Say hello...

[Administrator]

Hi All,

Welcome to the forums. By popular demand, this is the place to introduce yourself to your fellow Westone fans. I've pinched the format from the old Westone forum, and like the old one, please feel free to say as much or as little about yourself as you like:

Name - Neil

Age - 34

Location - Bognor Regis (yes, it really does exist)

First guitar - Hondo Les Paul copy

First Westone - 1987 Thunder II

Later Westones - Clipper CL3012, Clipper Six

Musical style/favourite bands - PJ Harvey, Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, CSS, The Breeders, The Beatles, Sonic Youth, Hot Chip, Arcade Fire, Beck, Klaxons, Guns 'n' Roses, Cream, Nick Cave, Peaches, Pulp, etc, etc, etc...

Current Westones - 1987 Thunder II, currently in pieces awaiting a new bridge and a re-finish

Other instruments - Fender Strat, Novation Remote 25 Midi keyboard, Hohner Arbor Bass (in canary yellow!), Westfield jumbo acoustic.

Favourite instrument - My Thunder of course!

[corsair]

Hi troops - most of you know me already, he says modestly! - but to refresh those ailing memories, I'm John and at 48, I'm am the atypical ageing rocker (I only recently cut off my ponytail)!! I'm a recent convert to Westone but have been a Matt player since 1980 when I bought my Vantage VA900. My first Westone played was on a recording in 1995 when the band I was in cut a disc and the bass player wanted to play guitar on a track so I played his Spectrum ST bass .... and loved it, certainly nicer than the P-bass I had at the time!! My first Westone owned was a Genesis II, (2006) found in a pawn shop under a pile of Chinese junk, then my Spectrum GT bass (yay!), Spectrum ST guitar and now a Clipper Cl4112 which has to have been resurrected as the neck was in an appalling state - more on that later! In NZ there doesn't seem to be that many Matts surfacing so I consider myself lucky to be abl to grab what I've got! I particularly like the Spectrum/Electa Phoenix models and will make them my focus to acquire; along with a Vantage VA912, AV310 and a VA900B! (Can you hear my wife groaning in the background?!)
My first guitar was a 1958 Fender telecaster which I modified heavily then sold for NZ$100 in about 1979 and I have had all of the biggies since then and most of the littlies as well!! I try to play play keys as well, and have an Alesis QS-6 for that, dabble in banjo and lap steel and mandolin; I am a virtuoso kazoo player as well! I try to still play live as there's nothing like it for an adrenaline rush and for that I will give the ST a wring out as I really really like it to play!
I'm influenced by anyone and everyone who can sing or play with the possible exception of modern rappers - I liked Grandmaster Flash back in the day! - but Ritchie Blackmore and David Gilmour are still favourite guitarists...today; that's always subject to change!
My favourite instrument is my VA900; sorry guys but there's a lot of blood sweat and tears, and miles under the belt with that guitar and it never once let me down!

[Pollyanna]

Ooh, good idea Neil!

Okay, for those of you who don't already know me by now, here goes:

Name: Pauline Anne aka Pollyanna/Polly (amongst others! )

Age: 51 (But it says age 11 to 12 in my jeans and about 18 in my head!)

Location: Seaham, County Durham - but I'm not from around these parts!

I've been married to Stephen for two years, and he is a brilliant guitarist! I have two daughters, Jennifer aged 28 and Wendy aged 26, one son Joe aged 21, who is away at sea in the Merchant Navy, a step-son aged 14, four grand children, (soon to be six of them!). They are aged between 8 and 4, three boys, one girl.
I'm owned by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy called Brock and a Silver Tabby cat called Poppy!

I'm now retired after spending most of my live doing various jobs which ranged from being an apprentice jockey at the age of fifteen, to working as a telephonist/receptionist and finally a teacher, teaching art to mentally and physically handicapped people of all ages. My main passions in life have always been my animals and my painting. After devoting most of my time to bringing up my kids, I gained my BA Hons as an Illustrator/Designer in 2005. I was a late starter and got my first tattoo at the ripe old age of 39! My days are now spent restoring my guitars and others, writing a book, painting and lurking around guitar forums in pink wellies!

I bought my very first guitar when I fourteen, it was a Classical acoustic which I saved up for weeks to buy - I don't remember what make it was but needless to say, I loved it and it went everywhere with me. (I thought I was Mary Hopkins!)

Work, marriage, kids, other interests/whatever, prevented me from continuing to learn to play until about three years ago when I took up the guitar again - the rest is history!

First Westone: My Clipper Six

Other Westones: Two Paduaks, Thunder I, Spectrum SX, Clipper CL4112, Pantera XA300, Genesis II, and hopefully, lots more to come in the future!

Other Instruments: Ibanez Artcore, Fender GDO300 Acoustic, Fender Telecaster project, Electronic keyboard with light up keys and everything! Tambourine and a custom painted Kazoo!

Musical Tastes: Anything from the 50's, 60's and 70's! Country & Western, Buddy Holly, Soppy stuff, (Love songs and the like!) Elvis, anything Rock and Roll, Free, Status Quo, Pavarotti, Mario Lanza ...

My fave songs to play on the guitar are: 'If Paradise ...', 'Hotel California', 'Free bird', 'On the midnight special' and not forgetting my all time favourite; 'The Twelve Bar Blues'! I'm also learning to play some Bee Gees and Thin Lizzy stuff now!

Well, as they say in all the best cartoons, "Th-Th-That's all folks!"

Pauline

[Sfalj]

Well, I'm Antoine from Quebec, Canada. I live just outside Montreal.

My first ever guitar was a Barracuda SG copy and I hated it. I then got a cheapie GK Strat copy and it wasn't much better. A few years later I found my first Westone for 150$ CAD in a local pawn shop tucked away behind some boxes, what a deal and what a guitar! Indeed, my first good guitar was a Westone Thunder I-A, and I love the tone.



It was then joined by two Rickenbackers for the jangle, I got them both in 2007. I'm a big Tom Petty and George Harrison fan and well, I love good guitars, what can I say?



I just recently purchased a Thunder II but I don't have it in my possession yet. I spotted it on an online classified site in a city too far for me to go and get. Luckily I have a cousin who was about 20 minutes away from it and was nice enough to pick it up for me. I should get it around May 3rd when he comes to visit his parents.It's really hard to not think about it. Here's a picture he sent me. For some reason it has a Schaller strap lock (yes only one) on it and no second strap button. I'll have to buy a set of Schallers when I get it.



So there you have it.

PS: I'm 20 years old and I love all sorts of music from all sorts of places. Jazz, blues, African, rock and many many other things. I love Frank Zappa, George Harrison and Tom Petty.

[wayne weedon]

Sorry it's taken so long Pauline! But I did make it here in the end.

Still too little time for much guitar at the moment, I've even had to cancel my lessons for a while. Will get back to those next week though.

In the meantime I've been working like crazy and beating the house about a bit.


Wayne.....

[Pollyanna]

Hello Wayne and a very warm welcome from me and all your old (and new) mates here too!

It's nice to see you and I'm glad that you made it here eventually ... better late than never!
Woo! Sounds like you've been busy, now it's time to chill out, relax, put your feet up, and play your guitar!

Looking forward to seeing you and everyone else hanging around here, for quite a long time to come!

Pauline

P.s. An equally warm welcome to you too, Antoine and anybody else (?) who I might have (unintentionally) missed.

[Bluesman]

Hello...

My name is Stephen, I'm a professional Visual Artist from County Durham, with a Masters in Fine Art. I've been playing guitars since the mid seventies, over three decades!!!

Married to an avid collector of Westone guitars, who you may be familiar with...

My 13 year old son is also a guitarist although he uses a Gibson SG + a Jackson Flying V.

So while I'm playing blues rock in one room, the wife is strumming away country on one of her Westones in another, meanwhile my son is shredding away in his bedroom!!! You might say the house is musically orientated!!! I think the cat +dog are about to set up a band!!!

Anyway, I play in a local 5 piece blues/rock outfit called Vain Tempest. I use a Gibson LP Standard, PRS CU24 Artist Pack, Kramer Focus 3000 from the eighties and a Westone Clipper CL4112 through a Marshall DSL40 valve amp, no effects just the sound of the strings.

First guitar I gigged with was a Westone Thunder 1A, I've probably owned about 100 guitars in my time and still rate the Westone as one of the finest instruments available. Some of my favourite guitars I no longer own include Gordon Smith GS1, Burns Flyte (Im in the market for another if anyone knows where I can get one) Fender Telecaster (a most excellent blues guitar)

Music wise, I love the Blues, guitarists I appreciate are numerous however a few that stand out include Robert Johnson, Paul Kossoff, Angus Young, Hendrix + Jimmy Page.

Anyway there's a brief intro, best wishes to you all,

Stephen (bluesman)

[kb2nto]

Hello my name is Ed I live in LeRoy NY. The birthplace of Jello of all things. I just picked up my first Westone. It is a Anniversary trans brown Genesis1. It has the Westone case although just a serviceable one. The whammy bar was also with it. The condition is amazing very little wear. However it is missing one tuner cover the neck locking system and the truss rod cover is missing half the plastic. The locking system seems to be the one real problem however it plays great just the way it is at this time. Probably the wrong area to ask but any help with parts and suggestions appreciated. I have quite a Japanese guitar collection Fenders, Squiers, Ibanezs and a very nice Carlo Robelli SG copy. Again hello to all...Ed

[Pollyanna]

Hello Ed and Welcome,

It would be nice to see some photographs of your Genesis I. Why don't you put some pictures up in the 'Members Westones' forum? We'd all love to see it!

You could also put a post in the 'Wanted' forum too, you never know, someone might just have the parts that you are looking for!

Looking forward to seeing those photo's!

Pauline

[WilsonT]

Hi im Tony. I just got my first westone, an x120. I live in arkansas. First guitar i ever played was a fender strat. I have always played bass more than guitar but i have transitioned to playingn mostly guitar. My first bass was a Rouge.


I am 22, married for 3 years now, and have 1 1/2 kids.

[Confused]

Hi all,
I recently saved a (what I can figure) 1986 Pantera Standard X275 from certain destruction/disposal. Long story short, she's not in terribly good shape and had been partially dissasembled. I'm missing a few bits, which hopefully I can get some advice on from this esteemed group. I was a recreational player in my mispent youth (at least as far as I remember) and when I saw her lying there neglected, some silly thought popped into my head that she should be put back into service and that I should start playing again. I am NOT anticipating a fix-up and sale AT ALL! I will post my questions in the technical section. Glad to be on board.

[Sfalj]

Welcome on board! Hopefully you'll be able to repair the damage, be sure to post pictures (even if the guitar is incomplete).

[Administrator]

Hey Confused! Welcome aboard.

[boutjp97]

Hello all, I'm from Kenmore, New York United States. I'm 34 and have been playing for about 21 years. I took about 8 years off, not playing for months at a time, but still playing. I got in bands at age 14 and won best new guitarist in Buffalo as judged by the local entertainment magazine called the gusto at age 16. I practiced up to 6 hours a day and thought that I would be Randy Rhoads some day. After winning the award and getting a name locally I got some offers from some decent local talent but went into hard/death metal. I played on a few local bands albums (mostly foreign release) as a hired gun because lets face it, most death metal guitarists don't know how to play. At age 18 I got an offer from the Phillip Marshall agency to do a solo album with limited release in Florida which I declined. I was then Signed by Polaris records to be in the second coming of the wild boys. We were in the process of finalizing the album tracks when polaris went under due to a lawsuit filed by the original members of wild boys. I played in Beyond Death taking the place of Jack Owen who went on to form Cannibal Corpse. As a matter of fact my old band is on their first CD’s thanks list; my old band is called Brain Dead. I owned a few Westones back then as well as Kramers and Charvels and Ibanez and Ovation. I sold all but the Ibanez and the Ovation. I stopped playing for the most part. Then about a year ago I started playing a little here and there. I thought about all of my old guitars especially my red Dimension IV and my old Spectrum. So the last four months I have been buying anything and everything that I can that has to do with Matsumoku. I am just getting back in the swing of things for personal enjoyment (nobody else enjoys it, that’s for sure).

[corsair]

G'day and welcome, bout - you'll see that we've already divvied up your guitars amongst ourselves; we're good like that!

[Sfalj]

Welcome on board, boutjp97!

That's a pretty interesting story you posted. Sounds like you'll be a great addition to the board.

[Joseph St. Ides]

Heya from the 'Nati.

Name - Joe

Age - 34

Location - Cincinnati

First guitar - 1985 Westone Dynasty

First Westone - 1985 Westone Dynasty

Musical
style/favourite bands - Punk/Metal/Blues/folk/trible/jazz and all nefarious combinations. Iron Maiden, Black Flag(w/Keith Morris), Ramones, DK, SSD, MDC, The AK-47's, Sepultura(cavelera era), DRI, The Dicks, NoFX, Clutch, Bela Fleck, Tito Puente, King Crimson, Mastadon, Metallica, The Clash, Babes in toyland, Voivod, Wrathchild America/Souls at Zero, etc etc etc. lol

Current Westones - 1985 Westone Dynasty and I need stuff to fix 'er up

Other
instruments - BC Rich Exclusive, Carlo Robelli 4 string Bass, Austin Rock Standard, Ovation Celebrity model cc157 a couple of coffee cans..dah dah dee.

Favourite instrument - Well right now it's my BC Rich, but I want to fix up my Westone and make it my primary for metal and such.

[Sfalj]

You've come to the right place for a fix'er up. Have fun.

[colt933]

Hi, I'm Robert and I my username was Colt933 on David's site as well.

I'm 39 and I live in a suburb of Nashville, TN USA.

I work as a computer systems architect for a large IT company.

I currently have two 1986 Pantera X-390CBs, a 1987 Rainbow II, a 1986 Pantera X-300CR, and a 1987 Prestige 150. All have original cases and are in very good to like new condition.

Other guitars that I currently own include a custom Warmoth strat-parts-o-caster (killer), custom Warmoth VW (killer - like an EB/MM Van Halen or Axis but with mahogany body and arched flame maple top), 1986 Charvel Model 5 (killer), Line 6 Variax 300, and 1986 Alvarez-Yairi DY-74.

Previously, I owned a 1986 Pantera X-390 prototype, 1985 & 1986 Spectrum FX, and 1984 Thunder IIa.

Other guitars of note that I have owned include a fabulous made-in-Japan Jackson DK-2 Dinky, fabulous made-in-Japan Jackson SL-3 Soloist (shouldn't have sold that one), 1986 Charvel Model 4, PRS-SE Tremonti, Aria Pro II PE, a killer Aria Pro II LS-450 (shouldn't have sold it either), Electro Omega LP copy, Carvin DC-127, Mexican Stratocaster.

I started playing clarinet at the age of 7 in school band and moved on to tenor and alto saxophone and bass and contra-bass clarinet. I started playing guitar at the age of 15 and played in several bands in high school. I started being the sound engineer for a number of local bands in Middle Tennessee, then went to work for Phase Audio (pro audio sales and installation firm) in Memphis and later Concert Production (pro audio sales and installation and mainly live sound production) in Murfreesboro. I toured North America with several major-label country acts based in Nashville and have some freelance studio engineer experience as well. I have about 10 years of professional experience as a sound engineer. But finally I grew up, finished my undergraduate degree in computer information systems, and started working for the man about 14 years ago...

My first guitar was a mahogany Guild classical 6-string with a natural oil finish (I have never seen another like it). My first electric guitar was a Mako black telecaster copy (Pete Townshend was my idol as a teenager) that played and sounded surprisingly good even though it had a plywood body.

One of my Pantera X-390CBs is absolutely the finest electric guitar ever made, in my opinion. Most people who play it agree. It plays like butter and sustains for days, even at the 24th fret! I bet it would sound better with some upgraded pickups, but it's in such pristine condition that I hesitate to modify it. I do not gig with this guitar.

I was a little disappointed by the Prestige 150 when I first got it, but it's growing on me. It could benefit from upgraded pickups and I have a vintage Dimarzio super distortion sitting around that I would like to try.

My Pantera X-300CR had a dead UBC pickup in it when I got it. I took it all apart and sure enough, one of the coils is open. I had a Seymour Duncan George Lynch Screamin' Demon pickup sitting around that I hadn't really liked in any guitar I had tried it in, so I put it in the X-300. Lynch was playing maple body guitars when they designed this pickup and the X-300 has a maple body. That pickup sounds great in the X-300! I highly recommend it for anyone with a maple body Westone.

Trevor Rabin of Yes is one of my favorite guitarists and he is the reason I became interested in Westone and Matsumoku guitars. There's lots of good video footage of him playing his signature X-390CB model. Check out the 'Something To Hold On To' video on Youtube. ALL of the guitars in the video are Westone/SLM and there are dozens and dozens of them.

[Pollyanna]

Hey there Joe and Welcome.

(There's a song in there somewhere!)

Good name by the way - My son is also called Joe!

Anyway, like everyone else here, I too am looking forward to seeing some photos of your guitar and good luck with the restoration work too!


Hi there Robert,

Good to see you too mate, and of course, Welcome!

And yes, we want to see photos of your guitars too!

Ooh, I do so like it when people introduce themselves, it's like getting to know everyone personally! Being a bit old fashioned, I also like to address everyone by their given name, so thanks chaps for that!

Pauline