Washburn WD10SCE Review & Video – The Best Guitar Under 300$!

7 minutes read

Hey there! First of all, I will be honest like I always am with my readers. This Washburn WD10SCE review might not be the most objective one. I am pretty sentimental with my WD10SCE since we have traveled a fair bit of the world together and I just LOVE this guitar. (:

I have had the WD10SCE for three years now. It serves me in an outstanding way and has been a true workhorse. Washburn is a Chicago-based guitar company that has been around for over 130 years.

Table of Contents

Washburn WD10SCE Review – Features:

Here are the features minus all the BS that you don’t need:

The guitar has a solid top (sitka spruce if it tells you something) which means that unlike a lot of guitars in this price range (300$) that has a laminated top, guitars with a solid

top sound better and will also sound even better as they age as long as you keep the guitar well maintained and keep those woods vibratin’ by playing it. Here you can read how sound gets better with age on solid top guitars.

The WD10SCE comes in a Dreadnought Cutaway shape which is the popular acoustic guitar dreadnought shape + a cutaway (the cut in the bottom of the guitar that lets you reach the top frets easily). The C in the name stands for Cutaway And the E stands for Electricity since it has a preamp. There is also a version called WD-10S without the cutaway and without the preamp system.

Talking ’bout preamp system, the WD10SCE is equipped with an onboard Fishman Isys+ preamp system. Fishman is a top of the line company for preamp systems that comes on guitars that are all the way to the five grand price tags and more. You can adjust treble, bass, volume, and phase effect through the guitar. I play shows at open mics and jams occasionally with it and the guitar sounds crystal clear when amplified and has all the controls you want to play around with.

Seriously, never get an acoustic without a preamp system. At some points it will come in handy, so don’t give it up.

The Fishman preamp system also includes a very fast and accurate tuner which is the single most useful thing you can get on any guitar.

The guitar is very well built and with quality finishes. it held up my massive abuse for 3 years like a champ. Chrome tuners, cool headstock design, strong and fancy white bindings on the edges of the body and neck, (With a Gibson, Martin or a Taylor you have to drop at least 2000$ to get that kind of stuff) great fretboard material and everything on it just says “high quality”.

My overall experience with this guitar has been incredible so far and will keep being so for many years since I do not have any intentions on getting a different acoustic. I think that 90% of expensive acoustic guitars are a bluff and my Washburn sounds just as good if not better than any expensive guitar I’ve played, especially after a setup and a new pair of Elixir strings. (besides very rare models and very expensive with exotic woods where I really did felt a difference)

Give your guitar some love and attention and it’ll rewards you back with the best sound and playability you can ask out of it…

Pin this to your Pinterest guitar board:

The top Isys+ model on the left is the one on the WD10SCE. — The top Fishman Isys+ model on the left is the one on the WD10SCE.

The WD10 Cons:

There is no front guitar strap lock, There’s only one in the back, so you need to attach the strap to the headstock or go install a lock for a few bucks.
The guitar comes with some nice attractive finishes like the white binding and the fancy headstock that usually belong with higher price tag guitar, but personally, I like even more “bling” on my guitar to keep my flame for it running strong. What I did to address that is to customize it for less than 15 bucks with some gorgeous fretboard inlay markers and pick guard that turned this guitar into a real beauty.

The WD10 Pros:

The guitar’s volume and projection of sound is some of the best I have heard. Pair it with a high-quality set of strings and you’ll get superb acoustic sound – as good as it gets.
The neck is skinnier than Victoria Beckham.You can fly all over it and play barre chords forever as if it was an electric guitar. That’s a huge plus that I have seen on all the Washburns I have played.
The preamp system works flawlessly over the many times I played with it in bars and in jams with friends and gives a very clear and beautiful sound.
It takes a beating like Mike Tyson. I played it and hauled it almost daily over the last 3 years and I stopped counting the times it fell down or got bumped into things and still all it has on it is some minor dings. Only once it got a really bad crash that left a pretty big mark on the binding. Took it to a technician and he fixed it for 30$.
Built-in tuner. Never again use iPhone apps to tune your tool.
Cheap. For 300$ with a preamp, it’s a steal and it’s still my best music purchase to date. Even my beginner’s level flute and trumpet cost me 400$ and I use them way less. Also, since it’s cheap I never worry about hauling it to any campfire or trip that I am going on. Even if a truck runs over it I won’t need to break the bank to get the same guitar again.
It has a cutaway shape – very handy for playing lead and improvisation, and even if right now you do not do that, don’t block that option by getting a full bodied guitar that might limit you later.

Anyway, I recommend this guitar with full confidence, and almost everybody who takes it for a ride immediately comments on how great it sounds and feels. If you are in the market for a guitar in this price range OR right now playing a piece of shit 80 bucks guitar, get this Washburn right now and stop letting a cheap instrument stand on your way to becoming the great guitarist that you wanna be.

In case you do not dig the WD-10, other two good options that I have played and liked in this price category are the Yamaha FG-730 (in the beautiful cherry sunburst finish) and the Taylor Big Baby which is smaller but still has a great sound. Notice that both of them lack the cutaway and the preamp though.

Buy the WD10SCE on Amazon.

More reviews and customer review from across the net:

Video Wasburn WD10SCE review and sounds samples from Acoustic Guitar magazine

Amazon customer reviews for the WD10SCE.

My own sound samples with the WD10SCE on my YouTube channel.

And just for fun, let’s have a moment here: check out this monster – the WD10SCE12 with 12 strings.