These latest additions to their Southwest Series of acoustic guitars, the D49SPK and D49CESPK both feature bodies made with highly-figured spalted maple.

The two guitars differ only in that the CE model has a lower bout cutaway and onboard electronics. Both are ornamented with triangular inlays of abalone and mother-of-pearl in the rosewood fingerboard and a decorative ebony bridge.

There are no details about these new models yet on the Washburn web site, but Washburn dealers should have more information about pricing and availability.

UPDATE 9/8:  We just heard back from Washburn with prices on these new models.

The D49SP carries a MSRP of $999.90 and the D49CESPK $1169.90. Both ship with a hard shell case.

Striking and unexpected wood choices are a theme with these five new guitars, three of which are available with onboard electronics.

The two dreadnaughts (D46SP and D46CESP) are maple guitars, using a highly-figured spalted variety for the top, back and sides. This splating is a result of the action of fungi on maple after harveting, but prior to manufacture.

The D46SP will retail for $839.90 and the D46CESP with cutaway and B-Band A-15 electronics for $999.00.

Another interesting wood choice is Java Ebony, used on the J27CE jumbo cutaway. The body is ebony with a mahogany neck and a rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Many people associate ebony with a nearly-black appearance, but a great deal of ebony has a streaked, reddish-brown look before staining. Washburn has left this wood in its natural state.

The J27CE, with onboard electronics will retail for $1,099.90.

There are also two new additions to Washburn’s long-running and very successful Festival Series guitars. These feature an oval sound hole and a cutaway with the EA17 ($649.90) being a deep body guitar and the EA21HM ($1,299.90) a much thinner model. Both feature the same B-Band A-15 electronics.

The Washburn folks are marking their 125th anniversary in 2008, and introduced these new models as a celebration of their long history building acoustic instruments. The vintage look – complete with aged hardware and a lighter, satin finish – suggests the styling that launched the US mandolin craze in the 1920s, and which has remained the standard to this day.

The M118SW is an F-style model that retails for $1,349.90 while its cousin, the M116SW is an A-style body with a retail price of $1,149.90. Both have a rosewood fingerboard and bridge, Allan tailpiece, ebonite tuner buttons and ship with a hard shell case. Washburn offers a limited lifetime warranty on all their new instruments.

You can find out more about these, and all the other Washburn mandolin models, on their official web site.

Both models are made with a larger lower bout than a dreadnaught or concert body size, but with a shorter body length than most jumbo sized guitars. Washburn says that the actual volume of body space is the same as a concert size, but with a much wider vibrating surface where the bridge fastens to the top.

The WB400SW is made with all solid woods (cedar top, rosewood back and sides), a mahogany neck, ebony bridge and fingerboard and a bone nut and saddle.

The WB400SWCE is very much the same guitar, but with a solid spruce top, cutaway for easy access to upper frets, and Washburn’s B-Band designed pickup and pre-amp system with both ¬º” and XLR outputs.

Both ship with a hardshell case and are covered by Washburn’s Limited Lifetime Warranty. They are offered from Washburn dealers worldwide, $1,499.90 for the base model and $1,799.90 for the cutaway electric.

The company was founded in 1887 by George Washburn Lyon, and located in a small factory in Chicago, IL. An early focus of Washburn Guitars was the burgeoning delta blues music scene that had developed in Chicago at the time. That blues scene was centered around Chicago’s Maxwell Street, which was only a short distance from the first Washburn factory, and had a major influence on the early development of the brand.

They made steel string guitars, typically smaller body sizes by today’s standards, as well as banjos and mandolins.

The brand went inactive for a period, and was resurrected in 1975 by Fretted Industries, another Chicago company, which has since morphed into US Music Corp.

Electric guitars and basses, plus amplification and sound reinforcement are the major focus at Washburn these days, and they have been very successful in that market at a variety of price points. They still have a hand in acoustic guitars, however, and both student and professional banjos and mandolins.

Congratulations to Washburn for reaching this milestone.

The two companies have announced that ten percent of the sales price of all Washburn guitars sold through Sam Ash retail stores, and online at SamAsh.com, during May 2007, will be donated to the Parkinson’s Unity Walk. The organization is the largest grassroots fundraiser for Parkinson’s research in the US and guarantees that 100 percent of all donations goes directly to research.

Washburn Guitars was established in 1883 and is located new Chicago, IL. They also build banjos and mandolins.

Sam Ash Music was founded in Brooklyn, NY in 1924 and now operates 45 stores nationwide.

The D64, which Washburn has dubbed “The Bluegrass,” is a solid wood guitar, with a spruce top and rosewood back and sides. The neck is mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard, bone nut and saddle, and a tortoise look pick guard.

They describe the guitar as being made with a bluegrass picker in mind.

“This guitar is designed to produce precise tones with crisp highs and a pronounced, defined bottom end with volume ideally suited to the Bluegrass player.”

“The Bluegrass” will ship with a deluxe hardshell case and carry a retail price of $1,499.90. You can search for Washburn dealers on their web site, or check out the new guitars at booth #5244 if you’ll be attending the NAMM Show in Anaheim.

The MIA Awards celebrate the best selling, most reliable or simply new and innovative products and retail strategies in the UK. Washburn’s D10S won in the Acoustic Guitar category.

Ian Cullen, Marketing Director for Washburn’s UK distributor (Sound Technology PLC) was understandably upbeat at the news.

“We’re very excited to win this award which comes on the back of a record-breaking year for Washburn in the UK. The D10S has consistently been our top-selling acoustic guitar and we’re delighted it has been recognized by the MIA in this way.”

You can find out more about the D10S, and all of Washburn’s acoustic guitars on their web site.

The newest Timbercraft entry is their B52SW, a travel sized guitar offered for $600, including a padded gig bag. Even with a much smaller body size, Washburn says that the guitar has a volume and a tonal richness not found in most travel instruments, owing to its being built with all solid woods. This guitar has a solid spruce top, with solid mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, bone nut and saddle, maple binding, and gold tuners with black buttons.

There are no images of the B52SW on the Washburn site at this time, but we have requested one from their media office, and will post any we can obtain here if we receive them.

The guitars are distributed through retailers all over the world, and you can search for a dealer near you on the Washburn site. Surely they will have more information on these solid wood travel guitars shortly.

UPDATE 4/27: You can now find product details on the Wasburn site for the B52SW.

A new banjo, the B160, and a new mandolin, the M120, will be introduced in January 2006 at the winter trade show of the National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM) held in Anaheim, CA. The B160 is a nickel plated maple banjo with a 3 ply maple rim, using a new fingerboard pattern and headstock shape, evocative of older banjo styles of the 1930s. The M120 is an F-style mandolin with a solid spruce top and carved, solid maple back and sides. It is finished with a sunburst and gold plated hardware.

No mention or description of these new models on either the Washburn mandolin or banjo sites, but Bill Henshell, the web developer for the Washburn site, said that he expected to have the new additions featured online early in January.

He offered these comments about the M120 mandolin:

“It was designed in conjunction with Richie Owens who is currently on tour with Dolly Parton. The body is slightly thicker than our M3SW & M6SW mandolins, and has a narrower headstock than our other F style mandolins. At Richie”s request it has an ebony, instead of rosewood, fingerboard, bridge & saddle – and the fingerboard has dot inlays. The production M120 will come with an Allen style tailpiece which is not shown in the photo. First shipments are due towards the end of January.”

The B160 banjo is being played by National Banjo Champion, Sonny Smith, and Henshell expressed some excitement about bringing such notable bluegrassers on board with Washburn.

“Working with Richie and Sonny is part of our plan to expand our Bluegrass line which will also include some resophonic instruments. Both of these new instruments are certainly pro level quality, at entry level pricing. The main emphasis is on tone over flash. These instruments really do sound great next to similarly priced and above instruments.”

The M120 mandolin will retail for $1238 with a hardshell case, and the B160 banjo for $1438 with case.