Washburn #9 - 'RS8V' white

I said I wasn't going to buy any more guitars for a bit, but this came up. In principle it's a stablemate to my EC29s, RR2V and G2V, being from around the same era. It's also from Washburn's "let's go for some stupid gimmick" department, like the EC29.

So here we have what at first glance looks like a generic 80s superstrat. Only if you look twice you'll notice the body is pretty much a PRS copy and they've just stuck a spiky headstock on. Like the PRS it's also got a set neck, which is unusual in superstrats but daftest of all is a carbon composite fretboard. This is pitch black and looks like bakelite. Oh and the usual 3-way toggle to select pickups is there but it's done with a tiny little switch you'd normally associate with a coil tap.

All in all a mishmash of generic and outlandish in the same thing. I've given it my customary clean, restring and brief setup and it's odd to play too. Despite currently having a quite high action, acoustically it has that light tinny sound I associate with the strings being far too close to the fretboard. It seems like it'll have no sustain but then it does and it's very bright sounding. Pinch harmonics seem to come really easily despite the pickups (EMG selects) not being massively overwound.

How much of this is the construction and weird fretboard I don't know, it could just be the pickups.

Anyway, when I hit 'buy it now' on this I immediately suffered a bit of buyer's remorse as I really didn't need another late 80s superstrat. However now I've got it and played it a little I'm surprised how unusual it is. Also in metallic white with that jet black fretboard it looks cool as fuck (in a retro kind of way) in my opinion.




Updates

RS8V setup
Easy win #1 & #2
Easy win #4 & #5
More monkey metal disaster
RS8V setup - finished for now

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