Re: Vintage Washburn guitars website
Man that was cool! Lots of info about a guitar I've never heard of. I've never been exposed to the good Washburn guitars really. Sounds like you have some really neat investment pieces for sure.
Kind of a bummer about the way the Barbarella guitar thing went down. I don't think Washburn behaved appropriately removing the paint off the SS-80 guitar headstocks and then reselling them as X-80's. I understand that they wanted to get rid of their stock, but you would think they could have worked something out with SS rather than just going scorched earth like that.
You are absolutely right, unfortunately I am unable to reveal exactly what SS told me, but he has absolutely handled both the Hamer and Washburn issues, with silence all these years.
Steve does absolutely love these guitars though and is very proud of his achievements with them, as he should be.
Terry Atkins who is the master builder responsible for turning Steve's dream into reality, states this is the best guitar of it's kind he has ever built.
The necks alone are an absolute dream to play and it is a great tragedy what happened to him with Washburn and the way he was treated by Hamer was even more atrocious.
It is my hope and dream that these incredible guitars finally recieve the recognition they deserve after all these years. The SS 80 and SS 100, were everything Steve had hoped for, far exceeding the Hamer SS-3.
Many other fine Washburns of this era will be covered as well so stay tuned for more updates, periodically.
yngwie308