Westone Parts, Part 1

The first two packages of parts for the Westone arrived on Wednesday and Thursday - the main item being the neck pickup, a Seymour Duncan '59. I've gone for the "reverse zebra" version, in which the black and cream bobbins are switched from the "standard" zebra configuration, so the black bobbins are on the outside of the pickups as they sit in the guitar. Click here for a pictorial example from the Seymour Duncan website (although I don't know why they have it upside down).

The drawback of the reverse zebra is that they seem to be rarer, and I've got to wait about 4 weeks for the bridge pickup I've ordered to come into stock from the US!

Also delivered this week were a few of the bits and bobs that are needed - the tone pot, pickup switch, nut, knobs, capacitors and some extra wire.

So that leaves just the bridge pickup and the pickup mounting rings, and I'll have everything I need.

Project #3 - Westone Thunder I-A

Well, so project #1 is still progressing, albeit slowly, and project #2 is still in its box, but project #3 is now about to take off! Maybe I should take one thing at a time, but this one requires rather less work than the first two and it should be fun.

I've been keeping an eye on Ebay for a while in case any interesting potential projects come up, and in amongst a lot of rubbish and over-priced stuff there's the occasional gem to be had - probably true of buying just about anything on Ebay! I've missed out on a couple of things, a perspex Aria Legend body in particular which would've been fun to put together, but a couple of weeks ago I managed to secure both the body and neck of a Westone Thunder I-A.

It was made in 1986 by the well-regarded Matsumoku factory in Japan, and in simple terms is a double-cutaway, fixed-bridge, twin-humbucker guitar. The thing that sets it apart though, is the active pre-amp circuit that's built in - hence the "A" in "I-A". I also happen to think it's a really nice looking guitar, with laminated Ash/Maple/Walnut body that's put together to resemble a neck-through-body construction. There was a neck-through version of it in the Westone range apparently, but this one is actually a bolt-on neck.

The neck has its original tuners but is missing a nut, otherwise it looks in good condition bar the odd minor ding and scratch. The body could definitely be described as "well-used" and has a fair few little dents and marks, plus quite a bit of pick-wear on the front, but it's just cosmetic. I suppose I could sand down the body and re-lacquer it but the cosmetic wear isn't something that particularly bothers me, not at this stage anyway. Maybe that's something I can do at a later date, but for now I just want to get it working. The body has the original (I presume) bridge - a fixed, string-through-body design - and most of the electrics (including the all-important active circuit) but is missing a push/pull tone pot, pickup selector switch and the pickups.

There's some great information on the internet about it, particularly at westone.info which is an absolute treasure-trove of information, including an all-important wiring diagram. The model I have is the Version 5 on this page.

I figured that I could just get some cheap pickups and get it working, but I'd rather make the best of it that I can - so I've decided to get a set of Seymour Duncans, and hopefully it'll sound really good. Most of the parts are now on order, so I'll post a bit more about them as and when they arrive.

Cavities Covered

After a little more sanding and scraping, I've finally glued the cavity covers in place - with a generous helping of wood glue and several dictionaries used to ensure uniform pressure all the way round each glued joint!

The end result has turned out pretty well, in most places the join is almost flush with the body surrounding it. Some areas are slightly proud of the surface of the body and will need sanding down a little, and in one or two places they're slightly below the surface - neither of which really matters too much. There are small gaps between the edges of the covers and the body, since inevitably the covers weren't a perfect fit, but nothing a little wood filler won't sort out.

All this was done a couple of weeks ago, but I've been distracted from this project (and from blogging about it) by a new project...more on that soon!