward.

I remember shopping for my second guitar ever (and so, like for many beginners: my first "real" guitar) back in 2009 in Germany. Back then Washburn were a serious contender: i remember them endorsing a Band I really liked back then, I remember seeing their single cuts on stages and them being actually in stock in music stores near me, I even remember their guitars had silly little tuners built into the pots back then as a futuristic feature. In the end I decided to go for one of the newly relaunched Hagstroms instead and that was the last time I heard saw or thought about Washburn untill many years later a youtuber mentioned the famous signature washburn.

Thanks for yet another awesome video! Following your video, I've just visited the Steinberger website, and the images there suggest that they're now entering a revival attempt with the slogan "Lose your head... again!" so it looks exciting.

I actually have a Washburn CB-15 bass that I absolutely love. Never had a guitar hold tune as well as this one does, and it's absolutely beautiful to boot

Malmsteen also means donuts in swedish.

I love Washburns! Ive had a few over the years and ive loved them all. I currently have a Torus bass and its awsome! One of the best bang for the buck deals ive ever found.

Washburn Chicago Series KC-45. My beloved❤🎸! It's 34 years old, yet it's still going strong.💪

Washburn are great guitars. The early 1990s had killer quality. I have a Angelo Batio Mg44 and it’s killer

I remember Washburn being a really big name back in the early 90's. My first gigging bass was a '93 B-200 that I had from new. I now have another '93 B-200 which is my #1 bass. I have had a few others in between, Scavenger, Hammerhead, Idol, all great instruments. It is really sad to hear what has happened to them over the years.

Thank you for the extensive knowledge shared.

I had a superstrat that was Frankensteined together from a Washburn 3G-V body and hardware with an Ibanez RG neck. Thing was insane. It wound up getting broken in half again and I gave it to a friend, who put it back together a third time and still plays it.

WASHBURN have done some great guitars, my 1989 KC40v is still going strong with a neck sat perfectly between a charvel and an ibanez. My Washburn WP50 les paul is just stunning, good weight, amazing neck. I had to replace the pickups to toneriders which suit it perfectly. My Washburn wd32sce acoustic is truly a thing of beauty and sounds and plays better than ( now sold ) Taylor and Epiphone acoustics I had. I have fender and Gibson guitars which are great.....but so are the Washburns.

The old Washburn factory in Mundelein, IL is now leveled to the ground. I think they're making a park there or something

I have a late 90's Washburn HSH superstrat in a (now) aged pearl white fish. It has a Washburn branded licensed Floyd Rose and genuine Grover tuners. Unfortunately, the pickups are a little meh and don't clean up as well as I'd like to, when rolling back the volume. I plan to swap the pots for higher quality VAT pots in the future to see if that may solve my problem, otherwise I'll have to swap the pickups for something better quality than the stock Washburn-branded ones. Other than that it's a great guitar! Only mods at this time are Schaller strap locks and a replaced whammy-bar, both of which got a light relic to match the rest of the 25+ year old hardware

I enjoy these videos man!

I've got two Washburns. A Scott Ian signature Vindicator from 2008 which I love, though it's not built for easy shredding on the higher frets. The other is a rare 2001 Rouge Star 980 that sold for $880 when it was released. It was in rough shape when I got it and I've just about brought it back to life to the point where it's currently my number two guitar behind the Vindicator. I'd love to get my hands on some of the 80s Washburn shredders, especially the HM-5V, as it's literally my dream guitar.

As a former US Music Artist who was there between 2010 and 2015 when everything fell apart, I can 100% tell you that if it wasn't for George Lynch, Ola, Scott Ian, and then President Joe Delaney US Music would have died in 2010! US Music who also at the time owned Randall Amplification. They brought Ola on who turned them onto Mike Fortin and were releasing TONS for products that were AMAZING! The Satan, Natas, and Thrasher line of amps, Ola's Solar Guitars, Michael Sweet from Strypers guitars, and of course Nuno.. It all came to a head in 2015 when US Music sold off to KSM and NONE of us could get guitars, amps, or pedals anymore. Randall didnt work things out with Mike Fortin so he bounced, followed by Lynch, Ian, and everyone else. US Music even worked out a deal with Ola from Strandberg guitars to start building them in their custom shop and even that fell apart because of how broken US Music was internally. The staff at US Music were AMAZING. Allen in the custom shop was an incredible and friendly builder with a really great reputation, Joe Delaney who I do believe is with Magnavox now was just incredible to work with. Mike Fortin, Jason Frankhauser, Joke Skog, Matt Olivio and everyone else on the artist team were a true blessing. Its really a shame what happened to Washburn, Randall and US Music......

I have a washburn mini jumbo western acoustic guitar. I still love it and so does my guitar tutor.

You raise some really interesting points here actually. I'm in the UK and in the early 90's many of our guitar shops were a bit "stuck in the past" and only really stocked the mainstream brands as well as budget copies. I'm talking Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Squier and the copies thereof. Jackson, BC Rich, Ibanez etc were reasonably rare in the local shops but one thing they did tend to carry was Washburn. Price-wise they were between a budget and a big name and they punched way above their weight. Then, around the mid 90's the big names like Jackson, BC Rich et al started releasing their performer/entry level type guitars and it made the Washburn stuff much less appealing, both visually and financially. The other point was Randall amps. We had very few people selling them here but by Christ they were good and they didn't cost Mesa Boogie money, or indeed, Marshall money. Had they expanded their range into smaller combo's and practice amps they could've cleaned up the market here, especially with the Dimebag connection. I could not believe the tone you could get out of those things when I first played through one in a shop. Two very large missed opportunities on the part of the companies behind the brands in my opinion.

The luthier was actually named Stephen Davies out of Seattle. I visited his shop frequently, had him work on some of my instruments and took advise from him when I started making my own guitars. Very smart guy. Not sure what he's up to now days. That was a long time ago now.

Thank you for the interesting summary! When I was younger I dreamed of playing a Washburn N4, and now I am old, it is difficult to find a new one in Europe, and the prices are in the cosmos for those that are out there.

I have a nuno N1, i love everything about it. Washburn necks are my favorite to play. I hope they churn out more models and become great again.

Used washburn guitars and basses since the 80's. My main superstrat is washburn, my current active bass is a washburn.. My recently modded axe is a washburn.. they are awesome...when people realise then they will thrive again, when that day comes maybe guitarists will also realise that the best strings in the world are, and have been since the 80's are Dean Markley.. Korean Washburns and Japanese 80's Arias are up there with the best guitars ever made..

If you were wondering, Nuno used the Nele on the "Other Side Of The Rainbow" solo from the new album. Or at least he did in the video. I seem to remember Nuno saying he actually used it in the recording and not just for the music video but I can't remember what interview that was from. Perhaps the Rick Beato one?

Great doc! A few points to make (maybe others have posted the same): *Those bastards at Gibson also bought out Garrison Guitars (from Newfoundland, Canada, they were known for their polymer skeletal/bracing system), not to continue the line but to kill it altogether, just to get Garrison out of the way. *Around 2000 Washburn got caught taking their import guitars, slapping USA labels on 'em and charging accordingly. *The only Washburn I had was an Indo-made travel guitar, 1/2 size, unique shape but VERY deep, at least 3". Build quality was jungle-like, sounded like playing a tree trunk 'CHOKKA CHOKKA CHOKKA'. Paid only $100 for it, but soured on it before too long. *A few years ago I emailed Washburn asking them to consider reissuing the 5270 Bell Guitar, a popular parlor model from the 1920s that poet Carl Sandburg among others played. Never got a reply. *Their travel guitar sounds horrible, even compared to other companies' models.

The Washburn factory was in Mundelein IL. They closed it down around 10 years ago, and there were a few videos of people walking through the empty building. I believe it's been torn down. Washburn was owned by US Music Corp which had an office in Buffalo Grove, but I believe that's gone, too.

watched through the whole ad break just for the Bertrum shirt

I have a Washburn MR250 semi hollow electric. Can you tell me how many and where they were manufactured. I got this one from Kerry Livgren. He told me its one he played on stage and he signed the back of the headstock for me.

I have a rare X50 Pro Q ACD (artist model) in transparent green. The ACD stands for 'artist Chris Duarte' It's a very well built Korean SSS with mahogany body and set mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, grover tuners. A previous owner upgraded the pickups and pots to Dimarzio, including a treble bleed on the volume and a locking input jack. I met Chris Duarte a couple times, he's a really cool guy. Got pics of us both with the guitar, he signed the back of the headstock too.

I remember seeing Alex Sibbald using a Washburn bass when he played for the hardcore band, The Accused back in the 80's and that was the only kind of bass I wanted. A shame to see them fade away like this.

My first guitar was a red Washburn Lyon strat copy. Way back in '94 😂 I still have it, but only to look at now! 😂😂 Excellent video!

I just picked up a 2002 USA custom shop Washburn today. Where is that shop and is the doors still open? Great video.

I have a Korean washburn dime ST Pro from 2004 and it's just my absolute favorite guitar ever. Hunted ebay for a year to find one and it just stands above all the stealths dean built over the years

I feel like washburn as a compant were getting more known for their cheap beginner guitars they had stocked in walmarts and kmarts than their more expensive custom guitars.

I saw a Washburn Strat copy being advertised at my local Walmart, so they aren't dead yet.

The Washburn "Parallaxe S20FR", or the "Parallaxe PXS 100" in White with Floyd and the Reverse Headstock looks so cool !! I have a LTD - M1000 wich looks almost identical to the Parallaxe PXS 100 in white, but the Washburn has a special touch with that weird bolt-on neck heel design !!

Idk but I got a Washburn SS-40 Steve Stevens Model, with hand wound Schecter Pasadena pickups, Grover’s, and a hard shell case for $90. It’s awesome.

Thanks for this I've being trying to track down the guitar brand that Frank Klepacki the composer of Command and Conquer and now plays with the Tiberian Sons uses and these guys seem like a match not only does the logo look the same(Hard to tell in the few times you see the head of his guitar.) but the time period makes sense as he made his most well known work in the 1990s as is a rock, metal artest mostly.

Nice vid! 2 of my favorite guitars are Washburn - a PS2000 and an Anarchy V (WV16GBG1). I enjoyed your history but can't help but wonder at the glaringly obvious omission of Paul Stanley's contributions.

My first electric guitar was a Paul Stanley PS80, still have it to this day but what’s funny is that I have never seen Paul using that specific guitar 😂

Dude i hope you succeed to the fullest with this youtube channel so you can go to create your own guitar brand

My Washburn C5CE does me great! I've loved it since I got it in 2020

I have a Washburn Parallaxe LP style guitar. I quite like it.

Really enjoyed this story of Washburn! Definitely seems like the brand was done dirty by the corporate people! Can you do a similar video on what happened to Hamer guitars? They were also bought by KMC and died out for a while in 2013 but had a comeback in 2017. Nothing was heard from them since though...

Ive got 2 early 90's HB-35s. Love them!!!

I've got a really nice Washburn mg 104. USA made. Built during the time, grover jackson worked at Washburn.

My wife's 1st cousin Frank Cavanagh was the bassist in the band Filter. Washburn issued a Frank Cavanagh Signature Model bass, they are very rare, Frank says they only sold about 25 of them.

Just came across your video, not a guitar player but a bass player, got back into playing a bit during the pandemic I was really disappointed when I found out that the Washburn bass line up is pretty well non existent now, I bought a 6.string bass back in the mid 90s, love it I have picked up a few more Washburn basses on the used market

I own a WV66GT and it was my first really good guitar when I was 13. They just had the most awesome guitars man, I still drool for an N7, was my first 7 string guitar "crush". Not to mention all the dime models.

I’ve had a few Washburn guitars in the past and have two now. I love them. I think they are very well-made and a real bargain.

Bit of a head scratcher that Washburn is both Walmart and Amazon sold. Not sure if it says something about either the guitar maker or the retailer. They do appear to somewhat randomly drop a container or two of really cool guitars, then be "out of stock" for ages, but consistently kick out the starter acoustics and electrics. Seems like the Taylorish-cut Dreadnought is their meat and potatoes, but you can score Washburn Custom Shop electrics...from Amazon. From my perspective, it just looks like something previously cool that the initial principal got out of a long time ago. A brand that is now owned by a vacuum cleaner umbrella corporation that owns a nice C&C mill to slap Washburn on mostly non interesting stuff with an occasionally upscale model to remind us Washburn was once cool. I guess the neat thing about Washburn is that theres a lot of them, with people mostly liking them as good players to have survived resale and becoming good kick around guitars. Liken it to a bowl of vanilla ice cream, occasionally with some sprinkles-hard to fuck up the recipe and make people mad at you.

I'll be ordering a Washburn Apprentice for my kids soon. Sweetwater, here in Fort Wayne, has many models of Washburn.

Ampeg is owned by Yamaha now and they are doing good with it so far. The 50th anniversary SVT is a good head, they revived the rocket bass combo amp series, and the SGT-DI pedal

Washburn will always be related to Nuno Bettencourt....🎸🤘👍

I still own the Washburn RX22F, Its a killer guitar. Still plays beautifully and looks awesome.

They need to bring back some of the old guitars like the A-20.I had one and it played great.

I used to have a Washburn Solar 7 string V. They seemed to be gaining some traction in the market when Ola came onboard after a bit of a dry spell after Dimebag left them but seem almost dead in the water now. A real shame. A company I have a soft spot for and would love to see thrive. It is strange that nobody is talking about it really apart from you doing this video. Ola had metioned people leaving the company from time to time and I remmeber when he announced his departure from Washburn and Randall shortly after.

2:40 The shirt for the sponsor caught me so off guard I spit out a mouthfull of coffee everywhere, one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me.

I have a Washburn R320SWRK parlor guitar. I love it. Beautiful guitar that I play almost every day.

I’ve always wondered, but what’s your thoughts on 7 string guitars?

I have a mercury series Washburn and holy god that guitar has been my favorite ever since !! Heck even the knockoff Floyd competes with my original Floyd rose on one of my schecters !! Got it for like 60$ and I play that more than my esp explorer. Awesome guitar and definitely awesome company :)..

😂 @1:15 If you remember 1920's !? Well you Don't because you can't because you weren't there 😂

Much of what a think of guitar companies are just Middlemen who contract Indonesian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese manufacturers .

my first guitar, a KC40v in 1989!

I clicked this video from one of your 2021 videos 💀the glow up is visible

Wow I actually didn't realize Washburn has such a rich history. I've always associated them with affordable acoustic guitars. I forgot they actually made electric guitars too.

I love my Washburns. Even my new Nuno replica. Sounds awesome.

I just bought a Washburn acoustic for about 250 USD and I love it. I also have a strat copy, an HB-30 (ES-335 copy) and another older acoustic. All great guitars. Really sleeper guitars - good value. It's too bad that the venture capitalists or whoever are just skimming the profits and neglecting the brand. Same thing happening in health care - where I have my day job. But that's a whole 'nuther kettle 'o fish' as they say.

I have 2 washburns and both are unique. One being an acoustic and the other has a custom paint job with a crunchy low tone that I got from a trade. Gave up my warlock b.c. rich for it. It's probably one of my favorite guitars I've ever played.

I tried to order a custom N4 and was told their custom shop has been closed since 2016. It doesn’t bode well for Washburn.

Nice work 👌👌 Tis a shame, I've always been a fan of Washburn, I also have/had an N2, had an MG44 briefly. Loved the Nuno P2's and N51/N61's (Super rare now - they all Tanked). Also Liked an worn HB36 335 type they had (Headstocks waaay cooler than Epiphone). The end.

I emailed their parent company, formely known as kaman. I basically asked about the old gtx line of guitars, and while i was told they wont make any more gtx models, they might use the designs for new washburns

I had a Washburn 12 string. Sounded good.

Daisy Rock still exists?! Are they any good?

I like this! Well, not the decline and disappearance of Washburn, but the video! I have a Washburn HB30 semi-acoustic guitar, basically a 335 clone but cheaper, made in Korea. With two very nice sounding Washburn humbucker pickups, marked 621 for the neck and 623 for the bridge. When I bought the guitar I was planning on swapping them for Seymour Duncans, but I liked the original ones so much I kept them. And it has the Buzz Feiten intonation system! (It was all the rage back then, and involved a license fee to Buzz.) I guess I bought it in the mid 2000's. The serial number starts with 02, that might be the year of manufacture. Well, this is the reason I watched this video, I guess! That Washburn is so nice, what happened to the company? I guess it is just a brand name now, and in limbo at that.

I was about to buy a Washburn Dark1 for 150USD, but I don't know anything about it... Is it worth it?

I bought a wcg66sce last week from sweetwater. They had many other WB models in stock as well. Sounds like I was lucky in my timing if they are becoming scarce.

Ive got a '87 super strat style Washburn with a licensed Floyd Rose. Someone before me replaced the humbucker with a Seymour Duncan JB. Its a shredder, even though i cant lol.

You list Ampeg as a company owned by KMC but I've seen conflicting information online that Yamaha owns Ampeg. Do you know anything about this that could help clarify things?

I still regret selling this random Washburn acoustic I picked up used. It was for a good cause, but still a feel I haven't recaptured.

before i ever heard taylors or martins i heard a washburn acoustic.....beautiful sound

LOVE my Washburn B-15 banjo (#44/144), Mahogany wood, brass tone ring, made in S. Korea (2006/07 ish) by craftsmen and women who obviously understand how to make a fine banjo. As a side note, it is a copy of late 20s/early 30s Gibson “master tone” banjos (RB3/RB5 mostly), which at that time Gibson had copied Paramount (mostly), which had evolved from Vega and, wait for it….Washburn 20-30 years prior. Washburn instruments (although not seamless for 140 years like the some might suggest) value is generally very good. I love my Washburn banjo, in the living room and on the bandstand, it stands up well against banjos that cost thousands more.

I own maybe 20 Washburn Idols( mostly early to mis 2000's, a couple PS-7000, a P2 & CT-2QCS. I think I have 2 Peavey guitars and a Mark Tremonti PRS SE.

I wish Washburn brought back the HM, and Force series. I can't believe Washburn hasn't done a Wayne's world signature guitar. However, Washburn doesn't care about their electric guitars now-a--days.

First saw Washburn in the 80s at our local music store and if I remember correctly a guitarist college buddy had one, This was all pre-Nuno. It seems companies get bought and sold for the brand and trademarks these days. If the heart is out of it and original developers leave, there's not much left. This is why I was so glad to hear tha Digitech, after years of neglect by Harman Kardon which practically killed them off, are now owned by Cortech and have the original designers on board and our manufacturing some of their classic pedals again. But that seems so be a rare story in the history of brands these days.

6:09 Not the first time for single coils, Nuno N5/N6 say ‘Hi’

I think that actively running a company serves two potential goals: 1. In the short term, the parent company can put out terrible quality under the newly acquired brand, thereby boosting sales of their other properties, which can then lead to: 2. In the long term, the parent company can bring the company back to its former glory with premium materials and better builders, "surprising" everyone with an "unexpected" return to form. In doing so passively, as you say seems to be the case here, they only have the second option at their disposal. Give it a bit, and either they'll bring it back, or it'll be bought by someone else (for some ridiculous amount of money). It may be five years, it may be ten, but I'd bet money I don't have that they come back all premium and stuff, leading to a huge rush of nostalgic power buying... and a nice big pad for their bank accounts one way or the other.

They had some really good value guitars back in the day esp the x series and idols they'd come loaded with seymour duncans etc for alot lower cost than the competition. Also the cheap acoustics at one point were definitely up there when I was at a local college like 15 years ago for music they had a bunch of the cheap Washburn acoustics and I always thought they were pretty exceptional for the price. On another point you made gibson have fucked up by not taking advantage of the Steinberger name to release some more updated models with the resurgence of headless guitars in recent years.

The Washburn A-20 Carlos Cavazo played in Quiet Riot was so badass. It was in the Cum On Feel The Noise video.

I feel like Washburn and Dean guitars have been disappearing from the map a lot since they lost/stopped making their Dimebag guitars. Those Dimebag guitars are the ones I am thinking about most when people are talking about those brands. I do not know if those were their most popular models or not.