Washburn X81FE

I dont know what has happened to Washburn recently but 10 or 15 years ago they had a ton of endorsees and were popular on the scene. This was the Jon Donais signature. He is the lead guitar player for Shadows Fall. I believe their guitar player still plays these but they do not sell them any more. This guitar is closely based off of the Washburn X50 model. The guitar has great specs for a metal guitar. It has a Sapele body with a flamed maple top. Sapele is very close to mahogany but with a different looking grain. The neck is mahogany with a 22 fret ebony fretboard. It has the cool spanish style Washburn headstock with Sperzel locking tuners. The guitar has a set neck construction. It has the Zakk Wylde EMG set but with the 85 in the bridge and the 81 in the neck. This is the orientation I prefer personally. The controls are ultra simple with just a volume knob and a 3 way switch.

UTILIZATION

This guitar plays pretty nice. It has a very Les Paul like feel from the neck. The back of the neck has no finish on it so it is super smooth. The neck has the Buzz Feiten tuning system so the intonation is spot on all over. The string through bridge means you get a ton of sustain. The setup on this example was good and the action was low with just a hint of buzz. The fretboard has no inlays so some people may not like this but I think it gives it a nice clean look.

SOUNDS

This guitar has a crushing sound. I dont know why more people dont use the 85 in the bridge. The 85 with the woods in this guitar give the guitar a huge tone. The 85 has all the high end grind of the 81 but with a lot more body and low end. It is not as sharp for riffing but for chugging away it is a great setup. I am not a fan of the 81 in the neck. If this was my guitar I would swap in an 85 in the neck as well. Dual 85s for crushing tone everywhere.

OVERALL OPINION

These guitars did not sell well because they were way too expensive for the features it had. These guitars were listed for about 2000 dollars back in the day while the X50 which had many of the same features sold for like 800. This design was good but it was priced out of the reach of the people who would be fans of that band and fans of that type of music. If you can get one of these for less than 800 bucks you are getting a good deal. You dont see many of these so I guess the people who bought them are hanging on to them. This shows how good of a guitar it is. If you see one of these for a good price you can get a crushing metal guitar for a bargain.