"What I've seen and heard with this guitar is quite remarkable for only £369".

Acoustic lakeside 560

Washburn originally introduced the Lakeside Jumbo model in 1912 and it is considered by many to be the first 'dreadnought' sized guitar. It bridged the gap between smaller bodied parlour guitars of the late 19th and early 20th century and modern day dreadnought and jumbo acoustic guitars. 100 years later Washburn have captured the essence of that model with modern materials to provide a truly inspired, unique and special instrument with its own voice. Acoustic magazine review the LSJ743TSK model in the latest issue of the magazine where it is praised, in particular, as "a value for money jumbo/dreadnought with a throughly decent sound and a good all round playing experience".

"Strumming open G and C chords reveals an evenly balanced soundscape with plenty of bass and some nice sparkly trebles - enough, in fact, to keep any singer-songwriter happy for hours".

"Switching over to a fingerstyle revealed a nice surprise, too. Sometimes dreadnoughts and jumbos are just too much overkill for delicate instrumental pieces, but the Lakeside coped really rather well. I would say that ragtime or even jazz players would find a lot here to like - in fact, stick on a half decent soundhole pickup and I think you'd be pretty much good to go under most circumstances".

"So to sum up, what we have here with the Lakeside is a guitar with its roots well and truly embedded in history and which feels good to play and sounds really rather good - especially for this price".

"..anyone who is in the market for a good beginner's instrument or a guitar to take along to an open mic night would be well advised to seek the Lakeside out and give it a blast, as I think you'll be surprised".

The full review can be found in the April issue of Acoustic magazine on sale now. The Washburn Lakeside Jumbo LS743Sis also available now in Natural and Tobacco Sunburst finishes at £369 RRP inc VAT and includes a hard case.

Further Links