Washburn Oscar Schmidt OE30-BK Reviews 
4 / 5 based on 1 reviewsPurchased from Musician's Friend. One for personal use and two for gifts.I was attracted to the very low price (for a semi-hollow body ES335 clone) and the positive evaluations on the net for this axe. I paid $150.USD each for these guitars.
For two out of three of the guitars,the finish and detail quality was surprisingly good (not excellent), and the sound quality, playability, intonation, lack of fret buzz quite good - especially considering the low price. The dramatic black tuxedo-like finish and ivory binding top, bottom and f-holes, fret finish, and tuners are quite good.
I accepted minor flaws in the finish, some irregularity in the cutting and binding of the f-holes, jack receptacle nut looseness and cheese-ball strings as consistent with the low price on two of the guitars. I had to send one guitar back for exchange due to very crudely cut and bound f-holes that I could not accept, low price or not.
The overall appearance, sound and feel of the guitar is quite satisfactory despite my gripes on quality (again, 150 bucks a copy is very cheap for an ES335 clone). I mentioned some crudity in details such as f-hole cuts and finish.The two recent guitars had sawdust and wood scraps rattling around in the box(which did no harm)and this suggests that Oscar Schmidt/Washburn could tighten quality control a bit on these guitars.
In summary, I like the guitar and so do the recipients of the two bought as gifts. I hope that the replacement for my returned item will match the two satisfactory examples and all will be well. Remember, $150. for a nice looking , slightly flawed, well playing, semi-hollow bodied blues guitar is hard to beat. Washburn, get your factory to ratchet up the quality control just a little to keep this a winner!
alfa62 rated this unit
on
2003-07-23.
