Washburn N4

[ram]

I am looking for an upgrade for my Ibanez RG and am mainly interested in blues. The wizard II neck is pretty hard for me to chord on due to the string spacing. I was able to chord better on a gibson blues hawk but had my eye on a Washburn N4 online. Would the N4 be a suitable blues machine for riffs and chord melodies? I dont do shreading and would like to get a keeper. What's the good advice for my situation?

[rayden44]

Hi Ram, and welcome Usual disclaimer - what I'm about to type is my opinion, tho I'm never quite sure who else's it would be

Firstly, if FEEL is the issue, don't buy a guitar online unless you can play it first. Especially if you're after a keeper, the guitar has to feel right. Sound can be altered much more easily with different amps / pickups / FX. Nobody else can really advise you on feel, so you have to be able to play the guitar yourself.

As for a blues machine, I've owned an Ibanez RG370DX which is somewhat similar layout to the N4, and I suspect your RG has. I haven't heard the N4, but in my experience stock humbuckers do not provide the right sound for blues. They have more midrange and provide more gain - usually used in heavy rock / metal. Also, unless you're doing lots of whammy bar work, again not usual in blues, a locking bridge like on the N4 is not worth the extra pain in setup and stringing.

Basically look at who you like to listen to, see what guitars they play. Then find something that seems right to you.

[Mojo]

I've owned an N4, and a couple of N2s, and they are great guitars. But those necks are so thin that they can't be for me.

I agree w/ what Rob posted above in terms of the trem being close to useless for "regular blues".
After that, it really depends on what type of blues you are interested in playing. There's quite the difference between, say, Son House and the late, great Gary Moore, between Robert Johnson and SRV, etc... so a little more info would help us help you

[ram]

I went to Guitar Center last night just to look around. I was pretty much set on the notion that a decent keeper would run me 1,000 to 4,000. When I got there they had sold the 52 Hot Rod Tele I had been saving for so I dabbled with a Les Paul gold top reissue. I didn't want an epiphone or squire anything. I handled the best they had and didn't find anything I liked until I picked up a mexican fender blacktop mustang / jazz master. I really felt like junkfood for my hands. The fancy guitars were like fine wine and smoked steak but this jazzmaster was like a bag of chili and cheese fritos. I walked away from it figuring if I did get it I'd have to put some decent pickups in it.... maybe some Seymour Duncan alincos. Yeah, that's what I would have in it. I don't buy it because I don't want to make an impulsive purchase and .... it's a mexican guitar. I know it will be there tomorrow or they can get another one next week. I just don't want to bring it home and wish I had waited (and saved) for a better wine and steak guitar. I get home and look up WARMOTH guitars and do a build sheet on just he little $450 jazz/stang and it's over $1,000 after everything is said and done. Turns out the pickups that come in it already are seymour duncan designed alinco humbuckers. I really like the heft but I don't like the feel of a cheap guitar and everyone knows how cheap a Fender is made. Right? .... Right? Well, what ever first impression I had of cheap pawn shop fenders I had from the 80's was well corrected when I got that fat back U shape neck in that slick glassy finish. The frets didn't saw against my hand and the action was low enough for whatever playing style I wanted to try out. The string spacing was... still a bit "together" (read "restricted for sausage fingered players") but the fat back more than made up for the string spacing. It had fantastic heft in the body perfectly balancing the neck and that gloss obsidian black body was just as smooth, organic and slippery..... The bottom line is, I walked away. This week I've walked off from plenty of very pricey guitars ranging from Collings to Gibson, from L&G to Music Man, but that Jazz/stang is really bothersome. It's bugging me from across town. Another real attraction is, if I ever want a different neck on it, I can get a Warmoth custom neck made up to my specs. I really just can't loose. I just don't want to make an impulse buy.

Mojo, you've got ... ahem, "plenty" of tele's. There must be something good about the fenders I just never felt before last night. This one just spoke to me, and that hasn't happened in years. Fender Blacktop Jaguar HH may be a perfectly suited blues / jazz machine.

[Mojo]

Well, I'd say this:

1. I've owned many Fenders - but I don't currently own one. I do own F-inspired guitars, though
2. If this guitar gave you that reaction, then I think you should buy it. Bottom line: it's "only" $450, so even if you don't like it, you won't take a bad bath, and I'd say it's worth the gamble.
3. I would personally change the pickups. I'd talk to a guy like Pete Biltoft - www.vintagevibeguitars.com - and explain to him the tones I have in my head. He would then build me what I need, and I would buy an upgraded wiring harness from the good folks at RS Guitarworks.
4. I would rock that badboy all over town in every bar and restaurant that will have me

[ram]

Mojo, thats the advice I was looking for. I wanted a super clean jazz tone from the neck and a greasy blues, out of phase hot bridge. I think this guitar is one that I will probably upgrade here and there to be exactly what I want it to be, something you can't buy in a store. Okay, got to go.... There's a little orphan blacktop fender at Guitar Center that I'm compelled to adopt.

[rayden44]

I haven't played the blacktop, but I did play a Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster in store tho. Very nice guitar, could pull out SRV style tones, or back off the volume a bit and clean up nicely. All of these have a real chunky feel in the body - cos they're HUGE The blacktop looks similar but with 1 humbucker in the bridge, and a U shape neck. Sounds like a win to me!

If it helps usually when I'm shopping, I look for clean tone and sometimes a slight breakup tone (crunch). If the guitar / amp makes the right clean tone, you can make it do pretty much everything else. Sounds like you're on the ball with this already tho

[469roadking]

Methinks Mojo giveth good advice.

[ram]

Okay, the Ibanez RG 321 MH got traded in. They wanted to give me $75 for it but I said no. I told them I wanted more for my guitar on trade in than a hard kick in the nuts. After it was all said and done I got $145 off the retail price of the blacktop Jag ($445) on the trade in and wound up paying $333 out the door. It actually feels like a real instrument.

[Mojo]

Well, I try

I'm a fan of finding the right "platform" and then getting people like Pete or Lindy Fralin take that guitar to the next level with the right pickups