WASHBURN GUITAR INFORMATION

For over one hundred years, Washburn has built more than just great guitars, we've built a history. The Washburn tradition of craftsmanship and innovation has withstood the tests of economics, brand competition and fashion. Since our birth in Chicago in 1883, the name Washburn has been branded into the world's finest stringed instruments. If your interest in guitars borders on passion, you will settle for nothing less than a Washburn.

A distinguished place in guitar history
As proof of our distinguished place in guitar history, Washburn has been honored with the publication of a book: Washburn: 100 Years of Fine Stringed Instruments by John Teagle. Published by 20th Century Guitars and distributed by Music Sales Corp., the book chronicles Washburn's varied and exciting legacy.

The book reveals Washburn as an aggressive innovator and standard setter throughout our history. Early history documents Washburn as the first guitar manufacturer to use artist endorsements and as the originator of the large-bodied acoustic guitar. In more recent years, Washburn has gained recognition as a creator of imaginative solidbody electrics and as a pioneer in electric-acoustic guitar design. 100 Years tells the story of Washburn's origin and follows our growth right up to modern day.

Signature Series
Where our history book ends is where this catalog begins. This decade has marked incredible growth for Washburn. It also has seen the inclusion of some outstanding guitar innovators in the Washburn family: Nuno Bettencourt, Dimebag Darrell, Paul Stanley and Jennifer Batten have the distinction of being some of the few artists ever to be honored with a Washburn signature model guitar.

The Buzz Feiten Tuning System is a tempered tuning formula, which uses a compensated nut and saddle to correct the inherent intonation problems of the Western tuning formula. The system that Buzz devised has been a godsend to guitarists. Fans of the system include Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Liona Boyd and Andy Summers. The Buzz Feiten Tuning System is standard on all USA made Washburn guitars and basses and is featured on select imported models. Washburn is the only major guitar manufacturer to incorporate the system as a standard feature on production guitars.

Pantera was formed in 1981 in Dallas, TX. The band was constantly evolving musically from the inception of the band. Their first record, 1983's Metal Magic, showed the band paying heavy debt to the bands that were their main inspirations. Heavily in the KISS/Aerosmith vein, Metal Magic was a precursor of things to come. As the album gained momentum the ensuing notoriety of the band led to support slots on national tours with Dokken, Stryper and Quiet Riot. The band began to rise above their influences and began to develop their own sound on their next release "Projects In The Jungle." It was around this time that Pantera guitarist Darrell Abbott changed his name to Dimebag Darrell. The band released Power Metal, which introduced current vocalist, Phil Anselmo to the mix. The band's sound was becoming more and more aggressive. Dimebag Darrell turned down an offer to join Megadeth in order to concentrate on conquering the world with Pantera. In the mid-90's Dime began his long-standing relationship with Washburn and Randall. The collaboration led to the design of the Dime 3 line of guitars co-designed by Dimebag himself. Modeled after Dime's favorite Dean guitar the Dime 3 is one of the finest heavy metal machines available today. A Floyd Rose tremolo, Bill Lawrence active pickup, Seymour Duncan rhythm pickup and custom "Dime-approved" finishes. With 1990's "Cowboy's From Hell," Pantera set the world on it's collective ear, delivering the mandate, "METAL IS BACK!" The band, fueled by Dimebag's ultra modern, bonecrushing guitar riffage made metal in vogue again a trend that all but disappeared with the popularity of alternative rock. With subsequent releases "Vulgar Display Of Power" and "The Great Southern Trendkill" Pantera claimed it's rightful place as the standard bearers of heavy metal. Dimebag Darrell is a walking textbook of modern metal guitar techniques, liberally spraying bone-crushing power chords, dissonant intervals, tremolo arm insanity and a shredding lead voice worthy of the masters. In addition to his Washburn guitar the other key element to the Dime sound is the scooped mid, high-gain solid-state sound of his Randall Amplifiers. 1999 saw over a year's worth of Research and Development came to fruition with the unveiling of Dimebag's signature Randall amp, the Warhead.

When Extreme hit the scene in March of 1989 with their debut album it caused a minor sensation. The next year when "Pornograffiti" was released it catapaulted them to rock superstardom. The album, a mix of heavy funk inspired, Van Halen-esque jams also contained two acoustic cuts that were quite a musical departure from the rest of the album. Riding the crest of the immensely popular MTV Unplugged, "More Than Words" became a mega-radio hit. Years of touring fine tuned the bands live shows into lethal musical affairs driven by Nuno Bettencourts flashy, modern guitar playing. In 1990 Nuno replaced his homemade guitar with Washburn electric and acoustic models. Nuno began putting his ideas about the perfect guitar and the result was his signature model N4 electric. Also availble in a 6/12 string doubleneck, the N4 is a guitar that is ready to rock. Nuno also co-designed the P-Series guitars that have continued in the Washburn line and is now the Centurion Series. In 1995 Extreme released their fourth and final album, "Waiting For the Punchline." The next year Nuno quits the band to focus on a solo career and Gary Cherone, the lead singer in Extreme leaves to replace Sammy Hagar as vocalist in Van Halen. Nuno releases "Schizophonic" in 1997, his first solo album and tours in support of the release. Nuno's current project, "Mourning Widows" features his nephew, Donovan on bass and is recording their debut album.

Rising from the guitar underground in the late 1980's Jennifer Batten is arguably the most visible female guitarist on the scene today. Setting her apart from her peers at the beginning of her career was her absolute mastery of the two handed tapping style made popular by Eddie Van Halen. The guitar press began championing her from the start and she ended up writing an ongoing instructional column for Guitar Player magazine and appearing on Guitar For The Practicing Musician's first compilation CD. In 1987 she received her biggest break. Hand picked out of a pool of over 100 guitarists, Jennifer was tapped to be the featured guitarist in Michael Jackson's touring band. Jennifer toured the world several times over with Mr. Jackson playing to over 4.5 million people. She appeared with Jackson on the halftime show of Super Bowl 27 which was viewed by 1.5 billion people, the largest television audience in history. Respect from her peers continued to grow. In 1998 Jennifer was asked by none other than Jeff Beck to join her touring band. She appeared on Mr. Beck's latest release "Who Else," contributing song ideas, guitar and guitar synthesizer. As part of Jeff Beck's band she recently toured Europe, Japan, South America and twice in the United States. Jennifer says "I joined Washburn in '96. There seemed to be a buzz about the instruments being made and a feeling of innovation and openess to new ideas. When I received the Mavericks I was nervous about moving to a non-strat type guitar but it fit like a glove right away." Jennifer currently is playing her signature model JB100 Midi .

Paul Stanley, the Starchild, is one quarter of the most theatrical band of all time. KISS, with over 20 albums and a 25 plus year history is one of the most enduring bands in the rock world. Renowned for their makeup, pyrotechnics and catchy songwriting KISS has always given their fans their money's worth. Paul Stanley came on board with Washburn in the late 1990's designing a new signature guitar model, the PS2000. The late 1990's also saw a resurgence of the band's popularity that was reminiscent of their heyday in the 1970's. The bands most current release, "Psycho Circus" debuted at Number 3 in the Billboard charts the highest debut position for any KISS record. The band will ring in the year 2000 with a concert and pay per view special from Vancouver. Paul most recently took on a new role as the lead in the theater production of the "Phantom of the Opera" in Toronto.