Westone guitar forums pro#
Westone guitar forums series#

There was a lot of snobbery back then in the bass world - if it wasn't a Fender or Musicman you tended to get looked down on, especially as Westones were available in the Freemans catalogue (no jokes about the lingerie section please. The QC and build on them was amazing when you compare it with stuff nowadays.

Westone guitar forums series#

The Matsumoko factory was churning out some great stuff then and Westones - especially the Thunder series were great basses.

Westone guitar forums pro#

Loads of people in the 80s used Westones - they were the cheaper version of the Aria Pro range and were great basses. But it would appear they are generally well regarded. My drummer took the *s when I said that was my first bass.

2008 Epiphone Les Paul Custom Silverburst Electric.I was going to put a thread on about Westones.

Album Review: Tokyo Tramps вЂ“ RollinвЂ™ Rockland Blue.

2006 Ernie Ball MusicMan Bongo Bass Guitar Review.

Once at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Review: Bullets over Broadway, the Musical at the.

Review: Boston and Cheap Trick at the Forum in Ing.

1983 Westone Thunder III Version 1 Bass Guitar Review.

BOSS CS-3 Compressor Sustainer Guitar Effects Peda.

Drop me a line if you are interested, and weвЂ™ll see if we get it into your hands.

I have only seen a few Westone Thunder III basses in the wild, and this one is still out in the studio if you are ready to get one for yourself.

It can be a slap and pop monster too, if that is your thing. Having the P and J pickups gives it a lot more range than the Aria basses and it does a genuine Precision Bass tone as well as clean and edgy sounds. It takes a little getting used to, but it sounds great in both the active and passive modes and it is worth the trouble. One thing is that the body horns are so short that it makes the neck feels really long. It has a 1 5/8-inch wide nut, and the neck profile is a comfy shallow C. It is really a beautiful instrument, and it plays just as good as it looks. This one is kind of a time capsule, with no wear and just a few bumps and bruises and the frets and brass parts look like new. Instead of the 6-way control switch, the Westones got volume, active and passive tone controls as well as phase reverse, 'dual tone' (series/parallel) and active tone switches. These pickups are different than the humbucker(s) in the Super Basses, though they appear to use the identical 18-volt onboard preamplifier. The Westone Thunder II Version 2 had optional PJ (HF600B and SA800B) pickups introduced in 1982, then in 1983 they renamed this PJ model as the Thunder III with no changes. But the big deal is the electronics package, which is really cool.

Also, the fret markers are cool little snowflakes, and the brass bridge has a more conventional design, which in my opinion looks better than the Aria bridges. For starters, the Thunder III body has less extreme cutaways and it has 22 frets instead of 24. This is not a coincidence, as Matsumoku built those Aria Super Basses too!Д«ut, there are a few important differences. Anyway, it has a clear-finished laminated Canadian ash, maple and walnut body, rosewood fretboard, 2-on-a-side tuners, and a brass nut and bridge. Of course those Super Basses looked a lot like the Alembics that they were copying, but that is a yet another bag of snakes. If you look at this Thunder III, the most obvious thing is that this looks an awful lot like an Aria Pro II Super Bass. Not many of their guitars were imported to the US, and it seems like most of their products went to the UK. Their products were never a big hit and in 1987 Matsumoku sold the brand to a Korean company, and by 1991 the brand was gone.

They built very good instruments, including copies of popular American instruments that caused some legal difficulties.ДЄfter building instruments for other companies for all of those years, in 1981 they decided to start their own brand and Westone was born. Matsumoku was a Japanese company that specialized in making guitars for many brands, including Aria, Epiphone, Vox and more. Well, today we are looking at really sweet one: a minty Westone Thunder III bass from 1983.ДЇor those of you who have no been studying the history of Japanese guitar builders, here is a quick run-down on the brand. I have had a decades-long love for vintage Japanese guitars and basses since I purchased my first Aria Pro II bass back in 1986, and since then I have owned and played more instruments from Japan than I would dare to admit.