1990 Washburn D10N Dreadnought Guitar




While you might expect this guitar to be filed under my "don't bother to buy" category of flea-market adventuring, I have to say that it actually sounds really good for an all-ply, budget box. It dates to 1990 per its serial number and I've confirmed that build from Washburn's own catalogs.

It's somewhat ugly, truth be told -- I've never been a fan of black pickguards and the cherry-red stain over the mystery-wood back and sides is not the best look. Still, it's an average-looking dreadnought with a very average neck (25 1/2" scale, medium C shape, 14" or so radius to the board), but the sound is miraculously full on account of decent bracing under the hood. It has a lot better bass response and mids than you'd expect.

I did the minimum effort required to get this going for its owner (these are, afterall, $100 instruments these days) which included shaving the bridge, ramping the string-slots behind the saddle, compensating the saddle, and setting it up. Sure a minor fret level/dress would help it and sure a neck reset would give it better oomph -- but clearly that's not an option at this thing's price-point and it plays bang-on at the moment, anyhow -- 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret.




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Comments

Sam Rocha said…
Dear friend, I liked the song you played! What is the name? I had bought a very similar guitar, a 1995 Washburne D10E, for 150 usd, it has an electric output, so made the same adjustment in stting height, but I did not liked 0.11, so returned to 0.10 strings set from d,Addario.as I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, everything is twice the price than in u.s.a.. I am an electronic technician and I reoair tube amplifiers as well. My email is battcharger@gmail.com. regards, Sam Rocha
April 26, 2020 at 2:21 PM
Erico Suave said…
This is my first guitar from when I started taking lessons as a kid in 1990. I still have it and I love to still be playing it.
September 8, 2020 at 3:34 PM
Unknown said…
I have had this very same guitar since the early 90’s which dates back to my early teens. I loved it then and I still love it now. Although it has a lot of sentimental value now. I’m sure I would love a more pricier guitar too but this one gets the job done for me.
December 30, 2020 at 12:10 AM
Unknown said…
What strings do you have on here? :)
/M
January 9, 2021 at 10:35 AM
JC_Darwin said…
Hello mate, Bob Marley played one of these Washburn dreadnoughts at his home in Jamaica. There are several images of him with an old Washburn. You can tell by the particular shape of the Washburn pick guards. Of course he also played the ovation in one of his video clips but this old Washburn dreadnought was used at his home, I guess you might say it was his beater guitar; likely the only ones the folks in Kingston could afford at that time?
Clearly his Washburn electric is more famous and worth over a million bucks.
January 20, 2021 at 4:25 AM
Unknown said…
This is the guitar I learned to play and I still have. I find now that I'm older, it's a bit tougher to go back and play because of the string height and slighter greater neck width. That being said. I've bought several more expensive guitars since, Taylor, Fender, etc. .. and this still has my favorite sound.
June 2, 2021 at 11:24 AM
Greg Suarez said…
This is the guitar bought for me in 1991 by my parents, as I wanted to start learning to play. I was 15 and I played it like mad through high school. It had been sitting for years in my mom's basement and I thought I'd see if I could revitalize it, just for grins - it was my first guitar. The strings were a mess, some broken, and the original pickguard was pulled off and it was a rashed-up mess under the sound hole. For $22 on Amazon I bought some cheap strings, new bridge pins, and a stick-on pickguard to cover the scars. I was pleasantly surprised that it came back to life. And I'm being dead honest: I prefer the sound from this 30yo $99 guitar than the $2000 Gibson Hummingbird I used to own. The Gibson was so dark and dead sounding. This "mystery wood" plywood box sparkles and projects better than a guitar 20x its price (IMO).
July 3, 2021 at 7:42 PM
Anonymous said…
I have same model guitar - D10N; serial number 9010000423
Can anyone tell me where this guitar was made?

Thanks in advance...
Tom
July 9, 2021 at 2:02 PM
Unknown said…
This is the first guitar I ever bought, and my daughter and I each played it today! It sounds better than ever! Fun to find this thread. ✌️
January 15, 2022 at 6:05 PM
Unknown said…
I have a 1986 classic C-10N. It always grasps the immediate attention of the musicians around me with its outstanding sound. It's an amazing guitar, I'm deeply grateful for it, and I was looking for info and insights about it. thank you for this blog!
August 16, 2022 at 10:42 AM
Fingerstrings said…
I have many acoustic guitars and as a luthier I like to find old guitars sitting in someone's closet broken or just beat up and needing a revamp to bring it back to life. I landed this Washburn D10 N for $25 and I polished it, leveled and crowned the frets,filed the saddle, grooved the nut, tightened all the hardware, set the truss rod and it now is my favorite acoustic to play and as far as I'm concerned it sounds amazing. Nice acoustic axe.
August 27, 2023 at 2:46 AM
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