Re: Say hello...

[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

[challpa]

Hello,

I was a member on the old forums but hadnt been on for a while, thought I had better join again so as not to miss any ebay bargains

Name - Paul
Age - 21 twice =42
Location - Brisbane Queensland Australia
First guitar - Samick strat copy
First Westone - 1982 concord 1
Music - Pink floyd, AC-DC, Dire straits, Gary Moore, Eagles, Van tramp, U2 and many others
Current Westones - 1982 concord 1, 1983 prestige 250, 1982 thunder 1 and 1983 thunder 1
Other Gear - Westbury standard, Ibanez blazer, Takamine gx200, Samick strat copy, Ibanez S470, Ibanez RG 470, Washburn raven, Line 6 variax 500, 1966 Ibanez hollow body (in pieces), Vantage avenger (in pieces), Vantage acoustic, Cort SFX-6B, Behringer VAmpire LX 210 Amplifier, Line 6 pod X3 live effects.
Favourite instrument - Westone prestige 250 rules the roost

send more westones to Oz they are a bit thin on the gound here

[corsair]

Yay - another Antipodean!! G'day Paul - listen bud, if you reckon they're scarce in Aussie, then spare a thought for me here in deepest darkest southern NZ!!

[Sfalj]

Welcome Challpa! Westones are rare all over (all over being wherever I am not ).

Be sure to have fun and post often! And post pictures of your guitars!

[Fragile]

Hi, I am Fragile and I live in Belgium (native dutch-speaking). I am 23 years old, and the happy owner of a Telecaster and a LP Standard, both awesome guitars, especially their tonal characteristics, BUT I am looking for -as mentioned in the wanted section- a caspian blue Pantera X390. I've heard a lot of playing on this guitar, especially from Trevor Rabin of Yes during his late '80 tenure with the group, and must honestly say that I've never ever heard this before!

It's great to see that there are still people out there who keep non-Gibson-Fender quality guitars alive, even after they get knocked out of 'commercial' competition. Keep it up. I look forward to hearing -reading- from you all. Especially the topics about the complete refurbishing of these guitars are amazing!



Fragile

[Pollyanna]

Hello Fragile and Welcome,

It's nice to see yet another 'youngster' joining our rapidly growing family of Westone owners.

I wish you well in your quest for the Pantera, and as you are already looking, you don't need me to tell you how great these guitars are! I'm sure that one will come your way eventually, sooner rather than later.

"Everything comes to those who wait".

Pauline

[Sfalj]

Welcome aboard Fragile!

You're (like a few others here) searching for a rarer breed of Westone guitars. The difficulty makes it all the more interesting, I believe. Have fun on the forums.

Don't be afraid to ask questions as there is quite a lot of knowledge floating around here.

-Antoine

[TheShaggyDA]

Just found this forum, Good to see some more Westone fans :-)

I bought my first Westone in '82, a Thunder 1 bass. Absolutely loved it, until I fell in lust with a Westone Quantum in '86. Sold the former, bought the latter, and gigged with it until about '92 when work travelling meant I could no longer get to gigs on time, leaving me burnt out at the weekends. I sold all my gear except the Quantum, and it came out of retirement last year, when a old friend asked me to play on his CD. It still plays just as well and sounds just as good as it always did. I don't know what it is about the Westone basses, they just "fit" my hands perfectly, and I love the tone.

I'll get some piccies up sometime, I've been giving it a hard time at a friend's studio and needs a good polish :-)

TTFN

Shaggy

[Pollyanna]

Hello Shaggy and Welcome!

There are more of us than you think! (Westone fans that is, not Aliens! )

Looking forward to seeing the pictures of your bass.

Enjoy the forums and we hope to see you around quite a bit and for a long time to come.

Pauline

[MarkW]

Hi there,

I'm another from the 'Shaky Isles' aka New Zealand... in the city of Auckland to be specific.

I'm 35 and have been playing since I was about 15 I guess.
The Spectrum ST I purchased a few weeks back is my first ever Westone.
The first Westone I ever laid eyes on was owned by the bass player of the first band I was in - I think it was an early all black Spectrum model - I always thought it was really damn cool.

My first guitar was an Ibanez Iceman. A very bog standard model and I really don't miss it I must say.

My current geetars are a 1973ish Fender Mustang (which has been modified a little) and a Cole Clark Fat Lady2 - a lovely Aussie built acoustic electric.

I must say, it's great to see such enthusiastic Westone nuts here, and thanks for the feedback on dumb questions I have asked .. expect more!

Oh, and I shall keep you updated on how the ST restoration is going too

[hummel]

Hi there,

I'm Hans, 43 years of age and live in the centre/east part of the Netherlands. My mom was a piano teacher and my father played violin, so definitly a big influence there. Although they were very classical in their taste of music I was sort of encouraged to find an instrument that would 'fit' me. After flute, piano, violin and cello it became the classical guitar. At the same time, I must have been 14 or so, I discovered Santana's Moonflower and was immediatly captured by this cross-over style of jazz, latin and even classical influences. Not much later I got my first electric, an Aria Pro2 Cardinal by Matsumoko!

In the early 80's a second big influence was the new-wave. Didn't care much for punk, but loved bands like early Simple Minds, U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, Comsat Angels, Chameleons, Joy Division etc. After playing in a variety of bands I was drawn to early 70's funk (George Clinton) and Red Hot Chillipeppers. That's when my love for playing the bass started.

Lots of stuff happend, but never gave up playing both guitar and bass. I've had jazz-improv lessons for guitar the last 2 years, but came back to the bass.

I'm a graphic designer nowadays (graduated as an industrial designer) with my own business together with 2 partners.

The gear...
guitar: Gibson ES-135 / Ibanez AF-105f / Squiere Telecaster / Babicz Acoustic / Fender Champ amp
might be tempted to try a Rainbow...
bass: Ibanez MC924 / MC2924 / Westone Superheadless / Warmoth JB-Q / Aria Pro2 Integra Custom / BaCH JB / and soon... Westone Pantera 5-string and another Superheadless / SWR/Ashdown/Yamaha amps & cabs

Big influences from the last 10 years: Lewis Taylor, Marcus Miller, Tim Buckley, New Cool Collective, Gare du Nord, St.Germain, and lots more. I'm Jazz-Funk orientated, but I like almost any music that's played with conviction and joy and that would include country/bluegrass as well... (love the Allison Kraus/Robert Plant album).

[corsair]

but I like almost any music that's played with conviction and joy and that would include country/bluegrass as well...

G'day Hans - good to see you! Hey, I play banjo and mandolin a little so don't be worried about liking bluegrass - Earl Scruggs is one of my major influences - and I reckon lots of people do, but it ain't cool to say so!!
Isn't "Raising sand" a fabulous record, but then I've loved Alison Krauss and and Union Station for years, and it's nice to see Robert Plant doing something that doesn't require him to screech at us - T-Bone Burnett is a bona-fide genius, IMHO!!

Anyway, enjoy the Westones and let's have a good look at 'em; I'd be interested in hearing you do an A/B test with the Westones-v-Others...??

[logicaljohn]

Well I just saw this section and having introduced myself in the 'Going up in value' thread.. thought I ought to do it properly here.

I am John (that's logical, huh.. ?) (in fact I am not logical, the name started when I was doing a 'logic' module while at university and it kinda stuck)..

I am 46, though a Meseysider by heritage and birth I live in Stockport near Manchester UK, I live there with my partner Sara, son Ewan (12) , Stepson Billy (18) and sometimes older stepson Louie (20) (whose currently in Canada for a few months) ..(or at his girlfriends or his mates house when in the Uk !). There's even an older stepson but he's now married with family of his now, living in Manchester.

I work in property management, regeneration, some community stuff, in inner Manchester.

My first proper guitar was a Yamaha FG 312 which was an 18th present to me from my parents. I still have it, though I had it 6-stingised a number of years back, and I also recovered it from it in a notorious music store in Manchester following a burglary of all our stuff from our flat 16 years ago... (this adaptation made it very recogniseable..)

Before this though I had a homemade electric which never really worked electrically and which I dis-assembled. Its still in the cellar !! Also I believe I had a black Avon Les Paul copy, fairly crummy and aquired by me cos I was borrowing it from a pal, knocked it over, and the head snapped off !! I paid him what he'd paid for it, apologised (of course) and stuck the head back on. It was ropey ! I was quite prone to accidents as a youth ! I can't quite remember the fate of this particular guitar.

Dabbling round with bands and such in my youth, owning a Watkins Rapier bass, and self taught on the guitar, I really only played the bass or accoustically from the age of, say 20 onwards. The bass was stolen while a friend was borrowing it some 20 odd years ago (from the same area where my flat was robbed... this is the area I still work in now, not half as nasty as it was back in those days..) Unaccountably, I stopped playing altogether probably in my mid to late twenties, and the Yamaha gathered dust in its box for a number of years.

My son came home from school four or five years ago saying he'd taken up playing the balalaika ! This kind of rekindled my interest in stringed instruments, and, at a car boot sale in Lancaster we found a Hohner classical guitar for £14. So I bought this for him/me, and started playing again, a bit..

His interest has tapered off., I try to encourage him (maybe I've overdone this !) but he doesn't take lessons any more. I however have become more interested again.. My first Westone, a Thunder 1, I found on Loot online about four years ago. I had heard of these guitars, read a few more reviews, went to visit the vendor and walked away with the guitar and some bits and pieces for £130. The vendor loved it too, but was trading up to a Telecaster. I remain, as I presume do many here, struck by the sheer quality, in all respects, of these instruments. I stuck with the Thunder 1, formed a 'mid-life-crisis' experimental/fun type band with a couple of my pals ..(www.myspace.com/cosmiclobster,... if anyone's interested.. any guitar heard there will be Thunder 1 or Spectrum DX). Our joint efforts are in abeyance at the moment (pressures of time and work) but I must say that playing the guitar, and playing in a group, I now find one of the most fun things one can do while dressed (possibly on a par with drinking beer !) My playing is improving a bit, and recently I found a local music shop who's owner keeps an eye open for Westones.. In there I acquired, last year a Spectrum (DX, I think..) in gloss black, a bit of a clean and a fettle and it works and sounds fine, must practise with that tremolo more..

Then this year, in recent months I've developed a bit of an ebay bug, and have acquired a Concord 1 modded with Vox pickups and an early, mistreated, Thunder 1a which I'm about to restore. I think I might have to stop collecting here though, because, though possessions are nice, they bring responsibility and spatial requirements,... also it pains me a bit to have these and not play them (only having one pair of hands), trouble is I can't think which to part with !!

As for my musical tastes, I tend to like stuff from the sixties to now.. blues/blues rock/heavy and or prog rock/ space rock (I note Dave Brock of Hawkwind plays a Spectrum to this day) I quite like some folk, and dance, and electronica, and then from the seventies and eighties some of the punk/new wave stuff and even quite a few modern bands. I went through a big reggae and dub phase i the eighties. name names, where to start/ or finish ? but I think short of an 80's and 90s dalliance with the electro/acid house scene, the recurring theme through my tastes would be good guitar work and musicality. I'm waffling now so I'm gonna stop !

[corsair]

G'day and welcome, John! What you have is, in fact what we the cognoscenti, call G.A.S. and it is incurable, regardless of how sensible you profess to be! I had one guitar for performing and recording and just general dicking about for nigh on 30 years and was quite happy with that until recently... the rest is pretty much history!

You do need to show us what you've got, though - we love pictures in here!!!

[logicaljohn]

Well I'm already a member of one G.A.S. (Gong Appreciation Society).. what does this version stand for... ?

Sorry about the novel by the way !

I will send some pictures up in a day or two, just need to take some decent ones...

[corsair]

Mate, you have Gear Acquisition Syndrome; a well known affliction around these parts!!

[logicaljohn]

I know !!

I didn't mention the Aria Travel Guitar either !! Lordy, that digital camera will be veritably worn out by the weekend !!

[FarToMany]

Hello all, i just found out the old board closed but glad to see this one opened--and to see some familiar names.

Im here in the states, my first westone was a '87 XA1230 anniversery edition, i played it to death in my early-mid teens and somehow let it go later on for some other gear---dumb move. Fast foward about 15 years later, i am longing for the guitar i once had. Well, short of finding a needle in a haystack, and finding my old friend, we now have the next best thing--EBAY and patience. After a long couple year search and almost settleing on another color several times, i found the exact model and color i had from before.

Now less than a year later of getting it (by the way, my wife bought it as a christmas present), i play the thing all the time. It just feels right in my hands. I think there is alot to be said about these insturments, i know i will try and never let this one go again.

Unfortunatly when i did recieve it, it did need some work, all the pickups either halfed worked or barely worked, i have only replaced the bridge pickup with one i had for the moment and am looking for some Fender Lace Sensor pickups as i had swaped in my original. I also was missing a few parts or had broken ones so i feel very lucky that i was able to order them from David on the last site. I am very sorry to see he had to close his site, it can be very expensive and time consuming to run. I was also very glad to see someone picked up the ball and ran with it to a new site.

--chad

Hey Polly, are you still making any straps?

[Pollyanna]

Hello Chad and Welcome,

I'm glad that you have eventually found us!
In case you don't already know, David has just recently re-opened the spares section on his site so you will be able to get most of the parts that you need from him again. Just click on the 'Visit Westone.info' link at the top of the page.

Straps, yes I can still make them but like everything else, the demand for them sort of dwindled and I just never got around to mentioning them on these forums. If you PM me with what colour you want etc., I can sort it out for you.

Good to see you again mate and I hope you hang around for a long time to come!

Pauline

[catonine]

howdy folks.. i am new here but me and westones go way way back.. i have three right at the moment and a bunch of others.. as of this moment i have 22 guitars and counting.. three acoustics, four basses and 15 electrics.. included is a 1981 ibanez IC50RB.. rare rare rare.. my westones are a 1984 westone dimension IV, a 1985 westone spectrum SX, tpr, including the red fret board and a 1988 westone spectrum 1A which is of the korean variety.. i also have a 1984 cort effector, a 1978 fender musicmaster bass, a 1972 epiphone ft147 acoustic and a 1991 ibanez ex series bass.. and many others.. i live in kansas usa and had a run of 14 years in a hard rock band, all across the southern states, til a few years back when i semi retired.. pictures of all my guitars.. well not the newest yet.. can be found at www.myspace.com/rustyknales which is my country music site.. i am rusty knales.. i too am in need of parts.. the locking nut parts are scarce in kansas.. hahaha.. i fabricated some for my spectrum sx but whomever owned the dimension IV before i got it removed the entire assembly.. and let it be known that i have been preaching the westone name since 1985 when i picked up my first one.. i still believe that westones are the best made guitars in the universe.. i tell all my fender and gibson lovers of which there are many in kansas.. they dont seem to think there are any other brands except for the ibanez.. which in kansas is considered only for rock music.. on the sad note i used the 1981 ibanez iceman for all my recordings on my myspace site.. that is the most versatile guitar i own but the westones rank 2, 3, and 5 in my collection.. 2.spectrum sx, 3.dimension IV, 5.spectrum 1a.. the cort effector bringing in 4th place.. i know nothing of how to post any pics here.. or if it is even possible.. so someone please enlighten me !!!
nice to meet y'all too by the way !!!

[clarky]

hello my name is chris and ive just joined the forum!

I am 22 from Shrewsbury, England.

I have been playing bass since i was about ten years old i think?? not too sure exactly all i remember was the recorder teacher was fuming i quit for bass !!haha Been playing in many outfits and bands over the years currently in three which keeps me pretty busy!

I and have owned a westone for around three years. I own a satin black quantum, the bass has been defretted (not by myself) but who ever did it did a reall nice job. I originally bought the bass because i wanted a fretless, and an old bass teacher i was with, was selling it on behalf of another pupil of his. I love it and want to get many more if i can!! particularlly interested in getting a rail bass at some point.
Theres a short tune of me playing the quantum called dont bore me at; www.myspace.com/thevelvetdukes


Other basses i own; yamaha rbx jm2 (john myung old sig), fender jazz, yamaha bb5 range (like nathan easts but cheaper!) framus star bass (67)

When im not playing bass somewhere im studying a bsc degree in music technology, which is really enjoyable, so if i cant make music id like to record it!

over and out!

chris