OK folks...here is one you don't see very often. Mid 80's Washburn B20-8 8 string bass with original hard case. Up close the body of the bass shows a bit of wear, but looks very good from just a couple of feet away. The case shows a lot of wear, but is very functional.
Here are the basic features of this bass:
The luthier removed the fingerboard and installed (so I was told) both a new truss rod and carbon rods. Well the nut on the new rod turned freely from the day I got it back, but for years the neck held true. Now, many years have gone by and the truss rod needs adjustment, but the nut doesn't adjust anything because it turns freely. That said, someone is going to have operate on this baby, remove the fingerboard, and install a properly working truss rod.
If I do it (I have changed many truss rods, as well as many other repairs), I will put in a stewmac two way rod along with a couple of carbon stabilizing rods, but I can't get to it right now.
I have seen pictures of a few of these online, but when I first got the bass, I wrote to Washburn about it because at the time I couldn't find any reference to them online, or elsewhere. Washburn wrote back and stated that as far as their records where showing, only ten of these actually made it to market. I now question that number a bit as I have seen pictures of about a half dozen, including a youtube demo of the sounds, but it is none-the-less quite rare. Furthermore, I have never seen one posted for sale (though I can't say I look for them regularly.) When I bought this I was collecting Washburn basses of this area and was looking for it's 4 string brother.
Anyway, if you are a Washburn collector, or you are looking for a cool 8 string bass, or just want a pretty cool "vintage" bass for a reasonable price, this could be for you.
$500 plus half of shipping costs
Here are the basic features of this bass:
- Three piece neck through contruction
- Ash body wings with flame maple veneer top
- Brass "ring" inlays on dark (ebony?) fingerboard
- Cream colored binding around body, neck and headstock
- Washburn P-J pickups (the Washburn pickups from this era look like Dimarzio or Schaller pickups, but if you take them out and look at them, they obviously are not)
- Three way selector switch with volume and tone for each pickup (Les Paul style set up)
- Vintage V shaped neck
- Three tone sunburst body
- Individual saddles for each string
- Sounds awesome
The luthier removed the fingerboard and installed (so I was told) both a new truss rod and carbon rods. Well the nut on the new rod turned freely from the day I got it back, but for years the neck held true. Now, many years have gone by and the truss rod needs adjustment, but the nut doesn't adjust anything because it turns freely. That said, someone is going to have operate on this baby, remove the fingerboard, and install a properly working truss rod.
If I do it (I have changed many truss rods, as well as many other repairs), I will put in a stewmac two way rod along with a couple of carbon stabilizing rods, but I can't get to it right now.
I have seen pictures of a few of these online, but when I first got the bass, I wrote to Washburn about it because at the time I couldn't find any reference to them online, or elsewhere. Washburn wrote back and stated that as far as their records where showing, only ten of these actually made it to market. I now question that number a bit as I have seen pictures of about a half dozen, including a youtube demo of the sounds, but it is none-the-less quite rare. Furthermore, I have never seen one posted for sale (though I can't say I look for them regularly.) When I bought this I was collecting Washburn basses of this area and was looking for it's 4 string brother.
Anyway, if you are a Washburn collector, or you are looking for a cool 8 string bass, or just want a pretty cool "vintage" bass for a reasonable price, this could be for you.
$500 plus half of shipping costs
