The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Q&A, discussion, and information for the labels covered by The Guitar Gallery (Specifically and exclusively guitars made by Matsumoku up to 1987)
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PostPosted: Thu 04 Aug 2011 06:29 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Wed 19 Aug 2009 12:57 AM
Posts: 76
Location: Calgary, Alberta
This info deserves to stand on its own, as I have already pasted it into another thread.
But it clears up quite a few misconceptions about Washburn circa 1986 to 1989 - beyond the RS Series.


It is probably the most common misconception about Washburn during this period that I have encountered...Just cause it says Chicago on the headstock, doesn't mean it came from Chicago. I have seen thousands of Ebay and Craigslist ads proclaiming 'Made in USA' from this time window.

Here is the post:

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.


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