Ok, I know I know, the above video is NOT the electric version of the guitar we are talking about. But as I was searching around for reviews on the electric, I came across the video above on YouTube. And it just sounded so good, I had to put it up here. Sorry.... 8 )
Anyway, on to the reviews. I have posted below a variety of different reviews from a few different sources. All though they come from different sites, they all seem to carry the same message. One great guitar for a beginner, with incredible sound! Read on.....
Product Review: When you choose your guitar you need that perfect marriage between instrument and amp, which is what the Lyon by Washburn LI15BPAK Electric Guitar and Lyon by Washburn LA5 5 Watt Amp are, add an Instructional DVD in to the mix and you will be making sweet music in no time.
The full size LI15BPAK Electric Guitar is black in color, has a Rosewood fingerboard and a Hardwood body. The guitar has a number of features that help it produce a nice sound, such as 2 volume and tone controls, 3-way selector switch, and 2 humbucker pickups.
The LA5 5 Watt Amp features an adjustable gain, allowing you to set the amount of distortion when the drive switch is on, there is also a select switch, volume control and tone control, and has a maximum output power: 5 Watts.
Made somewhere in Asia not sure when, 21 frets, volume 2 tone controls, 5 way selector, 3 single coil pickups, maple neck rosewood fretboard stratocaster style body white pickguard etc. tuning keys suck, kind of a metal plasticy mix needs to be tuned constantly just after applying new strings.
Sound :9
the guy who sold it to me didn't know jack about them and had the neck and strings positioned way out of proportion and made certain frets buzz and would't make any sound come out of the amp but that was easily fixed. once it was fixed it played really well easy to play great sound yadda-yadda-yadda
Action, Fit, & Finish :10
not sure how they were adjusted when they were first made but like i said the guy who sold it to me didn't know what he was doing when he adjusted the neck. the pickps were fine but i changed them to my liking anyway. the finish of the body and neck were great it's a tank it just can't get damaged.
Reliability/Durability :9
God knows how many times i've smacked it off something accidentaly and still not even a sratch dent or any kind of mark get out of tune quickly but that not a big problem i'd happily play it at a gig without a backup if i had to.
Customer Support :No Opinion
neber had to deal with them
Overall Rating :9
I've been playing for a while now and it's definiatly a guitar i'll keep for a long time out all my guitars and all my friends the only one i like more is my friends old semi-acoustic Ovation. i love everything about it except for the following:
un-tunes quickly
makes hitting harmonic notes a little harder than usual
NO idea of when it was made. This guitar has been a mystery for me for a very long time. I bought it year 97 with about 60euros. frets 20 and the same things basically as the first review on this page, exept that the bodyfinish is burst. From black to cleanbrown. When bought. It was already a used one.some problem with the humb-pic on the bridge. i has a way of getting"looser".
Sound :9
I have played always just about every music type and the guitar has been my love :D It has a reliable sound. nice and warm, exept sometimes it can feel a bit weak. but basically the picups allow a wide range of diffend sounds. More than i have seen on many many other guitars. Grungy or buzzing heavy, warm or tingling clean..it has it...miraculous :)
Action, Fit, & Finish :No Opinion
pretty hard to play while standing. no idea why. It may be a kind of big guitar, bigger than a norman strat, but I surely do like the neck. It's really easy to play with. really. slappy or tight. easy to use. easy for everybody. even for beginners.
Reliability/Durability :10
IT'S A TANK. it can't be broken. really. only thing that has been able to make a lump on the guitar was a strange accident when a large toolbox fell right on it angle first. it made a 3mm littlescratch on the "wax" it's a leathel weapon.
Customer Support :No Opinion
none
Overall Rating :9
a really good guitar for begingers, people who want to try something suprisingly fresh, and all the people between those categories. it should be bought.
According to the serial number, this is a '95 model, which surprised me. I thought it was less than a year old when I got it and that was in the Fall of '03. It has 21 frets on a maple neck w/maple fingerboard. The frets are medium jumbo. The back of the neck has a darker wood 'skunk stripe' up the middle where the truss rod was installed. Cheap chrome tuning keys, but they work fine. Roller string tree. 'Bullet' style truss rod sticking out from under the plastic nut. Body is of unknown wood species; probably basswood or alder. It's a 3 piece, solid wood body w/black paint. The plain white pickguard is home to an H,S,S pickup configuration, 1 volume, 2 tones, and a 5 way selector. Standard 'Super Strat' set up. It does have a tremelo bridge but mine didn't come w/an arm and I didn't buy it for that anyway so I've screwed the spring clip in deep to keep the bridge snug and down. It's 25 1/2" scale.
Sound :5
The pickups were weak, so I replaced them w/2 Carvin Twinblade humbuckers in the middle and neck and a Carvin M22SD in the bridge. Now it's MUCH better guitar. It was the brightest electric I have ever owned and the first w/a maple fingerboard, so I guessed that was the reason. The Carvin pickups bring it back to more acceptable levels of tone. Speaking of tone, I sacraficed one tone pot for an 'always on' switch I put in for the bridge humbucker so I can add it to the 5 way switch in positions 4 and 5 giving me 7 total pickup combinations. I also swapped out the little pots that came w/it for larger, 500k pots for the new pickups. This guitar is now an H,H,H even though the middle and neck pickups are single coil sized. I can get anything from jazz to blues to rock to metal w/this setup. Very versatile. My amp is a Laney VC30-210 but I use my gear mostly to record and do that via either a Johnson J-station or a Tech 21 Sansamp PSA 1. I'm going to rate the 'sound' of this guitar on the stock pickups, not what I added, although now it's certainly a '10'.
Action, Fit, & Finish :7
The action is good, not the lowest but certainly good. The paint seems to last forever; like I said when I bought it, it was 8 years old and I thought it wasn't even a year old. The frets are a tad rough on the edges and could use a minor dressing there. I've not cut my fingers, they're not that sharp, but you know they're there when playing.
Reliability/Durability :9
I think this thing is a tank. It's looked so good so long. When I swapped the pickups, the M22SD had it's 2 screws closer together than the stock pickup, so I had to drill new holes. So the only cosmetic issue is one I caused. The selector switch is getting a little iffy. Probably just needs a shot of contact cleaner.
Customer Support :No Opinion
Did not have to deal w/them.
Overall Rating :No Opinion
You know, when you snag a solid body electric for $50 and then get used pickups on ebay for $83, this is, BY FAR, the BEST sub $150 guitar I've ever played or owned. I originally bought it just to set it up for dedicated slide use. All my Carvins have the action too low and I use 9's on them and the slide keeps knocking into the frets. So, I wanted a CHEAP guitar w/a solid body to raise the action and set it up for 100% slide use. Man, this guitar played too good to do that to. I also decided to bump up to 10's on it for slide and have just kept them on it. It does well for slide and great for an all-around guitar. I think one would be hard pressed to find an equal guitar for under $400 new. I also own a Washburn acoustic and am blown away by it. These Washburns seem to be very underrated guitars and well worth the money.
I love it. I'll never sell this guitar. I think every player should have a 'beater' and this is mine. I mean if it got stolen I'm not out a lot of money, but I'd be very pissed 'cause it'd cost me 3 or 4 times what I have in it to replace it.
Standard Sunburst, gloss finish. Korean, 1992, with all the above listed features: 2 Single, 1 Humb, 2 tone knobs and 1 5-way switch. 21 frets... compared to my other guitarts (and I have some wired stuff most of you never enven dreamed existed) - The last odd 10 frets tend to get VERY small and tight. The fact that there is no locking tends to detune the guitar quite a bit every time I stretch to oblivion or use the whammy. Overall it looks quite nice and beat the heck of the nacional gutar I had.
Sound :9
The variations of tone are pretty good.. it has a great clean deep tone for classical and blues playing... the hightones together with some ditortion tend to get fuzzy and not too clear, harmonics are not really the greatest I've ever seen, specially natural ones... I still use this guitar frequently, specially as a backing guitar on my personal tracks because of it's tone... The sound is very fenderish...
Action, Fit, & Finish :6
The guitar had been adjusted already when I bought it, the guys in the shop used it for fooling around, but the action was still very high... I had to lower the action and adjsust the puckups a bit to get a clear cool tone. As mentioned on one of the reviews, the input for the jack did suffer stress after a week or so... but I soldered that in nicely and now it's OK. Finally the controls (volume & tone) are giving me a bit of a headache... They do wear down very fast...
Reliability/Durability :9
In a general view... this is one solid piece. I've droped it, kicked it.. threw it at my brother onece in the hope of knocking him unconscious (I missed him and damaged my wall), and the only thing that ever happened to the guitar was the back plate covering the tremolo strings snaped after getting caught on my brothers belt. Besides the normal wear of the knobs, I guess it's as solid as a rock. Ive used it quite alot in live "shows" and never had any problem with it.
Customer Support :1
I've tried everything... I want to buy my backplate so I can have a complete guitar that won't rip off my belly hairs when I play without a T-Shirt(the hairs get stuck on the springs and as I move awaya from the guitar I tank my hairs off) No luck at contact.. e-mail, fax, nothing... it's like they don't really exist.
Overall Rating :9
I play guitar on and off ever since I'm 14... started off with a "Gianini Telecaster" (this is a brazilian guitar) my brother lent me... bought this one and hung on to it until now... I've had several others but I never managed to sell this one... It's like it's part of my family. I use this guitar basically on clean tone direct to an amp that feeds my music computer... I add all the effects and things on Post Processing... and for this.. this guitar is actually better than my Ibanez. I probably wouldn't buy one now because it takes some getting used to, but... would never sell it.
Typical strat knockoff. 3 pickups, 5 way selector switch, volume 2 tone knobs. Solid as hell body, not sure what it is, very heavy though. 22 frets etc etc.
Sound :9
I doubted this guitar from the minute I saw it, I haven't enjoyed many strat copies in the past but this one sounded really good. Very warm at times but also sharp at other times.
Action, Fit, & Finish :9
The guitar was set up fairly well. I had to do some very minor adjustments to the pickups but that was about it.
Reliability/Durability :9
This thing is a goddam tank. I bet I could go to war with this thing as my weapon and kick some butt. Everything is solid as a rock. Sometimes it is a little heavy though. Im not sure if i'd want to play a long gig with it. I would gig it without back up though. For the price you cant beat it.
Customer Support :No Opinion
never dealt with them
Overall Rating :9
I've been playing guitar for 10 years now and I'm very picky about strat copies. But this one stands up for sure. If this ever broke down(which i'm SURE it will outlive me and my great great great grandkids) i would pick up another one if i came across it. Only thing I complain about it is the weight, its heavy.
It was an early nineties, black with white pickguard. 2 single coils and humbucker, some kind of hardwood body(indestructible) and maple neck wiith maple fretboard. A great first guitar...wish I had NEVER...EVER sold it. would have made a great project guitar.
Sound :8
I had this guitar a decade ago when I was ten, and when I started playing, and at the time I started getting pretty decent at it, played mostly Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana type stuff. Nowadays, more into experimental stuff like Mr. bungle, and a lot of Punk like AFI. the washburn sounded very nice, especially for a guitar in its price range. Ever since I was a beginner, however, I never liked maple fretboards, as it made the guitar a lil bit too bright tonewise(not to mention felt funny to my fingers). Had a good amount of top end and the humbucker was decent. the only amp I had at the time was a Squier 15, possibly the worst piece of guitar gear Ive ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with. I had an Ibanez Powerlead though, which gave me a good overdrive(hey, it sounds good when you're 12). It had a lot of variety, as it was basically a superstrat configuration that looked like a regular one. great variety, and i credited this guitar to getting me hooked on humbucker tone the very minute I picked it up.
Action, Fit, & Finish :7
I remember the action was too low actually upon purchase, but the music store dude fixed it and stuff. otherwise, the finish was glossy black and was pretty decent looking and hard to crack. the pots got kinda dirty thought and therefore got noisy. easily remedied...
Reliability/Durability :10
this thing is a tank. I remember many times the crappy strap buttons would fail and my guitar would fall down hard. never a scratch on this thing. would have been the greatest workhorse guitar, and I still wish i never sold the darn thing.
Customer Support :No Opinion
wouldnt know
Overall Rating :10
ive been playing for a decade and have upgraded my gear substantially. I have 7 guitars, including a Gibson les Paul Custom, custom painted Fender Strat with kick ass Anime and hot rod graphics on it(www.skcscuttingedgedesigns.com) with a Duncan Hot Rails, 1950 Gibson Es-175, stock Tele, '76 Fender Musicmaster w/ Duncan Little 59 etc, etc...same with amps, have Boogie and Marshall amps and a bunch of other stuff. I wish I still had the Lyon, it was a kick butt guitar, and I wish I still had it. It was fairly cheap, and was built decently, sounded alright, and had no re-sell value, which meant you wouldnt have to think twice about modding it and ruining its value, this thing would have smoked with Duncans, which I swear by. And even with better gear at my disposal, I STILL wish I never sold it!
played classic rock through a fender amp and for the price it could not be beat.
Action, Fit, & Finish :9
I picked my cherry out of 10 that the shop had for sale. some were not as good as mine but I guess you should expect more varibility in a low end guitar.
Reliability/Durability :10
have had it for 7 years and for a long time it was my only electric guitar so it got played all the time. never have had any problems with it.
Customer Support :No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating :9
for the price I could not find a better guitar. last year I bought an american strat that I play on stage but I will never part with this old friend.
this is an incredible guitar.i picked it up at a little music store in marietta, ga. for $125.00. it had a maple neck and fretboard which i replaced in favor of a warmoth birdseye maple neck w/brazillian rosewood fretboard.it is fitted with grover mini tuning keys and a graphite nut which helps add sustain.the ebony strat style body is very elegant and was the most attractive feature when i saw it in the store.it also happens to be the only original part of this guitar that i spared. when i plugged it in i knew the pickups would be the first to go.i immediately replaced them with two dimarzio virtual vintage for the bridge and middle,and a dimarzio virtual vintage blues for the neck. i bought the tremolo from a friend who was replacing it with a floyd rose for his american strat.the volume and two tone pots are epiphone replacements, as well as the 5 way selector switch. the knobs(white), tremolo arm(white tip), and phone jack are all store-bought replacements, and of higher quality than the originals.i also replaced the white pickguard with black moto pearl to give it a flashier look. for the finishing touch i had the inside lined with copper foil to cut down on rf signals(i live next door to a power plant!). it took nearly two years and over $900.00 to complete this masterpiece but it was well worth it. i dare ANYONE to match its tone with ANY guitar.
Sound :10
i tend to lean toward the blues when i play, but i also have some knowledge of the minor modes which gets me by when i play with some of my metalhead friends. this guitar is perfect for both. i play through a 15 watt ACM audio tubemax jr. which powers my '38 marshall 2*12 reissue cabinet. i also run through an ibanez tube screamer ts9, a zoom 505 multi effects processor, and a vox wah pedal. it doesn't matter if im after the rubbery electric blues of SRV, the crystal clear distortion of eric johnson, or the nasty crunch of R.A.T.M., this guitar can do it all. there is nothing i dislike about this guitar, and every day i find something new i like about it.
Action, Fit, & Finish :9
the finish on this guy is a little thin.(personally i cant wait until it starts to peel off in a decade or so. gives it character).i make sure this guitar is perfectly tuned and intonated every time i play it(which usually doesnt take too much work). i cant get it to drop out of tune, even when im whammyin to my hendrix cd's. im pretty sure the wood is alder, but i cant say for certain. its a bit light; about the same weight as a squier strat. the neck is flawless, but then again it is a warmoth. the action is low for speed but not so low as to encourage fretbuzz. theres no loose anything on this guitar. this baby's wired up and screwed in tighter than a snare drum.
Reliability/Durability :9
the bolt on neck definitely will give this guitar a longer life. but i have a motto about this subject that im sure you might guess by now. EVERYTHING IS REPLACEABLE. who cares if it gets beat up on the road.im not saying that its more susceptable to damage than any other guitars.ive actually seen a 60's les paul goldtop(nearly priceless)with a hose clamp(as in radiator) helping to keep one of the pickups from falling off the guitar. this had no effect on the tone whatsoever. ITS THE ROAD. guitars get beat up. id never use any guitar on a gig without a backup, mainly because its easier to just reach over and grab another guitar than it is to change a string in the middle of a song, but as far as quality is concerned, id expect to pay about $800.00 retail for this guitar. any more questions?
Customer Support :1
cant find anything about this guitar anywhere. its like G.W. wants to forget he ever made it. it is incredibly similar to a strat though, and has been discontinued. must have been some patent violations or something. no warranty. youll be hard pressed to find a used guitar with a free warranty too.
Overall Rating :10
id compare this guitar against anything, and i wouldnt trade it FOR anything. if i lost this guitar id lose my sound. ive played the other guitars in the stores. for me theres no substitute. ill die owning my washburn lyon.
my Lyon is black, with a rosewood neck, it has 24 frets, humbucker pickup and two others, one vol, one tone knob, 5 way selector. the neck is thin and easy to play, with nice action. the guitar is pretty light so it's easy to manuver and such. it has a nice finish on it, seems to be pretty tough.
Sound :10
i play a lot of alternaitve, punk, rock, classic rock, and heavy stuff, it adapts well to just about anything though. it does have some buzz to it, i'm not sure from what exactly i'm still looking into it, i think it may be the bridge. it sounds great at about any setting you put it on. i like that it can handle about anything you want to play.
Action, Fit, & Finish :No Opinion
i got the guitar used, so i don't know how it was orginally set up, but when i got it i had to adjust the pickups some to increase the sound and cut back on some buzz and such. it's in good shape.
Reliability/Durability :10
my guitar is extremely durable. as stated above i got it used and the person who had it before me threw it out of a moving bus, and once into a river, it has survived all that and is now treated like gold by me. it came with a few nicks and scrathes in the finish, but worked great! one of my friends recently killed the vol knob and i need to get that replaced, but other than that, it's wonderful, though sometimes a few of the pickups have a tendecny to die out, i need to get this checked out, but it worked great when i got it, after the repairs i would definately rely on my guitar for a gig. it's the only one i've had (electric anyway) and i just love it.
Customer Support :No Opinion
never been able to find ANYTHING on this guitar except from this site....
Overall Rating :10
i've been play for about 3 years now and love my guitar, i wouldn't have had it any other way, it has taught me a great deal about the instrument and still continues to teach me as i must maintance it. if it were stolen i would be very upset and try to hunt the person down... i love that it is great, reliable, my first guitar and always there. i do get a little annoyed at the vol knob. but that is not the fault of the guitar, i would buy another lyon for sure.
Basic Strat features, all single coil pickups (apparently low noise), Strat trem, Flunky tuners (I've had my guitar guy install Sperzels), not to heavy (wood is alder or ash (paint job only left small interior area with bare spot). 1993 model, awesome neck and board (plays well even after I wore out te frets!)
Sound :10
Great all around guitar, go from clean to cranked to blues to experimental without any fuss!
Action, Fit, & Finish :9
Factory setup unknown (store guy resets all guitars to perfect action). Finish has with stood tools, amps and the occasional ufo.
Reliability/Durability :10
Great guitar only, heavy artilary could kill this thing!
Customer Support :No Opinion
I have no idea! I never needed to talk to the company, most maintenance and repairs/replacments done by me, and local guy.
Overall Rating :10
The best guitar, felt like it was built just for me!
Well there you have it. It sounds to me like this is definately a nearly indestructible guitar, with some excellent sound, and can't be beat for price. I would have to say that if you are looking into getting a good starter, or project guitar. You can't go wrong with a Lyon by Washburn.
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