A little while ago I wrote a blog called "Washburn Mercury Series Part I" in that post the focus was more on the US made guitars with Wilkinson tremolos. This time we will finish the list of the US made guitars. There were some with Floyd Rose tremolos, some even with Tune-o-matic bridges and tailpieces. Some others didn't even make the catalog.
There were a few models made with Floyd Rose tremolos and also had an HSH pickup configuration. These were the Washburn Mercury MG 154, the Washburn Mercury MG 104 and the Washburn Mercury MG 94. They all featured Seymour Duncan pickups in an HSH configuration, a Schaller Licensed Floyd Rose tremolo and Schaller tuners. The MG154 was the only one featuring a mahogany back where as the others had an alder body. The MG94 lacking a maple top. The MG154 also featured an ebony fretboard where as the other two guitars had the option for a rosewood or maple fretboard.
In 1993 there are two models in the Mercury line which featured a Tune-o-matic bridge which distinguished them between all the other Mercuries with trems. These were the Washburn Mercury MG142 and the Washburn Mercury MG112. They also featured an HH pickup configuration with Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a maple top. The MG142 had an ebony fingerboard as opposed to the MG112 which had a Rosewood fingerboard. The following year the MG112 changed it's features. It then suddenly had an (original) Floyd Rose tremolo and lost it's maple top.
Let's start with the Washburn Mercury MG113 Performer which is mentioned in the Washburn archives. It has a different pickup configuration than all the other MG's. The three Seymour Duncan humbuckers all have a single coil format and it's matte/satin finish also makes it unique among the MG's. Then there are two MG's that aren't even mentioned in the Washburn archives and in the US catalogs. These are the Washburn MG132FR and the Stevie Salas signature model, the Washburn Mercury MG130. The Washburn MG132FR was published in the 1995 Japanese Washburn catalog. It had a quilted maple drop top, a Floyd Rose licensed tremolo and two Seymour Duncan humbuckers. What made the Washburn MG130 unique was it's construction, as opposed to the other MG's it had a set-in neck construction but looked a lot like a neck-through. The neck and headstock were also finished in the color matching the body color. It featured a HHH pickup configuration with 3 Seymour Duncan humbuckers, of which two were in a single coil format.
The list of Washburn Mercury guitars isn't finished yet. The next time I will write about the higher end Korean made MG's.
