Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 I bought a store demo model Washburn Cumberland J28SDL. JT asked me if I was an Elvis fan after I posted a picture of one a few weeks ago. The FedEx guy delivered it today at noon. It was pretty dusty and a wee bit dirty, but it had new strings and was nearly in perfect tune when I pulled it out of the box. Pretty good considering it was shipped from Washington State to Michigan. I cleaned it up a bit and only found 2 things wrong with it. It has a good deal of light pick marks on the pickguard and a 1.5" scratch in the poly finish near the binding on the top side of the lower bout. Minor issues. First impressions: The guitar looks really nice. The poly finish looks good without being too thick. The laminate figured maple sides and back look great. The solid spruce top has a nice grain pattern. The pickguard is too thick. I am already considering replacing it. The guitar is surprisingly light compared to the Washburn dread I used to own. The action is really low and the neck is almost perfectly flat (no relief). I may add a bit of neck relief in a few days after the guitar "settles" becuase I tend to get a tad bit of buzz when I play aggressively. The neck reminds me of an electric guitar neck. It has a low profile, narrow D shape and a 1 11/16" nut. It plays really quick. It has medium sized frets. The string spacing feels like pretty comfortable for a 1 11/16" nut. The sustain is surprisingly good. Notes ring out nice and sweet. Harmonics sound rich. The volume is good and loud but I expect it to get a bit louder when the top opens up more. It has nice bass response and produces some sweet high tones (I guess what you would expect from a spruce / maple jumbo). I will need to play it a lot more before I can describe the tone well. All I can say is that I'm liking it. The Grover 18:1 tuners are solid. The buttons look like ebony but feel like some type of hard rubber. I think they help hold it in tune because they seat agaist a nylon bushing. I'm sure the added friction and 18:1 gear combine to improve the overall performance of the tuners. I am VERY impressed with the tuners. The free Hohner gig bag sucks. It has almost no padding. I will need to replace it ASAP. Here's some pictures of it (the guitar - not the {censored}ty gig bag ):
Members Cripes Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Play on McDough! That nut width wouldn't work for me but the guitar sure is pretty. I like the pic of the headstock against the blind. Kind of artsy - great color. Congrats!!
Members knockwood Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Kickarse, Hud! Good-lookin' git. Makes me wanna run out and buy a maple-ass jumbo!
Members kwakatak Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Gosh- look at the size of that soundhole. Your kids' heads would probably fit right inside that thing...! BTW - kinda OT but a couple of weeks ago I took my Tak to band practice. As I took it out of the case I heard something rattling around inside. It was a toy spatula! Ain't kids great?
Members rjoxyz Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Nice. That maple is gorgeous. Much more pronouced "flaming" than my Parkwood Jumbo. Enjoy!
Members kwakatak Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Gosh- look at the size of that soundhole. Your kids' heads would probably fit right inside that thing...! BTW - kinda OT but a couple of weeks ago I took my Tak to band practice. As I took it out of the case I heard something rattling around inside. It was a toy spatula! Ain't kids great?
Members rjoxyz Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Gosh- look at the size of that soundhole. Your kids' heads would probably fit right inside that thing...! That's why the put the strings on there!
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Play on McDough! That nut width wouldn't work for me but the guitar sure is pretty. I like the pic of the headstock against the blind. Kind of artsy - great color. Congrats!! Thanks. I had trouble with the lighting because the sun was blasting through the front window. The wife gave me the green light to buy a campfire guitar with some our tax refund. I think she feels bad since I swapped my 2004 F150 Supercrew cab 4X4 for a 1994 Escort. I decided to do away with my car payment in order to have more money for the new little Hudman (scheduled to arrive in June). I was trying to stay around $300. I went over apprx $75.00. That's great for me, beause I usually double my price limits.
Members kwakatak Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 That's why the put the strings on there! It doesn't stop them from trying to put stuff inside. My Tak bears witness to this. What made it really tough was that I have a JLD installed in there and the toy could've gotten hung up in there.
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Nice. That maple is gorgeous. Much more pronouced "flaming" than my Parkwood Jumbo. Enjoy! Hey, your Parkwood uses solid maple. This one is laminate......you want to trade.
Members rjoxyz Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Sorry Hud. No trade. I can just look at the photo of yours.
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Hey, at least it's young, cool, skinny Elvis and not the bloated, crazy Elvis.
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Sorry Hud. No trade. I can just look at the photo of yours. Can't blame me for trying.
Members Dan Hall Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Neat, campfire guitar. Hmmm, that's a pretty good tactic. Maybe I could get one too. We'll call it the foredeck guitar.
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Neat, campfire guitar. Hmmm, that's a pretty good tactic. Maybe I could get one too. We'll call it the foredeck guitar. Seriously, my wife suggested that I buy a less expensive guitar to use outdoors. I used to own an Alvarez RD20S that I took camping and played in the backyard around the bonfire. I never worried about it. I sold it last winter. This past summer I used my Epiphone Masterbilt DR-500R for everything (it was my only acoustic). I drove her crazy worrying about it on our last camping trip. It didn't help that we got caught in some serious storms and in some extremely hot weather. I was a little compulsive about moving it to cool areas and dry areas. I guess I acted a lot like Rainman about it. It really drove her nuts. Everyone needs a foredeck guitar. Hell, living a boat would justify buying one of those $2500 Rainsong composite guitars: "Honey, it's water proof."
Members carguy Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Congratulations, that's a great looking guitar!
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Congratulations, that's a great looking guitar! Thanks Carguy. I looked like your Nick Nolte avatar on Sunday morning (with less hair ) : too many beers Saturday night and a killer cold on Sunday morning combined with a mind numbing hangover....good times.....
Members GrandStation76 Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Thanks Carguy. I looked like your Nick Nolte avatar on Sunday morning (with less hair ) : too many beers Saturday night and a killer cold on Sunday morning combined with a mind numbing hangover....good times..... A good cold, a joint and some codeine cough syrup,and I'm in heaven;) Great looking guitar man! Almost to nice for a campfire! Nice shades too! Damn,I'm to much into looking at nice wood lately(guitars dammit!get your mind out of that disgusting gutter!)
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 A good cold, a joint and some codeine cough syrup,and I'm in heaven;) Great looking guitar man! Nice shades too! Damn,I've been looking at to much wood lately(guitars dammit!get your mind out of that disgusting gutter!) My cold is just now going away (6 days later). Thanks! My wife does the decorating.
Members Hudman Posted February 24, 2007 Author Members Posted February 24, 2007 Man, the Elvis guitar sounds great in open tunings. The notes ring out nice and full with excellent sustain. Side note: My wife hates the look of the figured maple. My kids love it.
Members guitarist21 Posted February 24, 2007 Members Posted February 24, 2007 Man, the Elvis guitar sounds great in open tunings. The notes ring out nice and full with excellent sustain. Side note: My wife hates the look of the figured maple. My kids love it. Side note: Ellen stared at the figured maple for 15 minutes just now. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the flamed top on an acoustic (though I have a red Washburn dread with a flamed top) but if its on the back, my first thought is "How often does your wife see it, anyway?" I mean, if you're playing it, it is pretty thoroughly hidden. Ellen
Members Hudman Posted February 25, 2007 Author Members Posted February 25, 2007 Side note: Ellen stared at the figured maple for 15 minutes just now. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the flamed top on an acoustic (though I have a red Washburn dread with a flamed top) but if its on the back, my first thought is "How often does your wife see it, anyway?" I mean, if you're playing it, it is pretty thoroughly hidden. Ellen I got it yesterday. I asked her how she liked it after I played a bit and hung it on the wall. She said it sounds good, but that she doesn't like the "yellow" sides. It probably doesn't help that the wall where I hung it is a sage green color. It makes the maple look bright yellow in contrast. I love the look of it. Here's a good picture of the side of it:
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.