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• Washburn WI65 Idol |
This is the article from www.guitarist.co.uk and you can read the original article. I'm not intending to offend someone's copyright, and I'm placing the article only for my site visitors' reading. I looked for a way to ask the authors if I could publish it on my site, but I didn't manage to find the proper e-mail. On the page of the company that owns the www.guitarist.co.uk there's a mention that in order to ask any question one should write directly to the site administration. But I just can't locate any e-mail address on the site (by the way, it's quite possible that I'm completely blind). So I just decided to publish it here without permission. But I notify readers that it's not my article and the author's name is in the end of the text. Enjoy reading!
£499 (Price correct when first reviewed) First reviewed in Guitarist 22/01/04
By far the most moody of the Idol range, the new WI65 comes complete with Seymour Duncan pickups and Buzz Feiten's tuning system
Washburn remains one of the best-known and most enduring manufacturers of current times - and with the hoo-hah concerning the launch of products of a somewhat selective appeal like the NX6 Timeless, constructed from wood recovered from the bottom of Lake Superior, there are perceptions that the company has gone all 'up market'. Although it's true that the Washburn has a Custom Shop facility that's up there with the best, there's always been a huge and varied choice of guitars and basses that bear the Chicago company's name and which suit every pocket. This new addition to the Idol range is, as its matt black livery certainly suggests, unashamedly aimed at the nu-metal side of things. But, as is now often the case with a mid-priced Washburn instrument, there's much more to the WI65 than a no-nonsense rock machine.
The main property that should be noticed is the quality of the specification. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Korean-made Duncan Design pickups, but the provision of two full-on USA models here, specifically a Custom Custom in the bridge and a '59 at the neck, proves that Washburn genuinely means business.
We last looked at an Idol around two years ago and that model featured a pair of 600 Series Washburn humbuckers. The fact that the Custom Custom model has been chosen for the bridge position here confirms that tonal versatility is the order of the day. It's the version of the Duncan Custom that utilises an alnico II magnet for a vintage tone: a 'none-more-metal' approach would surely have meant including something like a Full Shred or even an Invader.
The pickups are selected by a standard three-way toggle and controlled by two volume controls alongside yet another couple of seemingly out-of-place attributes: a pair of Voice Contour Control knobs. There is one for each humbucker and, put simply, these are passive rotary pots that allow you to sweep between the dual coils in either parallel or series. For example, with the pot in a fully anti-clockwise position you have the humbucker's two coils in parallel, which gives a thinner, bell-like Strat tone without all that annoying single-coil hum. Twist the VCC pot the other way and the coils run in series giving the full 'bucker tone we know and love. Obviously you also can mix the settings by having both pickups on together for yet more sounds. We'll explain more about this in the 'Sounds' section of the review.
We found ourselves constantly referring back to the £449 price during the course of getting to grips with the WI65 as, in addition to the above, the guitar also features the revolutionary Buzz Feiten Tuning System - which is a standard feature on many of Washburn's electrics and acoustics.
What Buzz's system actually does is fairly complicated and is explained in full at www.buzzfeiten.com but, in essence, it involves intonating each string not only to itself, but also to every other string. The reasons for doing this are actually very difficult to get across but, when compared to a guitar with standard intonation, a Feiten-equipped instrument just sounds 'better'; more in tune and much improved musically. It's most noticeable on an acoustic and the best way to see for yourself is to play a barre chord above the 12-fret; everything is miraculously in-tune, even the notoriously unstable G-string, and you do wonder how you've managed so long without being 'properly' in tune.
Elsewhere, the WI65 is far easier to get to grips with. The solid mahogany body features what Washburn has called a 'modern carve' top, which has given the guitar a heavily contoured albeit not unattractive look, and the 'black matte' hue is the only finish.
The set neck is also made from a single piece of mahogany and the headstock features the somewhat cartoon-like logo familiar from Dimebag Darrell's signature Washburns. There's also a superfluous Misfits-style skull decal and the whole thing is topped off by a sextet of Grover tuners.
It's a good job that the finish has been well applied as it also coats the back of the neck. This gives a nicely smooth buff to proceedings and even though the nut measures a wholly standard 43mm, the exceedingly flat 'D'-profile makes the 'board feel much wider than it actually is.
Sounds
The solid mahogany construction, beefy pickups and set-neck could only mean one thing: the WI65 has a very impressive and satisfying tone at almost all levels of amplifier gain. With a standard rock setting on our Boogie amp the guitar reacts and sounds just like a good Les Paul - which is no flippant comparison when you consider the difference in price between this and a Gibson LP Standard 2002. The vintage nature of the bridge TB-11 is easy to hear and, by twiddling with both the volume and VCC pot, you can go from Kossoff to Wylde without ever needing to change your amp.
Needless to say, for out and out metal the guitar holds its own perfectly, with the sheer quality of the pickups shining through yet again. Scooping the middle from our Boogie's red channel gives that sought-after crunch that is actually added to by the guitar rather than simply overpowering it. Meanwhile the Buzz Feiten system makes everything a real joy to play, you can even down-tune a couple of half-steps without any noticeable change in performance.
Cleanly, the VCC pots really come into their own and make this Washburn series amongst the first to offer a genuine Strat/Les Paul combination in a single guitar; one with no additional electronics to speak of, don't forget!
Mixing the neck pickup in series with the bridge humbucker in parallel immediately gives you a lilting, vocal blues tone that we've genuinely heard nowhere else from a single conventional instrument (imagine linking a humbucker and two single-coils together...) and, as we keep on saying, the Feiten system really does make this guitar very difficult to put down.
Verdict
At £449 this guitar is excellent value for money and, as illustration, consider this: if you fancy following in the footsteps of Van Halen, Vai, Satriani et al and having your guitar retrofitted with the Buzz Feiten tuning system, Chandler Guitars in London can sort it out for you for around £125. In addition if you opt for the two Duncan pickups featured on this Washburn as individual units, they'll set you back a total of £170. That's £295 worth of innovation included on a £449 guitar before you even consider the VCC controls, lovely feel and top look of this Idol.
Don't be fooled by the metal livery, this is a wholly versatile guitar that plays very well indeed and sounds nothing short of amazing. For styles as far removed as nu-metal and ragtime blues, you really wouldn't need another guitar as the VCC pots are so effective as tonal tailors. In fact, if the spec had included a vibrato of some description we'd have been considering the WI65 as one of the guitars of the new millennium so far.
As it stands a somewhat dodgy logo font and unnecessary skull decal are easily forgiven on a guitar that's this good at such a respectable price.
Simon Bradley
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