Washburn USA Custom Shop Scott Ian's "Murder Weapon" #2 SG Signed w/ COA Tony Iommi pickup Black\Blo

It's with a heavy heart that I put this up.  This guitar is part of, as noted on the authenticity cert, a run of 15 guitars and was guitar number 2.  As you'll notice there were a number of murder weaspons that were designed to be as close as possible to the guitar featured in the advertisement, then there were a few "deviations" part of the 15 guitar run.  As I understand it, this is one of the deviations from Scott's personal collection, of which a significant number of these were purchased by a collector who eventually parted ways with them one by one.  This obviously being the one I had my eye on.  These included a white V, white SG, colorshifting tremelo guitar and this one.  I'm not aware of others though I know they exist.

In doing your research you'll also come across another "number 2."  This is from a different 25 guitar run of all the same identical type of model.  Those are all patterned off of Scott Ian's touring guitar for that year.  Lastly, you'll run across plenty of SI61s.  These are not the limited USA custom shop models at all.

The best I can gather is this guitar is one of less than five similar ones in existence.  I have not found any evidence of a COA'd\signed, USA black one in circulation besides this one, but I've seen other ones pictured.   So as far as I'm aware, this is the only signed and serialized black murder weapon from the USA custom shop run but again, I speculate that others probably exist. 

• Mahogany body
• Mahogany set neck
• Ebony fingerboard with Scott Ian "Anthragram" inlays
• Seymour Duncan® El Diablo bridge pickup* (see below)
• Seymour Duncan® '59 neck pickup
• String through body
• Tune-o-matic bridge
• Single tone & single volume control
• Three way pickup selector
• Sperzel Tuners

*This is NOT the current offered "El Diablo."  This instead was a custom shop pickup that was designed for Tony Iommi before he did a signature pickup with a different vendor.  This pickup is a version of Duncan's "The Demon" and it's a hotter version of it.  Why they have 3 versions of this pickup, I don't know.  All I know is this is one of the hottest versions of it at a properted 22k.   If you decide to check on this and call SD, they internally refer to this as "The original El Diablo" or the "OG El Diablo."

I love and adore this guitar and it's the first guitar I ever bought as a "splurge."  In so far as I didn't buy it because it fit a specific need, just that I fell in love with it and just thought it was incredibly badass.  But I am incredibly deep in the hole of buying studio gear and can not justify looking at it day in and day out when I know I can and should be playing a cheaper guitar and putting that money into studio building expenses.

How does it play and sound?

I would describe the neck as fast.  I would describe the action as low, and the intonation as absolutely perfect.   It is my best playing guitar by a signicant margin.  The Buzz Feiten system is cool in so far as it makes notes resonate and ring out in a really sharp and perfect way you might now be used to with other guitars.  I am considering using it on all my guitars.  The pickup is massively overkill and did consider changing it out but never got around to it.  I would descibe the neck size as slim and the nut width as slim.  It is certainly a thrash guitar at heart.  The set neck is also comfortable and has a lot of sustain.

This is a great guitar for anyone that wants an instrument they can both adore and use in the studio, music video or live.  It is the highest calibre guitar I've owned so far.  Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to ask any questions.