Washburn Festival EA20S, Nuno Bettencourt - Natural Review

Easy to Play and Hard to Put Down

I just received mine and it cannot be in my line of sight without being picked up. If you're looking for a versatile acoustic/electric for when the urge to play just about anything hits you, this is it. This is a skinny little guitar, and looks deceptively small when you get it out of its box. It has a very comfortable body to it all-in-all. Weight is nice and solid, and good balance… read more throughout. I love that I can actually get to those high frets with that well-placed and sharp-looking horn. It's got a very bright, almost metallic tone to it in certain places, but there's no ugly sounds coming out of it from anywhere. The guitar is, unamplified, quite loud already -- but plugging it in is super-nice. Fishman system is a great selling point here. I like the little tuner, too. Nice. Not a fan of D'Addario strings, but this guitar is so easy to play, I don't care (and can always change them). Would have preferred it came with a gig bag, but what you gonna do? Great price, super value. All in all, a wonderful purchase. Thanks to our Sales Engineer, Jon Moscato and the Sweetwater team. I'm very pleased!

---

Cancel Comment

These are great thin body acoustic guitars !

Just got mine today and I am impressed... The guitar sounds real good unplugged , But really shines when you plug it in ! Fit and finish is 5 stars ! All in all It's a great acoustic guitar. The thin body is real comfortable - I like it a lot ! And as always, Ben came through for me with fast shipping...

---

Cancel Comment

Everyday guitar

[+]The guitar feels good to play, weigh is perfect and the guitar looks nice with good accessibility to higher frets that you can actually use thanks to the good intonation setup. On the E 1st, 17th fret, i hit a perfect [A] on the tuner. I was really pleased with that![-] If you are used to play with your right hand half way through the fretboard-ends and the bridge, you will not… read more be in front of the sound hole and will get a metallic tone. I had to adapt and move my picking hand toward the fretboard where the tone is the best. If you anchor your right hand on the bridge, you'll probably not get the best out of the guitar. Overall the guitar tone is too metallic because of the shape of the hole.It sounds surprising good for fingerpicking since it gives good basses for the thumb, as long as your picking hand is spot over the hole otherwise, here you go again cigar box^^No dots on the fretboard is something i miss, specially when i play with other guitarists.No pickguard is a feature i miss as well.The finishing of the guitar, the varnish gaps at neck joints and specially the rough binding around the cutaway are not strong points.The overall feeling is that this guitar is 100$ overpriced. The strongest point of the guitar and the reason why i will keep it is the versatility. I can play loud and quiet, it is easy to grab and play with its thinline body shape. It offers decent confort to play reasonably fast, good high note access and reasonable tone for fingerstyles and pick strumming. I still don't know if i should have purchased instead a second hand Carvin AC375.Hope the review helps.

---

Cancel Comment

I'll be the first!

After a bit of a wait, this guitar arrived minutes ago thanks to Mike Godlove and team. Excellent setup. I went with D'Addario Nickel Bronze Strings and what a great choice! Whether it's the punch of the strings and/or the meticulously designed thinline body, this guitar packs a punch, acoustically. It's as loud as a Breedlove that I have and the quality of sound is superb.… read more Articulates well at low volumes with fingerstyle and has a nice bite with a Joe Bonamassa pick. The Fishman onboard electronics, which I ran through an AER acoustic amp into a Bose L1 (I know, overkill!) gave a delicate, balanced and thoroughly omnipotent presence with no feedback. Very little string squawk and nice thin neck. Feels more like an ES-335 in shape and touch, but of course, tons lighter. I give Mike and team five stars on this one. There are many fine lower end guitars on the market today-this is one of the tops.

---

Cancel Comment