Washburn Electric Guitar Pack

Ordinarily I like Washburn musical products. Their acoustics have great sound for a reasonable price.The Lyon is a basic starter electric guitar. It is not a "performer" guitar, but rather is intended for practice (never buy a cheap guitar for performance).This guitar is half the weight of other electrics I've used. Some people would consider that a negative, claiming it doesn't hold a sustain. And for performances they may be right; it's not likely to hold a looooong note. But it will sustain sufficiently for most non-pro players. What it does very well, is finger vibrato.Unfortunately that's all it does well. While the neck is good and solid and straight, the tuners are too "speedy" and make it very difficult to tune the guitar. The instrument tends to resist holding a tune, even with good quality strings given time to settle in.It has two tone knobs and a volume knob, but there seems no logic to their application. One string on my guitar (G) plays audibly louder than the others, overriding both bass and treble with it's mid-area twang.I compared this to a Yamaha electric with humbuckers and a body that weighed over double what the Washburn weighs. Ran them both through the same amp. I personally found the Washburn enjoyable to play, with a pleasant feeling and good sound. While I could get hardly any finger vibrato from the Yamaha, I had no difficulty achieving such with the Washburn. Overall the Washburn sounded better. But it was so difficult to keep in tune that the basic sound wasn't much of an advantage. The Yamaha seems to be built quite a bit better.One cannot rate this guitar by comparing it to say, a Fender Strat. That's simply an unfair comparison. Compare it instead to other guitars in its price range and intended use. I have to make the same suggestion that others have made here: save up and spend $300 to $400 for a better guitar and be much happier overall. When you play an electric it should be a joy both to play and listen to. If it's not... don't buy it. It takes some hunting to find a good guitar that suits you, but it's worth the hunt. Never buy a guitar just because it's inexpensive (unless you're just looking for a cheap starter and can't afford much). This Washburn serves that purpose.

Received this guitar as a gift, and intended to be something that would let me re-learn guitar after a 25 year layoff.This is obviously a beginner guitar, and I see that it's now discontinued, although you can find them on eBay quite often.Out of the box, it required a fret dress, and adjustment of the truss rod, intonation, and action to be playable. However, the neck on these guitars is very good, and after a setup and some work to level a couple of frets, it is a great playing guitar.The body is either 2 or 3 piece, and appears to be basswood, or perhaps plywood. Not a huge deal for a guitar of this price. The bridge is fairly decent, and the vintage-style tuners really need to be changed out, but are serviceable. They fit 10MM tuning holes. The nut is plastic. The single-coil pickups are good quality, and have a great Strat tone, especially on the neck. The bridge pickup is slightly brittle sounding, but the tone can be dialed back to reduce the bite a bit.I have made the following modifications on this guitar: Added a TUSQ nut, replaced bridge saddles. Neck shim. Grover-style tuners. Blocked tremelo. Had a luthier adjust poles on pickups and dress frets. Would also seriously consider replacing the switch and pots in this axe, but they work ok for what I do with it.It plays like a dream, but keep in mind that that's pretty much $250 worth of upgrades/setup into a $100 guitar, so even though I enjoy tinkering, would probably be more cost effective to save up the $350 and buy a better quality guitar in the first place.Having said that, the LX3 is a good guitar if you're starting out and just learning to play. Just know that it will need a setup right away to get it playable.

This was a Christmas gift when I was in seventh grade, 8 years later I still play around with it. Great guitar for beginners.

Ok, I've read all the current reviews (12/30/11). I'm obliged to put in my two cents. Not bad for a first guitar. Wouldn't gig with it, but then I'm not Jack White.I got one of these from a friend who asked me to put it back together. Someone had taken it apart and left it that way. I reassembled and did a setup (al la "Erlewine") and have been having a ball fooling around with it since. (I know, I'll have to give it back soon).I'm not a stranger to decent instruments. I have a '59 Les Paul Jr. and a '62 J200. (that's $8 grand worth of string and wood), and started playing in about 1965.A couple of the switch positions give some noise, I've had to replace the tremolo body and tweak things here and there. (tip. if you get string ping while tuning or can't keep the thing in tune when you use the tremolo, try (gently, or detune the string) pulling the string out of the nut slot and scrapping a little pencil lead (graphite) into the slot. Re-slot the string and wipe off any extra graphite. It will lubricate the slot and help keep the string in tune. Not guaranteed to fix everything but worth a try. Fixed the one I have.)I like the neck. Bends, runs... no problem (ref. tuning fix above). Good tone (or a first/ < $100 guitar). I'm running it through either a Roland Mini Cube or a '68 Ampeg Reverberocket II with or without a Dunlop Fulldrive, MXR 10 band EQ, Cry Baby, and/or a vintage Maestro FZ-1A.

It's ok if your just putzing around and "playing along" with your favorite tunes. But... the intonation is terrible right out of the box. Maintaining the tuning is bothersome. It served its purpose for the time. I've since purchased a genuine American Stratocaster.

This guitar i have owned for 2 years and it doesnt always sound good. plus every time i pick it up it has to be re-tuned and i have tried putting new strings and everything on it but it still has to be retuned every time its picked up which is annoying but all other things 5 star. (SAVE UP FOR A MORE EXPENSIVE ONE!)