Customer Reviews
Great value for the money 
2007-11-30
I have played rock, heavy metal, and 60's rhythm guitar for for almost 30 years and have always thought I would like to play bass, too. When I finally decided to look for one to purchase, I was naturally looking for the best bass I could find at the cheapest price. I started out looking at a Fender Squire but just about all the reviews I read about it were pretty unfavorable. This Lyon by Washburn bass was about half the price and when I found out it was made in China, I was pretty sure it would be of poorer quality than the Squire. I checked the reviews on the Lyon and much to my surprise they were all near a 9 out of 10 overall, so I decided to take the plunge. When I got the bass, I found that I agreed with the reviews. For a very inexpensive guitar (less than half the price of the Squire) it is a great value! The action is fairly low and there is no problem with buzzing frets. It appears to be very well built. The finish is very shiny. I polished it with Gibson guitar polish just to bring out all the lustre, and there were no hairline scratches when I was finished, so it must be fairly hard. The volume control works smoothly with no static or noise, but I can't see where the tone control does much. This may be because I am playing through a Peavey Bandit guitar amp because I don't have a bass amp yet, and don't dare to turn the volume up too high because I don't want to blow out the speaker. At higher volumes I would probably find the tone control has more effect. The machine heads work smoothly and stay in tune. I have played it with and without a pick and can get mellow or punchy lows or highs. Overall I'm quite impressed with this bass and it will probably be all I need for quite a while. I highly recommend it!!
My first bass after nearly 30 years of NOT playing. 2007-09-09
Salutations. First off let me say that i am no proffesional by any stretch of the imagination. With that being said i would like to add that i play for myself and that i like to add effects pedals as often as they become available, delays, distortion, reverb, echos, phase, pitch shift, and others. Playing bass with Jimi Hendrix and Purple haze, 1, or 2 shifts out of pitch and distorted and out of phase is exhilirating to say the least. Get your self some tab for Disturbed or Static X and rework the bass and you feel that you own the band. All of this i have done with this Lyons guitar by Washburn. The guitar it self is well made as far as i am concerned and carries out low notes with a mellow hum and the higher notes with veracity. The strings supplied are adequate for the interim but i would reccomend changing them out to a set of your choice as soon as the strings become hard to keep in tune, ie: Stretching and flat sounding. A word of caution....i have found that the finish is easily scratched, so a guard of some type would be in order whilst changing them out. Also a pic guard of some type would have been nice, if you like to flail and use a medium to a hard pic on your axe then you will notice, in a very short amount of time, a real nice custom scratch job below the strings. Lets see?....hmmm oh yes the pick ups, some time in the near future i will replace the stock ones on the Lyons, it's not that the the ones supplied don't do there job it's just a matter of preference. So in closing allow me to say this is a great guitar for the money, pair it up with an adequate amp, i use a Peavy combo 115 with additional speaker add on, and with a little amount of time and some "extras" you will find your self very satisfied with your purchase. Thanks for viewing. Gary.
