Any idea what the best selling acoustic guitar in the world is? A Gibson or maybe it could be a Martin… Well, it might surprise you to learn that the best-selling acoustic guitar is a Washburn D10S. Well, they’re the best-selling acoustics for a reason, so I thought I’d give one a try to see exactly why:

For starters you can get one for under £150 and I have to say you get a lot of guitars for that money. For starters, there is a 12-string version along with the standard 6-string.

The Washburn D10S I tested was fresh out of the box, so it hadn’t been tampered with in any way. It was exactly the way any of us would receive it. I thought that was the fairest way. So when I first took it out, my first impression of the finish was that it was good. There are no noticeable blemishes or bleeds in the lacquer finish, which appears to have decent thickness and coverage. It’s a good start, but as much as I love looking at guitars, it’s all about the playability and the sound it produces.

So when I first picked it up and put my hands on the fretboard, I noticed that the action was low, much lower than I expected. For me this was a plus and not what I expected. The strings looked standard, but pretty awful, so I formed a C chord and strummed. Excellent, no fret buzz even with these strings. I think some nice light Elixir strings and the performance could be even better.

I took a closer look inside the sound hole, which is always a good place to look for signs of shoddy workmanship, but there was no glue anywhere, it was very clean. The wood used appears to be of a decent standard with a solid spruce top. Laminated mahogany back and sides keep the price down without sacrificing quality. The fretboard is rosewood, which is standard, so there wouldn’t be any issues there. The frets aren’t rough and there don’t seem to be any dead or unusually raised frets. The tuners look pretty good and seemed to turn and tune well. It sounds like they would be enough to keep the strings in tune.

Sound-wise, the Washburn D10S acoustic guitar has good volume, smooth mids, and bright highs. The bass was a bit dull, but the thick lacquer finish doesn’t seem to have affected the sustain or tone which, I must say, had me a bit concerned. There is a plastic nut and mount that I would probably change to further improve the sound. There’s no electricity to worry about, however I probably wouldn’t hesitate to spend the money to fix up a decent truck.

In short, my experience with the Washburn D10S has been completely positive. The guitar seems to represent great value for money. With Washburn having the world’s best-selling acoustic guitar, it seems I’m not alone in this either.