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80's model Washburn wing series.

65Firebird

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Oct 14, 2019
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110
Just wondering if any body owns an 80's model Washburn wing series guitar.

I recently hesitated on pulling the trigger on an '82 model Eagle in white going cheap, it was on the other side of the country and I couldn't get there to try it.

I remember seeing ads in Guitar Player magazine in the 80's with Heart playing them, I thought they looked really cool.

Does anybody have any experience with these? Are they worth a look in?

Thanks in advance.

Tony
 

zacknorton

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Aug 26, 2011
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There’s. Bunch of info online about those guitars.

Im not hip to the specifics, but there were maybe 3 different factories involved.

All pretty top notch Japanese makers.

I’ve has my eyes on a few and played a few. All very nice guitars.

they can be heavy. But they’re pretty cool.
 

Archetype

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Jun 3, 2018
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Here is my 1981 Falcon (or Hawk, I cannot remember which is which). Bought it new way back then (I think it was in the mid- to high $300's). Love it !! Plays really well, easy to set up, the neck-through-body seems to give great sustain. I put a Bartolini LCE60 in the bridge, with series-parallel wiring (that's where the mini-toggle comes in).

Has a character all its own. I will never part with it.


 
Last edited:

fender69

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Apr 17, 2003
Messages
998
Back when these came out, Terry Mueller and his then partner Bill Carter had a music store called Golden Fretts in Carbondale IL. Washburn was located in the Chicago area and during the NAMM shows , they would visit the warehouse and buy ones that had been damaged. Terry would take them to the store, repair them, & then sell them at a discount
Many of these passed through the store into the hands of deserving people. Nice guitars.
 

65Firebird

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Oct 14, 2019
Messages
110
Here is my 1981 Falcon. Bought it new way back then (I think it was in the mid- to high $300's). Love it !! Plays really well, easy to set up, the neck-through-body seems to give great sustain. I put a Bartolini LCE60 in the bridge, with series-parallel wiring (that's where the mini-toggle comes in).

Has a character all its own. I will never part with it.


That's a fine looking guitar, glad to hear that they are keepers, that's probably why they don't come up for sale to often!

Thanks for the reply.
 

Norton

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Jun 18, 2019
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I worked for a Washburn dealer from '85 till '92 before doing a brief stint with Washburn corporate shortly after that. At one point I had a bunch of the early Wing/Vultures. The only one I've held on to is this '79 Vulture II that was a test/proto model from the Chushin Gakki factory (later Charvel/Jackson's Japan plant) . The majority of them you'll find were actually produced by Yamaki (their house brand was Daion and you'll see lots of similarities). Other Japan plants provided some of the cheaper bolt on models. Both Yamaki and Chushin produced really well made guitars but to me if there's weak spot it's the electronics, swamp them out and they make a killer guitar.

 

65Firebird

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Oct 14, 2019
Messages
110
Thanks for the reply Norton, that's a great looking bass and an interesting story.
 

jwguitar

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Jul 28, 2015
Messages
153
Here is my 1981 Falcon (or Hawk, I cannot remember which is which). Bought it new way back then (I think it was in the mid- to high $300's). Love it !! Plays really well, easy to set up, the neck-through-body seems to give great sustain. I put a Bartolini LCE60 in the bridge, with series-parallel wiring (that's where the mini-toggle comes in).

Has a character all its own. I will never part with it.



I wish Wasburn would reissue that line. The woods that they used on those guitars were really beautiful. When I started playing my first electric was a Washburn Raven which was the entry level model of that line. It was a solid guitar and had Gotoh hardware and pickups! Plus is was bright red!
 

Archetype

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Jun 3, 2018
Messages
9
I wish Wasburn would reissue that line. The woods that they used on those guitars were really beautiful. When I started playing my first electric was a Washburn Raven which was the entry level model of that line. It was a solid guitar and had Gotoh hardware and pickups! Plus is was bright red!

Yes - the woods were really well-done and attractive on these. Arched top, soft tobacco sunburst, no figure but nice grain, neck-though-body, smooth almost non-existent heel. Better than anything else that was available to me at that time (in a price range affordable to me, anyway).
 
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