I don't get a boner over Washburn Strats - but that is a helluva win!
Unless you have actually played one of these, I understand. These Grover Jackson era US Customs are so rare, most don't know they exist, much less understand how good they are.
Head to head that old Washburn is the equal to my custom build 2023 Kiesel Delos with similar specks and in some ways I prefer it. A local dealer has a bunch of very high-end Fender Custom shop Strats on the rack and IMO this guitar will out play anything in the shop and the build quality is equal to even a master built.
Very likely you have never seen or played one of these guitars in person so you have no reference. These guitars were Grover Jacksons babies. When he was hired to create the Washburn US Custom shop, he hired several from Hamer and also brought a couple with him from Jackson. Washburn was sued over the neck plates that said handcrafted in the US since--- but were actually imports a few years before. So Rudy who owned Washburn at the time hired Grover to build a line of real high end US custom shop guitars. Grover had sold out to Wayne Charvelle and had a non comp clause until 94 so he was only an advisor until it expired. In 94, he came in, took full control and built these guitars for just over 2 years
These necks are absolutely my favorite bolt on neck profile from anyone. Unfortunately, that relationship only lasted a few years, and from 94 to 96 in particular is the time they built the guitars I want. Grover left Washburn in early 96. They only built very small numbers of these guitars, and many were custom-built to order, plus they weren't cheap. Also, many went to the red-hot guitar market in Japan not the US at that time, so few in the US even know they exist.
This is why it was surreal to find this one neglected and setting on the bottom rack of that pawn Shop like I did for almost nothing.
I bought the first one of the guitars I ever saw new in a local shop and have loved these guitars ever since. That had to be either in 95 or 96 as it was this 1995 MG 122. If I remember right, I paid around $1200 for it then, which was a good bit at the time. I had been working for a dealer that had Hamer, Kramer, Jackson, BC Rich, Fender Gibson and Ibanez a year or so before in another City. This guitar absolutely floored me when I picked it up, looked at the build quality, then played it. I was instantly hooked.
