Washburn Falcon

Falcons are a bit of a sweet spot in the WING SERIES lineup. Hawks had three piece necks without the push-pull coil taps on the "Power Sustain” pickups. Falcons shared the same electronics and five piece neck through construction as the Eagles, but the Eagles were generally more ornate in their binding and have a belly cut recess on the back of the guitar. The belly cut is the give away it’s an Eagle. Eagles should also have metal knobs, and depending on the finish, some have gold hardware (i.e. bridge plate and tuners). Falcons always had silver / chrome hardware.

Daion was the general distributor for Washburn in Japan. In a Daion Washburn Price List likely from 1980, the models are listed SB-6 (RAVEN) at ¥45,000, SB-10 (HAWK) at ¥65,000, SB-20 (FALCON) at ¥75,000, and SB-30 (EAGLE) at ¥90,000. In the same price list the Falcon is listed with the following colors: M (Natural Maple), SB (Antique Sunburst), R/N (Rosewood top, Natural back), R/BR (Rosewood top, Brown Back). In the UK ad pictured below, the Falcon is listed with finishes such as Gold Top, Cherry Sunburst, and Rosewood. The United States catalog shows three colors: Maple, Rosewood, and Sunburst. In the gallery below, you can see the Cherry Sunburst finish has two variations - cream or rosewood binding. Quite a variety of finishes and construction!

One of the best websites for tracking all the changes of the WING SERIES was www.g3h.be. Sadly, the website only exists today using Google’s Wayback Machine. The production changes I list below are not intended to be as comprehensive as the aforementioned site.

You start seeing tell tale signs of Yamaki construction starting in 1979, and unquestionably in 1980 and 1981. The 1978 example in the photo gallery below has a scarf neck joint, so based on that, I would not label it as built by Yamaki. A bit off topic, but if you have not seen a 1979-80 Daion Mark XX, it’s looks like Daion Mark XX and a Washburn Falcon had a lovechild.

1978 - First year of the Falcon, and hard to find. Flat brass saddles, oval control cavity cover, pearl dot fret markers, input jack on the face of the body, two adjustment screw humbuckers. Tuners have torque adjustment. Falcons made in 1978-1979 are sometimes referred to as the “Model A” generation.

1979 - Brass saddles appear that are also seen on Daion POWERSERIES as well as triple screw / anti-tilt “Power Sustain” pickups. For this model year, the V on top of the headstock is softer and shallower than in other years, tuners turn to standard rotomatics branded Washburn.

1980 - Fret makers changed to brass rings (also used by Daion on many of their models). The input jack moves to the edge of the guitar body. The control cavity is trapezoid shaped. A metal box shielding the electronics and a printed circuit board (Yamaki!) is present. Falcons made from 1979-1981 are sometimes referred to as the “Model B” generation.

The Falcon line continues after 1981, but we know that the Yamaki facility closes in 1983. The last series from 1982-1984, referred to as the “Model C” generation, had a bolt on neck and according to the aforementioned g3h.be, was made by Matsumoku.