Washburn C80S

I owned a Honer accustic since about '78 and wanted to make the move to classical music. I purchased this guitar at wholenote.com since I like the site, it has a slew of information on it, and the price was comprable to any other I saw. I never owned a Washburn befor but the ratings I read convinced me that I should try one. I payed about $325 for this guitar so it was within what I decided to pay.

This guitar is a dream to play, and in my opinion it is one of the best buys for your money. The crafsmanship is of top rate, I cannot find any flaws on my guitar. The finish is a rich gloss and there is no excess glue on either the outside or inside of the guitar. The tonal range is is quite balanced and I like that feachure since the bass notes don't try to overtake your trebles, and the volume is exceptional. It seams to reach out to its listeners.I play my guitar for several hours at times and it holds its tune rather well. I had this guitar for about a year so far and I have yet to find a flat spot on it. This guitar performs far better than I expected for a guitar in this price range. And for those who talk about "Cookie Cutter Guitars" all I have to say to them is try a Washburn. I recently purchased a Cordoba C5, and even though they each have their own personalities I enjoy playing the Washburn more than my Cordoba. If you wonder why I bought the Cordoba, I bought it so I could have a guitar at my mothers house, She love to hear me play guitar, so I decided to give one a try.

When I first recieved my Washburn I thought they shipped the wrong guitar since the color was diferent than advertised. but it was a C80s. When I started playing it I noticed some fret buzz in the E string which puzzled me for a while since the action was a little high so I took it in to a shop, they could not figgure it out. I brought it back and just for poops and giggles I decided to replace the strings. Alas, I found that th E string was sloppily clipped and dragging on the box. While replacing the strings I decided to hone the upper nut and tightened the neck a couple of turns for some better action. Now I have an awsome guitiar. The finish on the guitar is a bit thin so the guitar dings rather easy. I guess you have to give something up for good sounds. I do not recomend golpes if you want a shinny top.

The quality of the guitar is of top notch in my opinion, no slop of glue or laquer to be seen anywhere. Even the inside of the soundhole is smooth and glossy. The transition from the neck to the body is perfection and so is the fretboard to the neck. no gaps to be seen. Even the three poin intersection of the fretboard, neck and body seem to have been carefully hand fitted. This guitar is a true gem to not only play, but to look at. If it was not for the initial flaws of this product I would rate this guitar a five, but for me that would mean that I would not have to do anything to it for it to play like I would want it to. But for the price I realy can't carp much. After some tweeking this guitar becomes a deffinet five.

For anyone who wants to upgrade their classical guitar and spend good money, I recomend looking at this "cheap" guitar first. When I decide to upgrade again I will do it probably for status, you know, "It's not Chinese made." I will probably have to pay well over $1,000 to achieve the same quality that I got from this guitar. I would recomend this one for a beginer and for the seasoned guitarist I have this to say. "With a twist of the wrench and a piece of sandpaper, I just saved you at least a thousand buckets. Thats a lot of money to buy sheet music with."

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com