Traded a wah for a guitar - Washburn X50 PRO Q

[Clyngedal]

So ever since I got my Area 51 wah, I've been trying to sell/trade my Dunlop SC-95 Slash CryBaby Classic

Had a few people interested, one was supposed to buy it back in April, but never got the money together, another wanted to trade with a Line 6 DL4 but suddenly stopped answering my Facebook messages. Then, this guitar pops up on a Facebook page for selling/buying/trading music gear here in Norway:





The seller was asking about 340 dollars for it - the top has been refinished to a matte black and the tone knob is missing. Apart from that good condition. He made a comment that a volume pedal, wah pedal or reverb pedal would be of interest for a trade.. so I suggested my mint condition Slash-wah, and he agreed! On the condition that I paid for the postage of both the guitar and the pedal. I think I made a good deal. What do you guys think?

I've never played a Washburn, and there's little info on the web, but I managed to find these specs on the Washburn forum:

* Made in Korea or Indonesia
* Mahogany Body
* Quilted maple carved top (X50PRO)(X50PRO BSG1)(X50PROQ)
* Tune-o-matic bridge
* Set neck
* Rosewood fingerboard
* Nut width: 43mm
* X50PRO pickups:
o Seymour Duncan '59 reissue neck
o Seymour Duncan Custom Custom bridge
* 3-way toggle switch
* Exclusive Grover® 18:1 gear ratio tuners
* Gloss finish
* Buzz Feiten Tuning System™

I mean, just the set of Duncans would have been a reasonable trade

Seller handed the guitar over to the postoffice today, so it should be here on monday/tuesday/wednesday most probably

 

[RaSTuS26]

Sounds like a pretty good trade, hope it turns up in good condition for you.

 

[truckermde]

Yeah, I'd say you made a killer trade

 

[Clyngedal]

Yeah, I hope it arrives in good condition too... I'm just praying that the seller packed it well before handing it over to the postal service

Now, the guitar supposedly used to have a very nice looking quilted maple top with a orange burst finish, like the pictures in this link:

Washburn X50 X 50 PROQ Seymour Duncans Honeyburst - Guitar museum

Seller said he only coarsed up the clear coat on the top before spraying with matte black, and as I'm not particularly on a matte black guitar, I'm thinking of sanding the black off, and try to buff/polish the original finish back.
Comments?

 

[Clyngedal]

Finally found some time for an update!

I picked the guitar up last Friday at the post office. It was shipped in a cardboard guitar box meant for a steel string acoustic. No wrapping around the box or anything, just packing tape holding it together.

I was shocked when I opened it and saw how it was packed on the inside



Those are just random bits of cardboard and paper... No proper padding at all.
Luckily, it arrived in one piece!

Here are some "just out of the box" pics:












As you can see, the matte black finish applied by the previous owner really doesn't look very good, and wasn't done very well either.

Moving on to the controls I find this:



The previous owner told me the tone KNOB was missing, however, both knobs are missing,along with the pot shafts :S





Found the volume knob and the potshaft in the box. Clearly, they've been broken off. The rest of the guitar looks really nice though!





Very nice and comfortable set neck joint.



18-1 ratio quality Grover tuners and Buzz Feiten system.

Tuned it up, sounds okay acoustic, strings a bit heavy for my taste. Plug it in, no output what so over. I blame the broken pots of course.

Luckily, when I contacted the seller and told him about the problem, he said he didn't realize it was that bad and offered to trade back, or refund me the money I paid for the shipping of the guitar. I chose the latter and got a pair of new push-pull pots, and put some time and work on to this guitar. Stay tuned!

 

[RaSTuS26]

Looks like a great project guitar, have fun with it, HNGD.

 

[tdearn]

I traded a guitar for a boss cs3 compressor pedal. The guitar was a really nasty DEAN mlx with awful pickups.

 

[Clyngedal]

Okay, so here's what I did with this guitar, and pictures of it's current look.

I started off by taking off all the hardware and the electronics, then started removing the black lacquer with 120 grit sandpaper.



Then 240 grit followed by 400 grit. Here's 400 grit with white spirit added to see the quilted maple! Wow!



From here, I advanced through 600 grit, then 800 and 1200 grit wetsanded before I got my MicroMesh abrasives out... I started at 2400 and went up all the way through 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000-grit, all wet sanded of course. The MicroMesh is great btw, you can get the kit I used here: STEWMAC.COM : Micro-Mesh Finishing Abrasives Kit

Also grabbed 2 push-pull pots, and wired it up so that volume pot can be pulled for phase reversal in middle position, and the tone pot does a coil split on both pickups. Sounds awesome, neck is great, low action, no buzz, just a terrific trade, all things considered!
Here's pictures of the finished guitar:







I gave the fretboard a round of lemon oil too



One thing that actually bugs me, is the lack of fret inlays. Takes some getting used to. At once, I felt completely lost and disorientated when playing leads x)





The Duncans (Custom&59) sound great in this guitar!



Might change the speedknobs for some tophats I have lying around



The black spot is a ding filled with black paint - I didn't bother trying to remove it.
Also, I believe this guitar has real binding. If so, this is my first guitar with binding



Might replace the the bridge with a Gotoh I have lying in one of my parts shelves



Here's something cool and unusual I haven't encountered before. The strap button is recessed into the horn, I suppose there's a lesser chance of cracking the wood and the screw coming loose. I wanted to put straplocks on this guitar, put I don't know if it will work because of this...









Neck has a nice flame-thing going on!











My only question is - WHY did the previous owner refinish this beautiful quilted top in a poorly done matte black? :S

 

[AngryHatter]

V-picks are awesome.

 

[Clyngedal]

V-picks are awesome.

Well spotted! I agree

 

[rabidhamster]

What a great score on that man, you made a great deal. No kidding when you say just the duncans would've been reasonable. Amazing job cleaning it up too, looks 100% better now.


I agree about the inlays, I'd have a pretty tough time with that - would have to flip it or put some aftermarket dots in at least.

 

[Clyngedal]

What a great score on that man, you made a great deal. No kidding when you say just the duncans would've been reasonable. Amazing job cleaning it up too, looks 100% better now.


I agree about the inlays, I'd have a pretty tough time with that - would have to flip it or put some aftermarket dots in at least.

Thanks!

Well, I'm gradually becoming used to the non-inlay fretboard, which is a good thing I suppose.On the other hand, I'm just getting more used to looking at the side dots x) Oh well... Might just get inlay stickers eventually!

 

[RaSTuS26]

Major score, you did a great job restoring that top, looks killer.

 

[truckermde]

Major score, you did a great job restoring that top, looks killer.

+1

those are sweet guitars

 

[Electroman67]

The thru neck pic says it all IMO, you'll find no finer. Nice job on the work too.

 

[[email protected]]

Holy shit man what a restoration.. That is freakin Sweet.

 

[jppage25]

Wow that is the same guitar? What some people will do to a guitar it looks killer now you did a great job on it.

 

[rabidhamster]

What a great score on that man, you made a great deal. No kidding when you say just the duncans would've been reasonable. Amazing job cleaning it up too, looks 100% better now.


I agree about the inlays, I'd have a pretty tough time with that - would have to flip it or put some aftermarket dots in at least.

 

[Kynlore]

Nice save from that bad paint job. It looks great!

 

[DagerOne]

Magnificent save.