The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Have you guys ever seen a cherryburst RS10v? I just picked this bad boy up, got a SD Jazz and SD JB combo, sounds very much like a les paul, wish it had more treble. I have a red one too, they both are great guitars. Thought I'd share, since nobody on the washburn forum gives a junk!!!

I'm sure you were all dying to know the origins of this guitar like I was, so this is what washburn says about it:

We do not have detailed production records for the era, but its certainly possible, yes. Small runs of different colors have always been producedin the Washburn line.

Thanks, and best regards

Washburn Guitars
444 E. Courtland St.
Mundelein, IL 60060

Beautiful Guitar!

Oh well so we don't know the origins. Never mind.
Smacks of the MAT era.

One can tell from the pics that it is a badd mo fo.

The color? Amazing.

How does it play by the way?

Last but not least, since you have 2 of them, can I have it?

That IS pretty.. and by the powers; that bridge looks awfully like the Bendmaster Deluxe that Westone used!!! Does the guitar have a locking nut or a behind the nut stringlock??

standard locking nut, not like the westones I've had

A little late to the party with this, but this is a Craigslist post I stumbled upon. The poster was responding to someone trying to sell an RS for crazzzzeeee money.

Posting it here as it pertains to the nice looking git in the photos, but also, this fellow's little rant offers up details that you would NEVER get from Washburn themselves.

Here is the post:

I can't believe the BS that people will believe.
I worked at Washburn's Buffalo Grove facility from 1986 to 1989. The RS guitars were first shown at the January NAMM show in '87 and remained in the line for the next 2 years.
The original list price for the RS10-V was $899. The RS-8 was $799. This puts the dealer cost at $450 and $400 respectively which means that Washburn was probably paying Cort $225 and $200.
It's important to remember that there was NO US PRODUCTION FOR WASHBURN DURING THIS TIME PERIOD. Even prototyping was done in the Korean factories (Cort & Samick)
The guitars were made by Cort in South Korea.
The body was Philippine Mahogany and the top wasn't actually maple. It was an Indonesian wood that resembled maple. It was actually closer in genus to an elm tree.
The fretboard was a composite material similar to what they make bowling balls from and the metal in the baseplate of the 600T was too soft so we were constantly replacing them with Licensed Floyds with harder knife edges.
The pickups were also licensed. They were made by G&B in Icheon.
There may have only been 2000 shipped in the US during this guitar's tenure. The RS8 outsold the RS10 due to price point so the total number of RS guitars sold in the US was probably closer to 5000.
Another important fact to remember is that, during this time period, Washburn was only doing about 1/3 of their business in the US. This brings the potential number of RS guitars produced by Cort up to 15,000.
Minimal research shows that these guitars sell at their actual value ($125 to $250) on Ebay and Craigslist all the time.