Washburn WD32S Review!
A great budget guitar for beginners…if you can find one!
The Washburn WD32S is an excellent budget guitar. Fun fact, this is the first guitar I ever owned. Received as a Christmas gift when I was 13 or 14 years old, this guitar still serves me well to this day. When the Washburn WD32S’s were new, I think they retailed around $300 to $350. If you can find a used one, I would not pay more than $200 for one in pristine condition. I found a few variations of this guitar in my research. Other models include the WD32SW and the WD32SCE. For this post, I will focus on the Washburn WD32S because it is the guitar I have the most experience with.
The Overview
Washburn constructed the WD32S with a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides. It has a multi-lam binding and mahogany neck. Washburn’s 2005 catalog notes the fingerboard as ebony, but it looks closer to rosewood to me. The fingerboard comes with pearl slash inlays, which I think is a really nice look. The neck has 20 frets, and like most dreadnoughts, the neck meets the body at the 14th fret.
What’s really nice about this guitar is the neck is super thin! Many people pick this guitar up, start playing and say, “Wow this feels really nice!” Combined with the 1.7” nut, this guitar feels very fast. The compensated saddle does an OK job of keeping the guitar intonated. It comes with a satin finish which adds to the natural appearance of the wood. Over the years, the oil from my hands “refinished” the guitar’s satin neck, and gave it a glossier sheen.
The headstock is fairly simple and has a simple “W” and “Washburn” logo. The tuners are Grover 18:1 ratio tuners. The bridge is a rosewood butterfly. Around the sound hole is a decal with a woven pattern on it. Overall, the Washburn WD32S is a really beautiful looking guitar. It’s can be a bit disappointing when you look at the details with a critical eye, for example, how the sound hole rosette is a decal. Then again, this guitar is inexpensive, and you can forgive Washburn for slapping a couple of the less important details together. Clearly, their goal was to make a great sounding cheap guitar. Not a great looking cheap guitar.
How Does it Sound?
When the Washburn WD32S was new, it retailed at $300 to $350, and I think this could be the best sounding guitar in that price range. If you can find one of these is good shape, there is no better bang for your buck. This guitar projects sound really well, so whether your playing around a campfire or a house party, this acoustic can make some noise.
The strings blend nicely when strumming chords. There are guitars that are upwards of $500 or even $700, and the Washburn will hold its own when compared to these. In some cases, the Washburn is better than it’s more expensive mid-range acoustic guitars. Take a listen to the audio clip below and hear for yourself!
When fingerpicking and playing more complex pieces where notes need to be more articulated, the Washburn does OK. Here the Washburn begins to fall short of it’s mid-range priced competition. The farther up the neck you play, the higher the action, and the worse the intonation. It also suffers on songs where fretted and open notes are played together. The open notes ring a bit louder than the fretted notes, and don’t provide tight and even sound. The audio clip below is my way of playing Willin’ by Little Feat, and illustrates the open/fretted note issue. It’s a descending lick that starts at the 12th fret, and the G string is played open to create a drone.
To try and give you an idea of the best sound the Washburn can deliver when finger picked with open notes, I recorded a second clip. On this one, I’ve capo’d the guitar to hide the open note vs. fretted note issue. Here the Washburn doesn’t sound too shabby when compared to other guitars. The action does start to get high though. While the guitar is still playable up the neck, it is not as comfortable as playing open chords.
I recorded these audio clips using Presonus Studio One Artist 4, Presonus’s AudioBox iTwo, and a Shure SM7B microphone.
The Wrap Up
Action – 6
From the nut up to the fifth fret, this guitar has great action. When you’re a beginner learning your first few chords, the Washburn WD32S will get you through the rough. However, when you get past the 5th fret on up to the 14th fret the action begins to steadily rise. The action is disappointing if you’re an intermediate guitarist who plays more than just open chords. While the guitar still sounds great, these older Washburns are not fantastic up the neck. Also, the Washburn I used for this demo has some pretty significant fret wear. This makes sense because I took this guitar EVERYWHERE! Camping, pool parties, swimming, you name it. I don’t notice the fret wear affecting the action, but it’s likely affecting the intonation.
Intonation – 6
I never noticed that the intonation was out when I first began learning on this guitar. Now that I’ve more experience, I notice the intonation being just a little bit off all the time. Most of the strings are pretty close, but it’s a struggle trying to find that sweet spot for each string that makes every chord sound good. There’s always a chord where you hear a string jump out at you right away. You’ll tune and make an adjustment to correct the bad note, strum a different chord, and a another string glares at you. If you’re just starting out, I doubt you’re going to notice this.
If you’ve been playing for a while and your ear has been improving, you should pass this guitar up. The intonation and action is disappointing once you’ve expanded your arsenal of licks and tricks.
Overall Sound – 7
For a $200 guitar, the Washburn WD32S sounds fantastic. It certainly doesn’t hold it’s own compared to a higher-end Martin, Taylor, etc. However, when strumming chords around a campfire, this Washburn gets it done. It has a big resonant sound that carries, and will accompany your singing nicely. Check this review on the Martin Custom D, which is a $1000 guitar, and compare the sound. You’ll hear when strumming chords, the Washburn isn’t too shabby when compared to the Martin. However, the low end of the Washburn’s chords get a bit overshadowed by the highs. If you start fingerpicking you hear a huge difference between the Martin and the Washburn. Here the Martin Custom D is far superior, so if fingerpicking is your game, the Washburn is not the guitar for you.
Modifications
I haven’t modified this guitar. The Washburn that I have is 17+ years old though, and it’s starting to show signs of needing attention. Because this was my first guitar, I’m considering taking it to Gryphon Stringed Instruments for a tune up. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the neck needs more than a truss rod adjustment. Honestly though, the repairs to breathe new life into this guitar will likely cost more than the guitar is worth, so making repairs is very low on my priority list.
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