I have owned(and still do own)a lot of the funky munky and boogie street limited run washburn dime guitars. Both companies ordered and had washburn build these imports at the same time,between the time Darrell signed with Dean but before the contract with Washburn ran out.
Serial numbers on the imports won't tell you Jack shit. On some the first two letters tell you the country it was built in. Almost all of the imports were built in Indonesia. The only proof of this is on the boogie street lightning bolt builds with the abalone lightning inlays. These actually say built in Indonesia on the back of the headstock. I believe the import crosses also say that too,tho I have not seen my import cross in years(I should bust it out but I'm too busy to drive over to the place it's stored to look).
IMO the rebel flag was the cheapest of these limited runs. The "shelf" neck joint is one of the giveaways. As was the hardware. The Floyd was a bottom of the line unit compared to other runs,including the later import slimes with the USA style smooth neck joint. The rebel flag I had felt far lighter than the others,and developed a crack in the paint at the neck joint fairly quickly...tho that is not uncommon even in the high end USA dime 3's,especially the early models.
Also note,some of the last of these limited runs were of the highest quality(this does not include the rebel run as it was done early on). These last imports I speak of were built during the last gasps of the washburns at that time...when they were accused of importing unfinished guitars and painting and stamping them "made in USA" here in the states. These last imports were very well built and outfitted with the best hardware. That's why the boogie street limited run imports And the 2nd run of funky munky slimes are so sought after. They are absolutely crushing guitars for imports.
As for why some of these imports are are weaker than the others,it has to do with spec tolerances when the orders are placed,and whomever is overseeing the build process. Both turds and diamonds can be found in every run,but some runs are just spec'd better. Proof is in the pricing. The rebels were cheaper than the slimes,and the slimes were cheaper than the boogie bolts and so on.
A big shout out to Pat and Jon from funky munky for being such great guys back in the day. They treated me well for years,and I will always love them bigtime. But be aware,I am still convinced Pat was capable of mind control. I could never look him in the eyes(cheap joke,Pat had weird eyes and drove like a madman).
