SS80 continued, SS100, X80
There was an issue with my black SS 80, right from the start, the metal in the construction of the tremolo was ‘soft’ and caused the guitar to repeatedly to go out of tune, frustrating for a locking tremolo system.
I had the Schaller replaced with an Original Floyd Rose, purchased through Fender, who had just bought out Floyd Rose at the time, and never have had a problem since then and I enjoy having the original configuration tremolo.
Special model SS 80’s were fitted with Gotoh Floyd Rose licensed tremolos, including my personal purple maple quilt capped version.
My Gotoh, since it is from 1993, has the tremolo arm secured by a hex-screw, which necessitates removing the arm by loosening this screw, whereas the current models have the typical screw in style arms.
This Koa wood cap topped beauty belonged to Steve Gill of Washburn and is fitted with a Gotoh Floyd.
These tremolos are excellent in construction and operation, John Suhr calling them the finest Floyd Rose tremolos available, with harder construction metal.
A single CTS 500K solid shaft audio taper volume potentiometer is fitted with a gold plated knob placed lower towards the bottom of the guitar and the three-way pickup selector toggle switch usually with gold plated mounting hardware, but my early SS 80 has a chrome version. Note the shielding paint applied to the control cavity walls, to reduce noise and interference.
Steve Gill who works in sales for Washburn had an SS 80 re-topped at the Custom shop in Koa wood, this is a beautiful job and was for sale only recently, this work being done by Terry Atkins.
I must mention here the excellent Washburn/US Music dealer Funky Munky Music located in Shawnee, Kansas and Jon Klutier in particular, who has been an invaluable source of information and pictures. Jon sold me the spectacular maple capped top SS 80 built for Steve Stevens, according to Terry Atkins of Washburn, who confirmed it was to be delivered to Steve himself, yet after Steve left Washburn, it ended up staying with the former owner of Washburn in his private collection or the Washburn Museum as the factory referred to it, these guitars being on display at the factory.
This guitar has the same configuration as the SS 100, with the sides and back being black.
Also included in this ‘museum’ was the #1 production SS 100 Frankenstein and the infamous SS 80 Barbarella graphic guitar.
I will describe these two guitars in separate sections, the #1 Frankenstein in the SS 100 section and the Barbarella, in a separate area, with another special SS 80, that Steve actually took delivery of, the Famous Monsters painted guitar..
SS100 Frankenstein
From it’s inception the SS 100 Frankenstein graphic guitar, had an even stranger history than the SS 80. Announced the same time as the SS 80, and with Steve’s interest in sci-fi movies and monster films, hence the Famous Monsters logos and the association with the universally (pun intended) known Boris Karloff version of the most recognized monster in the movies, based on Mary Shelly’s novel.
Again the Washburn literature shows Steve holding the prototype SS 100, the only Washburn that I am aware that he still owns. This was an airbrushed graphic version, with the graphic based on the original movie poster. This has a white painted headstock face, and many of the Frankenstein guitars had the legendary glow in the dark, luminescent paint.
Below is a video of Steve playing his prototype SS100 live with Vince Neil “Your Invited (But Your Friends Can’t Come).” This is the only footage of Steve playing his SS100.
I am not sure if Steve’s original is that way, but I would guess it would be knowing him!
This particular guitar has the Washburn script logo, with Handmade in Chicago, below the Washburn logo, with a star and the USA lettering to the right.
Recently the production spec #1 Frankenstein SS 100 from the Private collection/Museum came up for sale, this was a glow in the dark paint job with the airbrushed graphic by the artist Steve Driscoll, whom I spoke to via e-mail and he told me he painted a certain quantity for Washburn.
I learned from Jon Kluiter that the first quantity produced were airbrushed and after that a stencil system of painting was utilized.
These following pictures are of the #1 production SS 100 from the Washburn museum, recently offered for sale, with the glow in the dark finish.
Here is Steve pictured in 1993 with his SS 100, unfortunately the important details of which are covered by the clever, artsy, graphics. The guitar does have the black hardware though:
These next pictures are of SS 100 #14, recently imported from Germany and resold by Steve Driscoll. This one signed by SS himself, quite a few years ago I would imagine!
This model had a surface crack professionally repaired at the Washburn factory, the headstock was not broken, it does exhibit the inherent weakness of the Floyd Rose nut mounting system to the necks structural integrity at a critical junction.
Notice this SS 100 has a tremolo cover fitted: some SS 80’s also exhibit this feature, these are usually later production, I have seen many variations between the models. Some of the Seymour Duncan JB pickups have normal silver plated polepieces and others have the gold plated polepieces.
My personal black SS 80 March production, has no tremolo cover and the pickup selector switch has a chrome surround, whereas others have gold pieces in this position.
These pictures are of the # 1 production Frankenstein painted by Steve Driscoll:
This shows the incredible condition of the examples for sale by Funky Munky and Steve Driscoll, which were slow to sell.
This particular SS 100 was the only one I could find on the internet for years, owned by a guitarist in Thailand, this example has been heavily played, with the hardware quite oxidized and the finish yellowing with age and no doubt from many a smoky club!
This example has gold tuners, yet black Floyd Rose tremolo, yet gold volume knob, so the exact story of what is happening with this one is anybodys guess?? The fingerboard so stained it looks like almost a light rosewood board!
As I remarked earlier, these guitars were legendary for years and in the past year, more came up for sale than in the last 12-15 years!!
Still the market (for what they know?) considered these mega-rare guitars somewhat overpriced frankly…I don’t know what to say, one day the prices on these guitars will take off..
Most of the SS 100’s came with gold hardware.
I contacted Steve Driscoll, the original artist contracted to paint the SS 100 Frankenstein series, his reply to me was:
“I was the artist that painted ALL the SS 100’s. I think I ended up painting about 50-60 of them in 1994ish. They were cool because the base was done in a glow-in-the-dark base and I airbrushed the graphics, so some of the base showed through. I did them until Washburn moved from Chicago.”
Steve Gill again,
“ He did paint a lot of guitars, unfortunately, Washburn didn’t get permission to use the graphic….there are fewer of these guitars than one would think.”
“I happen to have the last known SS 100 to leave the building, I haven’t yet received the guitar, but once it arrives, I will get some better photos.
I have two SS 100’s and the Koa topped SS 80.”
Steve Gill would unfortunately end up selling both his SS100’s and the Koa wood re-topped SS 80.
I was told that SS 100’s were painted over with black and that after Steve Stevens left the company, the remainder of the production stock guitars had any Steve Stevens reference removed from the headstocks and these were sold with the unofficial title of X-80’s.
Again I quote Steve Gill of Washburn Inside Sales, “The SS 80 became an X 80 once Steve Stevens had left the company. We built a bunch and we couldn’t sell them as SS 80 Steve Stevens guitars. All X 80’s had the headstock paint removed so his signature wasn’t on them.
My fear is that your guitar had a decal of the Monsters logo and a SS signature applied to “make” an SS80, although at the time it was an X 80. Don’t get me wrong, all X 80’s were SS 80’s..but we couldn’t sell them as SS 80’s. Most X 80’s had the spaghetti (I call it the script) Washburn logo on them.
There is no way of telling for sure.”
Steve did further reply to me,” It could have very well have been Dave. I didn’t mean to offend, but truth be told, there is no way of telling for sure.
If it was ordered early and received from us as an SS 80, then it is an SS 80.”
I respectfully disagree with Steve on the point about my guitar as it was a very, very early order, stamped March production and it is identical to Steve’s artists models in every respect, many regular production spec SS 80’s have later serial numbers and I am 99.9% sure that my guitar always was an SS 80 and an artists spec at that. I have researched this as comprehensively as is possible. The similarities to Steve’s guitars are too numerous to be an X 80, which I hadn’t even heard about until being in contact with Washburn this past year.
Don’t get me wrong Steve Gill has been invaluable as has Terry Atkins with all their inside information.., they have provided the breakthroughs that this tireless researcher, considered his Holy Grail!!!
My black SS 80 has not been refinished or had any finish removed, it is as exactly as it was originally built.
And incredibly rare, as is my quilt topped SS 80, there are no accidents in this life and I have been very fortunate with the two Washburn’s I have!!
I had no idea about this until recently.
After 16 years has passed, I’m sure all involved are willing to forgive and forget, this would be my hope.
I would be loath to give the history of these guitars without mentioning what I have heard, I believe the facts to be correct, as far as I am aware!
Recently after years of being almost mythical and unseen, suddenly the market was relatively flooded with SS 100’s, they were coming out of the wood work virtually!
Another hypocrisy, although this may be economy based in nature, is that for years I have heard from various individuals that they liked SS 80’s , but would really want a white unicorn like SS 100. Then when the original #1 came up for sale, it was deemed prohibitively expensive, no matter the rarity. Other later serial numbers, such as #14 say, would be going for under $2K and no nibbles, ect.
It’s just what the market, (whatever that is) that dictates what is worth what, with for example modern produced replicas of certain vintage guitars, command ludicrous prices which are almost unchallenged. Even the golden Pre-Pro Charvel’s, albeit most have the undesirable (to most) Kahler tremolo systems, yet they command less money than the Washburn’s.
I would propose the argument that the Washburn’s are among the rarest guitars of it’s kind produced.