The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Well boys,i just bought one of the very rare(around here) Washburn BBR tour 24 vibrato with the infamous "wonderbar" bridge.
http://www.matsumoku.org/models/washbur ... b.jpg.html
Expect delivery come mid next week.

According to the seller the usual plot of issues...no fret tho...

That said,anyone with any insight on these?
Basicaly picked it up to check it out and straighten it wth the world in general...kind of mostly cause its so rare and cool-imo.
Axe i bought has had the bridge pup replaced with what seems a DM,and the trem arm is missing.
I´ll just make a new one and anoidize it black i believe.It´s dirt cheap to have done around here...like 5 dollars or so.(3 euro+)

Speaking of which....


An -85 vintage btw just like my old HM-5

Nice 80s fashion... I have a PE in similar design.

Btw. the trem on the picture looks more like a Shift.

Uhu.
Likewise if you compare the axe in "my" pic with the one in the advert in the URL this one carries three pots all in all vs two.
Guess we´ll have to wait n see.
None the less...one seriously cool guitar.

Yeah John.
I just kind of did a blow out on some of my old axes i don´t really use.
For instance swapped one of my old studios for a US made lonestar strat asf.
Sold the Epi Genesis as is....likewise the the Bambu CB625.
Just came to the conclusion that i had to many "projects" standing around,and better leave space for guitars i can actually use.

More Mats and highend jap guitars in general are always welcome tho,and i just happened to stumble upon this one by pure chance.
It´s the first one ever i´ve seen up for grabs around here at least so there wasn´t really anything to ponder about.
(Btw i MIGHT have tracked a Daion power XX down that´ll be for sale...and that in that case´ll never reach the market.An axe i´ve been trying to hunt down for quite a while made by Yamaki just like the high end Wing ones)

Going to be fun diggin through the axe as it shows up tho,and even the stock hardcase is there according to the seller.
If this turns out to be even touching on other washys i´ve run into from the era it´ll most likely be of the same quality...and that makes for some rather decent axes when everything´s said n done IMO.
Then again...teles and strat models ain´t really rocket science to put together is it...

I´ll be back with pics and a summary as it shows up and post it all in the members section.

Meanwhile tho,anyone else out there with knowledge on these?
The more the better.

I suppose the pups are the same as on the HM asf,rendering the OEM HB being of the "epoxy to a lump" variety that what´s even worse sound rather meek.
Pots and caps i suppose are the common "large sized" ones and caps being typical green or burgundy to the colour.

According to the seller the outputjack is on the verge of going awol,and if Uncle Mat...then a single prong style jack that more often than not does dies over time in my experience.
One of the few pts i seem to replace on a regular basis with these guitars

Wutz btw.
In case the bridge is a "shift",you wouldn´t happen to have a URL or along the likes?
Mainly to be able to investigate what the bridge is and its origins.

Hi Racing,

Nice looking piece of hardware you have there... Love the red on black... very stunning. I know nothing of these so will let you discover on your own and read up on your discoveries...

Looking forward to reading more on her in the treasure thread...

P.

_________________
MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

I'm actually looking for a Shift for myself. A friend had one on his guitar in the 80s. Shifts claim to fame was that you don't need a cavity for those... the downside is that it is rather a big piece of metal on top of your guitar. A nice tremolo, but not much info on those.

I just searched for those once more... there is a guy who's refering to the tremolos on his guitar as "Washburn Shift 2000" (http://www.dognpony.com/jjbelle/ibanez2.htm)... so maybe Washburn was an OEM customer of those. Anyway, that's not the unit on the Washburn catalog pictures of the Hot Rod Tele.

Bridge pickup looks like a replacement... so, if you are lucky, you only have to take care of the neck pickup.

Yup.
Again according to the seller the bridge pup is a DM of some sorts.

He´s owned the guitar forever tho,and claims that the bridge as well as pot setup et all is all stock,and seing "specifications to change without notice" let´s just say i´ll hold my breath until i physicaly have the axe in my hands.

THEN i´ll open my blabber on what might be stock and what might not.
All in all though i find many of these early/mid Washys rather intriguing in as much that they differ from the normal crop of Uncles on minor as well as major points.
Admitted tho...none of the "lesser" ones has even been close to the Wing builds by Yamaki-they are downright in a league of their own from that respect.

I´ll rip the axe apart as usual though and photodocument for reference too.
My bet tho right now is that it will be very similar to the other Washys of the same time...
The BBR series tho carries some odd specifics.
If the 3 pot setup is stock...it´s anything but like the one depicted in the link above,and that could very well be the same for the bridge in that case in my book.

Indeed Pierre.....i guess i need e number for being an MAA member... ,so shoot me...