Happy 2019!

Happy New Year all!

I recently acquired a beautiful Washburn Maverick BT-9, a fairly rare model unique to the UK market around the turn of the millennium.

At the bottom of this post is a short clip demonstrating its wonderful single-coil tones on a suitably seasonal tune!

Washburn support were quite enthusiastic and helpful in identifying the age and country of manufacture. Here’s a reply I got from Dave Steffen:

The BT9 shows that the Brits were more on the ball than we were! The BT9 was only offered in the UK….ordered with a special maple neck, and a swamp ash body! These were made sometime between 2001 and 2005…the neck plates do not have the origin date. Looks to be Korean….the hardware leads us there and it fits into that 2001 to 2005 timetable. We really like this guitar…..designed by William T Atkins….Billy T….thus the BT designation.

Interestingly enough, the seller told me that he purchased the guitar in around 1998/1999, so we have a bit of a mystery on our hands as to its true age. Based on Washburn’s reply, and the various information I’ve found on the Internet, the guitar certainly does seem to have been made by the Samick factory in South Korea – in my opinion the quality of the build seems to agree with this notion.

I hope that 2019 proves to be a great year for you.
–Matt