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George Washburn EC-29


shimrod69

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Does anyone know anything about these George Washburn EC-29's the 29-fret neck-throughs from the late 80's? I am having a hard time finding good reliable info about them, and there is one for sale locally for $900.

 

The 29-frets with the Stephens extended cutaway seems cool, so I was thinking about trying it. Unusual stuff like this is what's been catching my eye lately.

 

It's got active Washburn pickups bridge-H, neck-S and a Floyd licensed Washburn 600S tremolo. The guy says there is no sign of a serial number, but I saw some of these that had been stamped white on the back of the headstock but wore down, so maybe it just wore away. It's wierd not to see a serial number, unless it's a prototype of some kind, but he says he bought it in a store back in the 80s (original owner).

 

Some pics:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]333877[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]333878[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]333879[/ATTACH]

 

It's weird and not totally encouraging not to see a serial number, but I don't know what it means.

 

Anyhow, can anyone tell me if this is worth getting? Did they play well? Was the construction of them any good? How was the extended cutaway? I wouldn't mind trying an 80's Washburn shredder, if anyone has had a good experience of them. Thanks!

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Love my EC-36. Great guitars, comparable to the best of the Japanese stuff from that era. The only caveat would be that you should check to ensure that the trem & locking nut are functional as parts might be difficult to come by. The only S/N on mine is hand-written in the trem cavity in black marker. I don't think that price is out of line for a nice example, might be a tad high right now but not way off base. Someone on another forum used to tell me that he could buy EC-29s & EC-36s all day long for ~$400, I offered a significant premium above that price for everyone he could deliver but never received any. :(

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Thanks for the advice! I'm going to check it out in the morning and see how it looks. It's a bit of a drive, so I hope I like it!

 

I'll check that trem cavity for the serial number and see what I can find. In any event, though, a good guitar is a good guitar, and it's not like I trip over 29-fret axes every day.

 

Plus, I have a Charvel Model 5fx, in firecrackle, from the same period. Maybe I'll get a whole crackly-shred thing goin'!

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I've owned a few of the Charvel Model series from back in the day and, despite the fact that I'm a big C/J fan, find the ECs to be superior. Had a really nice Model 6, 5A & 7 for years but I like my EC-36 quite a bit more than any of them.

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Tons of info about them available here:

http://www.vintagewashburn.com/Electrics/ECelectric.html

 

Here are a couple pics of my EC29 along with two other guitars featuring the Stephen's Extended Cutaway:

 

best1.jpg

 

best2.jpg

 

The EC29 plays like a dream! At first glance people think these things are fret-laden gimmick machines, but the truth is that they're beautifully constructed instruments!

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