I bought this Washburn Rover travel guitar at Eagle Loan, a pawnshop on Vernon Street in Roseville, for $125 in near new condition.

It came with the custom fitted padded case but not with the strap, electronic tuner or how-to-play CD that Washburn provides with the sale. One string was broken too so I also had to replace the set.

Checking prices on the Web shows new Rovers selling for around $200 from the manufacturer or around $165-185 plus shipping on Amazon/E-bay so I saved some cash but not much. OTOH I got it instantly and didn’t have to pay shipping.

The ukulele store The Strum Shop installed new nylon strings and sold me a nice nylon discount strap for $5 and a fabulously easy D’Addario digital tuner for $15USD. The total came to $43 with strings installed and tuned.

The installer also gave me a nice mnemonic device (acrostic) to remember the strings from the bottom to the top: Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie; going from top string to bass: Easter Bunny Goes Dancing At Easter.

Features list:

• Full size 24″ scale
• Solid spruce top
• Mahogany body and neck [mine looks more like flamed maple]
• Rosewood fingerboard
• Quality geared tuners
• Professional binding and inlay
• Sized to fit airline overhead storage
• Includes case
• Exterior Case Dimension
• 37″ – Length
  12″ – Width
  6″ – Depth

The case is custom padded and protective though the tight fit requires re-tuning after removing it from the case, which is small enough to fit in most airplane overhead luggage bins (or so they claim).

The straps are adjustable for backpack or sling style carry and the guitar is light. Here’s the tuner and how it clips on the headstock; fast accurate tuning even with a ‘tinn’ ear.

You don’t get much bass but I like the sort of banjo/mandolin sound of it. The idea of a sixty-six year old with tinnitus, no obvious musical talent and arthritis learning the guitar is absurd.

But I’m having a good time twanging loudly away on the few easy chords I know so far (E major, A major and [almost] D major).

Next up, some minor chords-the sad sounding ones- like A minor and E minor. I’ve got blisters on my fingers! Well, not quite yet.

[18 May 2017- Just sold the Washburn to a nice young guitar student named Josh who lives in a cabin in Ukiah and didn’t bargain at the $135 price. So it cost me very little to learn on it. May your cabin ring with music Josh. I sold it because my electric Strat clone is easier to play and sounds a bit better.]

Unless noted, all text and images produced by todgermanica.com. Noncommercial use free with attribution.