Blogging Ottinger (tim)

Beam music had their latest goodies from Washburn today.

I tried some solidbody models, I think a W-something and an X-something. They were nice, and the one with Duncans had a good, balanced, rich sound. I really did like them, but I guess I’m not as interested in electric guitars today.

I’ll tell you why: I bought a set of Seymour Duncan passive humbucker pickups, a Jazz SH-2n and a JB (the hot-rodded humbucker set) and I’m about to get them installed in my Ovation Breadwinner, which I think I’ve mentioned before. I’m still in love with that weird guitar and it’s wonderful neck, and I am all excited about the prospect of hearing it sing out in a really warm, rich voice. I wish I could do that for myself. I don’t want to build it up too much, because I don’t want to be disappointed, but I’m not as interested in other solidbodies right now.

That being said, the washburn Idol and W series are seriously beautiful guitars. They are as much sculpture and art as they are instruments. I’m completely sold on the glossy, transparent color finishes. These things are as gorgeous as they come.

The X series one was strat-shaped with two humbuckers. I liked the “tone” (contour) control. I think Washburn is on to something here. I’d rather choose some point in the gradient between humbucker and single-coil sound rather than crank tone up and down. What a neat toy.

I finally tried the HB30 and HB32 hollowbodies. I could have spent the whole evening. The first thing I noticed is that these were no plywood juggernauts, these were tonewood, and thin enough to be resonant and “live” you could feel it even before strumming. Each felt a bit like a really good vintage gibson acoustic, only a little thicker. I tried the pickups together and separately, twiddled knobs, tried them with high and low gain, and generally played around with each. I spent more than 1/2 of the trip playing with these.

I’ve been enamored of the HB32 with the natural wood and distressed hardware. I did get a little nervous when I picked it up. I was afraid that it was a “gimmick” guitar, and would be all novel design and nothing else. I actually liked it. It’s novel, to be sure, but it played well. I would keep one.

I then picked up the HB30, and was surprised that I liked it even more. The neck is glossy, not satin like the ‘32, and I’m not into glossy, but the guitar felt and sounded great. I could see settling in with this one, too.