Washburn G-Mini 55 Koa Travel Acoustic Guitar

C’est un style original par rapport aux autres guitares de voyage, le pan coupé arrondis et le chamfrein.
L’esthétique du bois koa fait exotic et très chic.
Le son, même si c’est du laminé, n’est pas mal, peu de basses mais un bon équilibre général. Je note une belle réverbération naturelle, une bonne projection aussi. Esthétiquement ce modèle est vraiment très beau, et singulier.
La finition est satinée, les mécaniques sont correctes. Le réglage d’usine est bon aussi, action et courbure de manche sont ok.
La housse fournie de bonne qualité. Le sillet de tête est bien posé et le centrage des cordes et du chevalet sont corrects.

Points négatifs : le sillet de chevalet aux rainures un peu profondes et légèrement décalées, j’ai dû le changer et depuis tout est bon.
Enfin, les extrémités de frettes accrochent un peu trop, j’ai passé un premier coup de lime, c’est mieux mais j’y reviendrai une 2e fois. Puis le bord de la touche mériterait d’être plus doux, plus arrondi mais bon.

Donc quelques petits défauts mineurs que l’on peut assez bien corriger et plusieurs points positifs qui font que cet achat me semble satisfaisant.

I knew going into this that it doesn’t have a second strap button (grr, I hate tying off at the headstock) and that this would be a smaller neck, shorter scale. So I can’t fault the guitar for those things, especially when a strap button is a quick add. I do blame Graphtec for making a 42/43mm nut with 35mm spacing from low e to high E. A major chords are very tricky if not impossible to chord cleanly with this narrow spacing, including barre chords using the a major shape, which restricts what I can get out of this guitar. People with smaller, thinner fingers may be fine.

I like the scoop cutaway, but can only get to the 18th fret comfortably (as opposed to the 16th on a non cutaway acoustic without some finger finagling). I can reach the 20th on the B and high E thanks to the scoop. But I was hoping for full access at this scale length. Maybe with a second strap button?

I actually don’t like the comfort arm rest. It flips the guitar toward me, the way Ovation’s rounded backs can. Most acoustic guitars I’ve played have some kind of beveling on the binding, and I’m never bothered by this even after 2 hours or more of playing. You may like the arm rest better.

No fret sprout, no high or low frets, could be polished but don’t really need it, truss rod works. I seem to be getting some unwanted overtones on certain bends, like cello wolf tones?

It does have a good, mellow tone, which I do think will improve despite the guitar being all laminate construction (I do like that it’s mostly all wood, as I really don’t like plastic or abalone, but it’s also pretty obviously laminate up close in person). Which brings me to the elephant in the room.

Is it really Hawaiian koa? Or is it Australian koa? Or east Asian koa? I think guitar companies are going to have to start making that distinction, that it’s Hawaiian koa, in the same way they do solid vs. select. Because Hawaiian koa is extremely expensive, even laminate. And this just doesn’t really look like it.

By comparison, this Washburn is nearly identical to the guitar found at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Islander-String-Acoustic-Guitar-AS-MG/dp/B07KD1871Z

Same exact gig bag too (just different stitched branding). But in that guitar’s description, it says acacia wood back and sides. Yet look at the pics; does that look very different from this Washburn’s koa?

To me it doesn’t. Is that a problem? Not really at Washburn’s price range, but it could be disappointing to some. Acacia as a species is still a nice wood; koa is part of the species, which is why other woods can look like it/sound like it, and are being used as cheaper koa alternatives. But Hawaiian koa is the most desirable, in the same way Brazilian rosewood or Adirondack spruce is. They are the best of the best and sadly rare from over logging.

Still, whatever the wood, the review for the other guitar isn’t lying when it says that guitar was made by perfectionists; Washburn’s was obviously made alongside it by the same perfectionists who take pride in doing an excellent job.

If you’re looking for a travel guitar, you can probably stop here, especially if you find it used. Just don’t expect it to be anything it isn’t. Would be amazing for beginners.

This guitar is a great value, sounds great and is good for beginners! The small size is perfect to learn how to play guitar making it easier to manipulate your fingers with the strings. The bag that is included is really good quality. The packaging for shipment was excellent to guarantee no damage. I would recommend this guitar!

Great sound. Very nice build quality. Nice gig bag. I bought this instead of a Taylor GS mini because of the better price. I installed a pickup system. It will be perfect for gigs.

I have a Washburn dreadnaught(fullsize) guitar that sounds great, so I thought it’d try out this smaller one for traveling and porch playing. It is small! Much smaller than the dreadnaught but about the size of Taylor Gs-Mini. Out of the box it was pretty easy to play once in tune and stayed in tune. The build is very nice, I didn’t find and flaws in construction. It sounded a bit boxy when I first played it, but someone else said to give it a day and play it a bunch and it will change. So, I did and it did! It’s not big sound but responds nicely and only gets boxy if you strumming hard – my guess is that all guitars this size have the same limitation. I’m not sold on the comfort arm contour yet – because of the size I found it a bit difficult to hold it in place maybe just need time to adjust. The fit and finish are nice and the matte coating looks good. While it can’t compare to the Gs-Mini in sound it does complement it nicely and is much less expensive. My wife plays the Gs-Mini and they sound good together. Strangely, I saw another guitar that looks identical to this by other manufacturers (Islander, Redlands), so you might want to look around before purchasing.