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..
SS 100 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..
