Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hey everyone, I wanted to share this. I picked up a beautiful 1979 Washburn Falcon the other day. Neck through body, solid ash with a carved rosewood top. 5 piece rock maple and rosewood neck. It has a brass nut, brass saddles, humbucker pickups (with coil taps) that are very Super Distortion like- (Washburn power sustain- possibly made by Dimarzio, as they look just like a Dimarzio). It has great tone, neck feel...it plays a lot like my 78 Ibanez Musician, which is also a very Jerry guitar. The Ibanez' go for around $1,000 however and if you look around a Falcon can be had for under $400. They only made them for a couple of years- (79 to 85 maybe?)

Heres a link to a catalog pic of one.
http://www.matsumoku.org/models/washbur ... d.jpg.html

Anyhow, it's a great inexpensive way to get an axe that has some of the basic build qualities you'd want in a Jerry guitar. Just need to customize the electronics and maybe change pickups.

Great find! Let us know how it mods up ... cuz, we all know that's the plan before even finding the axe. You really lucked out, budget-wise. Enjoy!

The address on that catalog is literally across the street from where I went to middle school. This must have been their location before they moved to Vernon Hills.

a great looking guitar!

It looks a whole lot like the Hamer Special Chaparral that Martin Barre used to play.

The more I play it- I LOVE the feel. It has sustain for days! I think the pick ups are good, just not appropriate for Garcia sounds.Too midrangey. Not enough sparkle. I am going to give this one the treatment- buffer, and better pups.

Its pretty neat that it came with a stock brass nut and saddles.