Washburn Comfort G55CE Koa - Natural with Armrest Reviews

i bought this recently.. it's absolutely amazing, it sounds magical, and it looks

I love the wood. Very nice looking guitar. Sounds good too. I hope to someday play good enough to do it justice.

My wife bought me this Washburn 2 years ago. I also own a Gibson Hummingbird Custom and a Martin 000-28 modern deluxe. Now the Washburn does not have the playing ease or tones of my higher end guitars, it is exceptional for a guitar of 25% of the price. The higher action of the Washburn allows for strong picking patterns and excellent sustain. I like the low end resonance. The neck design is more restrictive than the Martin and does require more finger pressure on the frets while playing chords. As several have noted its a great take outside and play guitar as most tend to baby a guitar they have put thousands into and use the higher end guitars as more a parlor playing piece. Couple the Washburn with an Amp and it produces excellent tones.

If you're looking for a sub $1,000 guitar this one is worth your consideration for its excellent tones beauty.

After my daughter "borrowed" my other Washburn, decided to pick one of these up at Gearfest. I needed an inexpensive acoustic guitar to play on the lanai and to haul around. It sounds and plays great. This one really compliments my AA Koa Taylor.

The guitar was delivered in perfect condition and played beautifully right out of the box. Matt at Sweetwater as usual was extremely patient with throughout the purchase process. And the comfort edge really does make a world of difference!

i dont really want anyone to know about how sweet this guitar is cause truthfully if the world knew about this one it would be everyones go to guitar. I am in love with this guitar! Washburn gets a perfect 10 for making this brilliant piece... Love the Solid Koa.

I placed my order in December, 2013, had to wait until January 28. Well worth the wait. I have been playing for fifty years and have a great collection of top shelf guitars. This is a super piece for the price. Looks and sounds great. Sweetwater has been my source for years for great quality and fair prices. Tim Harrington has always been my rep, and he is on the ball all the time with my requests. Great job guys. I Like the Washburn WCG55CE, immensely.

I had to wait a bit for the guitar to arrive (Aaron R. was in contact the entire time, he's a great person to deal with!) It was scheduled to arrive this past Saturday at noon - FedEx arrived at 11:45!) I unpacked the guitar and headed off to my afternoon gig - tuned up, plugged in and did a three hour gig! I also received several compliments on the guitar! I have to say it does what Washburn says - Comfortable to play (fits like a glove on your body) and sounds great. If you have one on order, it's worth the wait. The folks at Sweetwater are the best - you won't be dissapointed.

I am amazed with this axe. So clear it cuts the mix like butter. I have a taylor 612ce,Taylor 712ce and a Martin 00028ec. This Washburn seems to out preform all of my top shelf guitars. I'm amazed at the guaility build of this guitar, I would say it's almost as good as the taylors. I paid over $3,000 each for my taylors. My option of the Washburn is you get a lot for little money. Great investment and excelente guitar I highly recommend this axe.

The reason I bought this guitar was because of the reviews and the sound I heard online, the sound bites you can hear from the reviews do not do this guitar justice. It is such a mellow sounding guitar, balancing all levels well. Look wise, it is beautiful, and even though it is not a solid wood guitar the body is made up of layered Koa wood (that information comes directly from Washburn.), which keeps the price down, but honestly, it is beautiful sounding guitar, much better than my solid spruce top. As far as the feel, the neck is so soft due to the matte finish, the comfort edge just allows your arm to rest naturally against the guitar, with no irritation. I honestly would not hesitate to recommend this guitar to anyone. It was well worth the money spent.

I am really enjoying this guitar.

It took me a bit to acclimate to it, but once I got a feel for the approaches required to get a great sound out of it, I haven't been able to put it down.

There was one shortcoming that has been mentioned by others…

The action was too high, which really reduced playability. I had a tech sand the bottom of the bridge and slightly tweak the truss rod. This was an absolute necessity to bring the guitar's playability in line with it's $ price tag.

Also, some of the machine heads experience an occasional click when tuning. I may end up replacing them with a better quality machine head in the future, but they do the job for now.

This is a beautiful guitar with a sweet sound. Just make sure to consider that it may require some tweaking to bring it to it's max potential.

I've had this guitar for 2 years now and love it. I set it up to my liking and am never disappointed with it's sound, playability and gorgeous looks. With the sales price they have it at, it's too good to pass up. Get it while you can. I'd buy another if my wife would let me.

Have been playing this guitar for the last five months or so and still feel like I'm breaking it in. I use in our folk rock band for my rhythm playing and at open mic night. The thing I like the most is how how the electronics make it sound hot through an amp or open mic PA. I also liked the directions that came with the guitar about the equalizer in the electronics which allows for cutting out the mid-range as a scoop action, allowing the voice to fit right in that pocket. My other practice guitar is a standard dreadnought (Epiphone Masterbuilt AJ-45) so after playing with the comfort shoulder on the Washburn for a while, the dreadnought is almost uncomfortable. Played a gig last week outside and the comfort shoulder allows the guitar to slide better when your forearm is sweaty. While I like my dreadnought for straight up acoustic stuff (practicing and parlor playing) because it sounds louder and warmer, the Washburn definitely sounds better amplified due to the electronics. I have not been able to move into the next level up of guitar prices, but have played some of those in the Taylor, Gibson, Martin categories, and I understand why they are so great, but for what I have to spend, these two guitars are doing fine for our folk rock band gigs, my open mics and songwriter workshops, lessons, and practicing to get better. Most people I know play Taylors or Gibsons, so I wanted something that looked different than the rest of the crowd, which the Koa wood guitar definitely does. If you are into compliments, get one of those custom Luna guitars! Listeners who don't play guitar could care less what brand you are playing. I have played a Gibson J-200 in a music store and see why it's so awesome, but it's just out of my price range at the moment. All that to say, I'm liking my Washburn until I can get it paid for (yay Sweetwater no interest deals), so I can think about that "retirement guitar" that I'll play any and everywhere until I can't anymore.

the best acoustic electric guitar I'v ever had.

I was looking for a guitar that sounded brighter than my Martin jumbo/cutaway. I figured being Koa wood it would be thin as possible making it brighter. It is and sounds great. I have three grand into the Martin and if I had to give one up, it'd be the Martin. I really love the beveled top edge and the rest of the fit is perfect. I waited eight months for this guitar, way longer than I waited to get married...but it was worth the wait. I heard they changed factories during my order. The nut fell off when I changed strings, but that wasn't a big deal because it needed to have a shim anyway. At this price range I think having a pro set it up is a good idea. Adam and his team took care of me, thanks Adam, And remember..."if ya can't change you wife, ya can change your guitar..."

Out the box this guitars action was so high it was unplayable (by my standards.) I asked Sweetwater if I could purchase a spare bridge saddle so that I could lower the action and have a spare in case I sanded too much off the bottom. They never got back to me about it. The did however offer to pay for me to have it set up by a local tech. Who proceeded to sand too much off the bottom of the saddle and asked if I could purchase another one. Haha. Instead, he just shimmed it back up a hair and it plays GREAT. He also glued the nut in place which was completely unfastened, hammered in a few high un-sat frets, did a truss rod adjustment, and filed down some fret edged that stuck out past the fretboard. This guitar needed some serious tlc. Whoever set it up at Sweetwater before it left the door really dropped the ball. That being said, Sweetwater did pay to have it setup and the guitar is great so over all I would say the experience was good and would recommend this company and this product with the condition that it needs some tech work out the box. The armrest bevel has changed the way I perceive acoustic guitars. It is amazingly comfortable. The koa is beautiful and the tuners are quality. This guitar stays in tune unlike any acoustic I have owned. The Fishman electronics battery box is a little loose and can rattle (a design flaw) but a piece of business card shimmed in tightened that right up. The guitar has character and with a little effort has the potential to play awesome. I was fortunate to get one of the early models with a matching koa headstock overlay (as currently stated in the details on the Washburn site) - the new models have a rosewood one which Sweetwater is well on top of in their description. With the exemption of not getting back to me about purchasing a spare bridge - excellent customer service and excellent communication. To my knowledge, this is the only production guitar that offers an armrest comfort bevel. The only other source for this option are small shop customs in the 5-8K price range. In my opinion, the sound of the koa is not quite as loud as traditional spruce or cedar and has a little less treble. A warm low end quality. Rock and/or roll yall.

I had been eyeballing this for over a year and finally pulled the trigger. My usual go to is my Taylor 416ce which I love. However, I wanted something I wasn't afraid to take out to play in places I wouldn't want to bring the Taylor. First thought is it was set up very playable but I will definitely will sand the bridge in the future. After plugging in the first time the electronics played well but upon unplugging, the plug in output became really loose and I had to unstring to retighten. Upon removing the strings the nut came right out. I noticed this to be common according to the other reviews.

Overall the guitar is beautiful and fun to play, but the craftsmanship is about a 7/10 when you get into the fine details. So ultimately it's a good second guitar but if it's going to be your goto definitely get it set up professionally if you can't do it yourself.

Guitar plays really well, action was really high and needed adjusted. Biggest problem is the frets along the sides of the guitar are sharp and need to be filed a bit as to not cut your hand from playing.

I bought this guitar for something I can take outside the house and not worry about damaging one of my more expensive guitars. This guitar is great for what my intended use. Some of the things I have experienced with it are things I'm willing to live with, The guitar doesn't like being tuned to anything other than standard 440 tuning. I had the guitar looked at and the tech cannot see anything wrong with the neck nor the rise of the guitar regarding the tuning issue. Some Presales information. There is no hard case or gig-bag that comes with this guitar. Sadly nothing the specs list noted this, nor did the sales rep during my conversation with them. So, Sweetwater missed a sales opportunity. Washburn should really consider adding a second strap horn to the guitar. The electronics are what you would expect from Fishman Presys. The Koa gives this guitar a softer sound if you are not using an amp. The neck feels good in the hand rides well in the palm. Overall, its a good guitar.

2 weeks after purchase g string buzzes and first fret notes buzz and almost cut out. I've owned 2 other Washburns and all of them had problems. How this company sells their overpriced garbage astonishes me. Thought because it was so expensive it would be built well I was wrong