After mulling over the many excellent choices for a mahogany 24.5" scale double humbucker Les Paul-ish guitar, this Washburn WI-66PROF won me over. It is an almost new show room guitar in great condition from a little shop in Statesboro, GA called Pladd Dot Music. They had it and a sister up on eBay, and GAS overtook me in the worst/best way.

I've been considering this guitar for a while now, and with the Buzz Feiten Tuning System, the Seymour Duncan 59 neck, Custom-Custom bridge pickups, Tune-o-matic bridge, Grover 18:1 tuners, and the gorgeous carved flamed maple top, easy upper fret/neck access, plus the unique body shape, this was a no-brainer choice. The Agile AL-3x00's were very tempting, but to get this level of components and features would run well over $600.

I played the Washburn for about 2 hours today instead of sleeping (working nights), and I'm very pleased with the sound and playability. The neck is thinner than I'm used to, but it fits me better than any other guitar I've owned or demo'ed. The nut is 1 mm wider than the Reverend's, which is perfect. The action is low enough to be very quick, but not buzzy. The neck is glossy, but it sure didn't slow down chord progressions.

The hardware is all high quality and the electronics feel and sound clean. It is too early to judge the VCC (Voice Contour Control) yet, but it didn't pose any problems. The SD pickups sound exactly like I've been wanting. The neck pickup isn't too muddy for me, dishing out sweet, woody blues tones. The bridge pickup rips some gutsy, rich rock tones. It sounds great directly plugged into the amp, but takes pedals well.

I could go on, but most of you know what it means to play a nice quality guitar. In this case, it didn't cost me much. There are just a few very minor pick marks and micro-scratches, but otherwise in new condition. The shop put on new .10 strings, de-tensioned them, and double-boxed it around the soft case for shipping. Even UPS couldn't damage it! I'd buy from them again.

And now the money shots...