Reply to prosonic

[umpdv5000]

I'm new to the forum, but a long time musician. I have owned my westone for about 5 years. I love it and enjoy playing it as much (if not more) than my 84 Les Paul custom. The craftsmanship is absolutely beautiful and it plays like a dream. It is a Pantera Deluxe X350MA. No, I'm not interested in selling it, but yes I have some questions:
How many of them were made?

How valuable is it? I have the original, locking, hardshell case with key, the catalogue that it came out in, and it has a sticker on the cover for the control wiring that says: Adjusted at SLM Guitar Shop by:(technician's signature)

The only defects are a small indention through the finish on the back, topside of the neck above 3rd fret, and the finish has cracked slightly on the front around the outline of the recessed hole in back. Where can I have it repaired and still maintain it's value? I absolutely LOVE this guitar, and I would love to have it restored back to perfect condition, but the blemishes are only cosmetic, and I might be better off to leave them alone.

Please help if you can, thank you

I am not an expert on Westone guitars, but I am a professional guitar repair / luthier. I can tell you that unless the damage to the finish you speak of is substantial, it wouldn't matter to a collector or a player. All finish problems are rectifiable and very often without being able to notice that it has been done, but in doing this you always run the risk of going overboard which can make the finish look un-original. Collectors like everything to be original (battle scars and all) and a true player would simply look through knocks and bangs into what the guitar had to offer as an instrument. I hope this helps.

Martin.

[Barry]

Hello Tom, and again, many thanks for your participation and contributions thusfar! I hope you're still connected to this forum and interested in receiving more questions.

Many here have had the dubious "pleasure" of trying to strip or otherwise refinish a MATS guitar. This has been necessary in some cases because of severe abuse and was the only road to restoration.
Other folks just didn't like the colour!

Whatever the reasons, one thing is unanimous...the finish on these guitars is tough as nails and reduces grown men to tears trying to remove it!
I believe the prevailing information here is that these were a catalyzed polyester finish. I recently had a whole buncha fun refinishing a Vantage Avenger which was suffering from a previous botched attempt by the former owner. I ended up redoing the guitar in a similar colour which helped to hide the originally finished areas which despite my efforts just would not completely lift out. Others here have vowed "never again" after having attempted a refinish!

Can you comment on this please, along with any corollary information such as how it was applied, where the paint, colours, etc., originated? Much appreciated.

[colt933]

This is FREAKIN' AWESOME!

[tpresley]

Sorry for the long delay in getting back on forum. Somewhere along the line, I actually had to spend some time thinking about my job at Matrix.

I've enjoyed many of your comments and questions both here on the forum and those that have e-mailed or called me directly. It's great to see the enthusiasm for the Westone brand and the Matsumoku product in general.

Several of you have asked for some pricing guidelines on various Westones and I have to admit that I've not paid much attention to the value of the instruments over time. These things are like my kids. You know the comment; "Dad always like you better!" "I'm worth more than my brother!" I will say that I'm surprised at some of the prices of the instruments but will also say that compared to many of the guitars that I've recently played, the Westones are worth a bunch more!

Here is a summary and response to some of the questions that have come up over the last month or so:

"These finishes are thick. Poly, Catalytic, What the heck are they?"

The answer is - it depends on the series and the timeline. We made several models that had only seal coat stains, rubbed oil, Poly and Catalytics with very high solid content. I even messed with UV cured solids. I imagine that the basic quesiton surrounds the Poly and Catalytics.

Akira Takei had a relationship with an employee at one of the Toyota plants near Tokyo and on one of my first trips to Matsumoku, we hopped on the Shinkansen and headed there. We saw a bunch of the new flop finishes, pearls and some experimental finishes being produced by Gen-Gen. They were doing all kinds of electro static finishing and since Akira was a negotiating animal, we cut a deal and had them shoot some of our hardware in a jet black finish and we picked up a bunch of new colors including some of the flop metalics for Westone. And, as you have already guessed, several of these were Catalytic finishes and when they harden, they are almost indestructable! As it happened, the Gen-Gen paint turned out to be Imron. Those of you that are into the 2 part paints know that they have magical elasticity and are not impacted by environment. But . . . they are really tough to work with. Make a mistake and the buff out and sand down is a almost impossible. I've stripped a few and about threw out the bodies rather than cooking them down. Nothing short of industrial caustics will cut it once the finish is reacted.

"Doesn't the thick finish cause acoustic problems?"

There's an argument in the question. The answer; yes. Does it effect an electic guitar? Not much if any. I've taken literally hundreds of the Matsumoku guitars apart, built some with no finish, some with Imron, Lacquer and Oil finish and what I can tell you is that there are many other factors that contribute to the audio property of a solid body. During one exercise, we had a particular Spectrum which sounded like crap. I stripped it and did a limited sand down on the body. When I re-assembled it, it still sounded like crap. Changed pickups, crap. Changed electonics - crap. Changed out the neck - fantastic. Ok, now I'm pissed. Why would the hard maple, very solid neck with a rosewood fingerboard cause such a calamity? Pulled the fingerboard and found that the "U" channel had a crack in it almost all the way up the neck. The truss was simply messing with the sound. I've also re-fitted necks to re-finished instruments and been able to seriously impact the tone by simply placing wire window screen between the body and the neck. The wire screen embeds in both the neck and the body and changes the structural integrity of the joint. By the way, this is a very old but cool trick to make a Strat neck stable on a worn joint. Dan Armstrong turned me on to this early in my years. So does finish make a difference in the sound? Anyone out there ready for an argument? There's never going to be a winner in that one.

"Have you ever considered bringing back the Pantera or working with a factory to make a replica?"

There are likely legal issues around this since SLM owned the name and owned me at the time. Most of the concepts and intellectual properties that our team developed were Gene Kornblum's domain. When Gene sold SLM, he also sold the mechanical properties to Loud as well. The Westone brand is likely another matter as once abandoned as an SLM brand, it may have gone back to public domain. As far as the guitar itself, I'm not really convinced that it could be made in anything other than very limited production lots. The radius on the body is difficult and due to the curvature of the body, it takes a REALLY thick piece of wood to carve with the concave back. Also, the neck construction requires a compound cut. Some of you have noticed that the radius on the neck is oblique and has almost an egg shape. Combine this with the compound radius on the original fingerboards and it is a production work of art.

"I saw one of your seminars in Dayton, Ohio in the mid to late 80s and you showed some of your prototypes - some labeled Electra, some Westone, some Alvarez and another group with A.L. They were some of the most beautiful guitars I'd ever seen. What's the story?"

Gary, it's great to hear from you after 20 odd years. Your question poked a bunch of memory cells. I hauled around 16 or so one-offs and pre-production guitars to focus group the designs prior to putting them into any kind of build out. They were all using production hardware and tweaked necks. The brands were chosen randomly to determine if brand association had any psycho acoustic effect with the focus groups. The "A.L" brand was the "American Luthier" brand I was attempting to launch using some designs done by small, well established Luthiers in the U.S. These guys were entrepeneurs with incredible talent that was NEVER recognized because they didn't have any distribution or manufacturing channel. My idea was to give them just that. Give them a brand, let them get recognized by name and build some of the most beautiful instruments in the world at Matsumoku and Yairi. I held the idea close and didn't really pass it to SLM until I had market analysis completed. Frankly, I also wanted an outlet for our skunk works guitars in the SLM shop and a place to market some of my own stuff. Once presented to SLM ownership, the idea was given about 5 minutes of consideration and scrapped. I think in passing that we were putting most of our efforts in the Crate brand and upcoming Yellville plant, leaving no room for another market push. So, I kept a few of the instruments, worked some into the Westone and Alvarez operational brands under "Signature" and moved on.

Again, I'm sorry for the long posts but once I get started I CAN'T STOP! Thanks for listening!

Tom

[corsair]

Mate; we are not worthy!! Thank you!

[Barry]

Many thanks for the new info on the finishes, et al. Great stuff Tom!
As I've said before, you can't talk too much in this place!

I'm sure there are still lots of questions, large and small, to come from forum members but if I may:

• Did you have any luck locating that box of archival "goodies" you alluded to some time ago...you know, the one with production and serial numbering information? You're probably aware that we're taking our best guess as to when models were made. It seems to be a relatively consistent pattern but only as it applies to the first number (year). If you can clarify the numbering system it would be greatly appreciated.
  

• A related request includes any catalogues or other documentation that you might be able to (legally) copy and share with us. Again, what we have is spotty, and gathered and contributed as a labour of love. It would be fantastic if there was something more inclusive and descriptive. Component specifications of course would be the ultimate!
  

• I'd also be interested in knowing to what extent, if any, you were involved in other Matsumoku "labels", particularly the Aria Pro II and Vantage lines. Regardless of headstock design and other "trim" details there is no mistaking that you're playing a Mats when you pick it up; at least the solid bodies. I've just obtained an Aria Pro II Urchin for example, and there's no mistaking the neck and playability. Close your eyes and it could easily be a Westone Spectrum or a Vantage Avenger. Can you comment on the technical overlap between the lines? It looks like Westone designs and innovations hugely influenced the other labels.
  

• Finally, if possible, can you comment on the the thinking behind the Marketing strategy relative to that last question? I've always maintained that there were too many similar Mats guitars flooding the market with not nearly enough features to differentiate them, not even within the same label. The overall effect I think was to water down the attributes of a hugely innovative instrument maker. Outside of some small dedicated groups of followers, no one brand ever properly established itself as being a viable alternative to the big name players of the time. Brilliant instruments but lousy Marketing methinks.
  

Cheers!

[tpresley]

Hello Barry,

Not really a matter of luck finding the "goodies". More an issue of sloth. This will be a "Spring Cleaning" project. Now that I know that someone really needs the stuff, I'll dig it out. I'll see if I actually kept the actual production records which identify the quantities made by model of the production lot. I still have many of the "orders" placed I'm sure. If I have he production records, it will identify the key information everyone is looking for.

I do have at least one of every catalog we designed. I either have them in hard copy OR they are on my Mac. I did most of the layouts on the Westone and all Alvarez brands so I KNOW they are still around in one form or another. Now all I need to do is find the Macintosh.

We tooled 4 necks for 6 string blanks - not counting thru necks - solid and laminated. Body material was a game of popularity. Matsumoku tooled our Westone 4 and much to my surprise actually started using 2 of them on their production models. Always a surprise to me was the fact that the "Vantage" and "Aria" models were not really specified nor was their much design done by the "brand". These designs were largely done by Ohwa-san and his team. A typical Vantage and Aria trip to the factory was an October visit to see what was new and what could be produced for the next calendar year. Toshi and Akira would bring out some new designs - using the brand headstock and logo and see what the customer wanted to buy. The Electra and Westone brands were a little more complex since the design elements and engineering guidelines were actually a collaboration between the Matsumoku engineering and us. OR, in the case of the Electra, we already had design production that we moved from Kasuga to Matsumoku piece by piece. Now, comes the answer to your question. "What were the influences on other brands?" Can you say; "Tom was PISSED!" I worked by butt off in the shop with Jerry Proctor and our guys to find the particular neck tapers, fingerboard radius - specific compounding - particular Sanko frets etc... then they start appearing on other brands! This happened BEFORE the Westone brand was even picked up by SLM. Did you ever notice that the some of the later Electra and "Phoenix" brand set the timeline for particular design changes at Matsumoku? Prior to that, the standard neck on the Matsumoku product had a very rounded design and a steep radius on the fingerboard. After the changes, the neck profile shoulders were reduced on the bass side by 2mm compounding from the nut to the 14th fret and the back of the neck began to flatten from the 4th to the joint. At the same time we kept a steep fingerboard radius at the nut and flattened the fingerboard to the pocket. Yep, Aria AND Vantage AND other brands benefited from this. As the Westone deal concluded between SLM, the European distributors and the factory management, it became apparent that it was not in their best interest to pass design elements to others. So, Bendmasters, Switchmasters, Unbalanced Coils, String Rollers and the actual pickup content became exclusive. Shiro was pissed because we pulled some of the neck profiles. He quickly took some of his production to Samick in Korea...I just smiled and said; Good luck Arai-sama.

Your question about the marketing really hit's a home run. My biggest challenge with many of the production oriented factories was that there was little individuality in brand or content. Some of this was due to economic factors yet other issues such as homogeneity of the Japanese society. They wanted consistency! Continuity! Balance! Ok, so where does the "soul" of a guitar come from? It was one of the most elusive concepts to bring to the Far East. Akira got the concept, Masau Terada got it, Kazuo Yairi got it - Taka Yamada got it - convincing their workers was a tough and never ending. Most of the time I lost that battle.

Tom

[Barry]

Wonderful stuff Tom, as usual! Thanks for the quick reply, very much appreciated.
Man, what a crazy few years you must have spent there! Looking forward to the next installment...

[Barry]

Hi Tom, I was re-reading your last post and all the others (for about the 12th time, there's so much to take in and think about!) and a couple of followup questions/comments came to mind...

NECK DESIGN OWNERSHIP
I and many others here have continuously raved about the Westone necks which have got to be the most comfortable and playable designs I've ever squeezed between my ole arthritic fingers. I'm pretty much spoiled and wrecked for playing the other guitars in my collection now...thanks a lot for that!!

Other players, instructors, and music store owners to whom I've introduced these guitars are left with dropped jaws and drooling lips once they've played 'em! They may have had only a vague notion of the Westone brand, but once they play one they never forget it.

So for me, the inevitable question is:
Who now owns your design, and are we likely to ever see it resurrected, and by whom? Is it even possible to separate the neck from the overall guitar design and still have anything "special"?

THE SOUL OF A GUITAR
Your comment about the Japanese cultural tendency to achieve balance and harmony and consistency, etc. and its being a prime factor in influencing the overall marketing strategy was interesting to say the least.

It's somewhat counter to what I think of as Asian-ness, in the sense that I think of an introspective, contemplative culture which would seem to point to self-awareness and one's "soul".

I found it rather shocking that the notion of the "soul of a guitar" is a Western concept!
Did you mean this to indicate that they were focused too tightly on the homogeneous technical aspects of guitar production and ignored the reason for why they were creating the guitar in the first place?

Cheers!

[tpresley]

Barry,

Thanks again. Deep stuff . . .

Ok, simple stuff first.

The neck profile of guitar is very individual, right? In truth, ones hands, determine in part the correct size and scale. Now, the real question becomes how do you know and how do you make it, if you do know?

The neck profile on the majority of Westones evolved from the Phoenix models, which originally were sold in the Electra transition years. We'd been working on numerous profiles with the Electra models for years and due to the "copy" market at the time, the intent of the copy was to replicate what was a known factor. I remember guys attempting to put a Strat profile on the LP scale and they simply blew up in the market. The LP players would say it just didn't feel right. Conversely, an LP profile on a Strat was looked at like it was a frumpy neck.

We were attempting to find a “blend” without creating a “Camel”. Some of the problems had to do with getting the factory – Kasuga, originally, to allow us to change the machining and router profiles that would allow a 3^rd and 4^th pass. It doubled the production time on task and since we were now using true North American maple rather than the European soft maple, it was eating the heads on the NC machines. Once convinced, we started using a compound cut with 2 passes on the lathe and 2 passes on the NC. Now this was only done on a few production models but became the standard process for them. Once done, we could slightly change the second pass and develop a very well balanced neck profile for about any model environment.

The neck profile, though not owned by ANYONE is simply a manufacturing process. In today’s manufacturing world, we’d not have the same problems. We’d simply do a CNC route group on a 7 head bundle and blow in the program. 420 to 500 seconds later, you’d have a rough in. Take 4 of these CNC machines and a pile of blanks, and you can add up the production count per day. Build in a head change out after 850 necks are cut – 2 hour downtime per re-set and you’re at the monthly production capacity. Utilization curves get thrown out of whack a little but you get the picture.

Who owns it? I guess the answer is; “anyone who wants to pay for the production lot and that can convince the manufacturer that they need to buy really good wood, keep it dry and be willing to do short runs.” That, to me is the overall issue. Our Luthier friends on this page could make these necks in a heartbeat with no litigation potential. The question is whether they could do it at any profit!


Now the tough part…

I agree with the Asian culture’s introspection and self awareness and one that contemplates the natural sequence of events and responsibilities therein.

Is the Soul of a guitar, a Western commodity? As far as the personal dynamics associated with what we know of today’s electric guitar, yes, I do.

Remember the guitar as we define it has NO particular common property. Our industry was initiated by various Iconic sources, mainly players, not manufacturers. Segovia, Les Paul, Chet Atkins, B.B. King, Ventures, Clapton/Beck/Page, Albert King, Muddy Waters, Van Halen etc…. and thousands of classical, acoustic and electric virtuoso’s all over the world.

Larry Carlton could take a Strat and make it sound like a 335. HE became the force behind the “machine”.

Now where does this tie together? In the traditional “guitar factory” the staff really didn’t play. If they did, it was simply a few chords and a few folk songs they’d heard. Don’t get me wrong, there were serious players out there, but they were being trained and in the post WWII era, they were being trained classically. We were now asking the factory to produce something that they didn’t have any idea of how it should sound, play, feel or insure character.

Man, could they ever mechanize though. You’d take a product to them and in a short time they’d have a prototype. It may have been an exact cosmetic copy. It worked, it played through an amp, the neck, though fat, would play. And, they could make 10000 a month. Is there anything better than that? It was evident what it was and nobody considered them really NICE guitars.

Once matured, they could produce ANYTHING we wanted and some things that we didn’t. Strats with Paul necks, Pauls with Strat necks etc. Yep, AND Strats with Paul pickups – Yes, some things were OK!

After some of the factory guys actually started playing, and understanding that our industry had imperfections – pickups were never design to be flat response – even though you COULD make them, the instruments developed Character.

Perhaps, Character is the combination of balance, individual behavior, and awareness that we’re speaking of. Character/Soul/Individuality – no not really a western concept but one that we’re pretty good at. Have you ever heard a newby player or a classical player try to improvise a rock or R&B solo? More often than not it sounds like a classical player improvising a Rock solo.

Way off the overall concept of your question but the simple to the:

“Did you mean this to indicate that they were focused too tightly on the homogeneous technical aspects of guitar production and ignored the reason for why they were creating the guitar in the first place?”

Yes.

Tom

[Barry]

Insightful and thoughtful reply Tom.
'Really appreciate the time to articulate it!

[Barry]

Hello Tom, hope all is well in your universe.

I was hoping there would be some more input from other forum folks by now. It does appear to have gone uncharacteristically quiet (for this bunch anyway!). I don't wish to appear to be taking over but I am curious about a few things...

PICKUPS
Two questions actually:

• You've talked about the part serendipity played in your development of the Westone's Unbalanced Coils. Many of us here are also huge fans of the MMK45's in particular that Matsumoku used in so many of their models, and I was wondering if you had any part to play in their development as well. Or were these simply outsourced to Maxon and the like?
  

• Similarly, do you know how the single coil pups used on the Concords, Spectrums, etc. were developed? I've never owned a Strat but everyone I've ever played with over the years did, and I find the sound of the Concord to have a decidedly different tone to my ears.
  

BRASS
A very distinctive feature of many Mats guitars including some Westones is the use of brass for nuts and bridges, even knobs! My Concord II and Thunder I-A are two examples in the Westone line. Can you comment on why brass was chosen over the more traditional materials? Was there a tonal or sustain advantage to brass or is it simply a way to reduce string friction/slipping?

BARREL SADDLE BRIDGE
Since we're talkin' brass, I gotta ask this!
Most regulars here are aware that I've been um, saddled, with three Mats guitars sporting these bridges; one Westone and two Vantages, all 1981. I've had nothing but troubles with them as have others. (you can see a discussion of mine HERE)

The main problem is that the string spacing is too wide, caused primarily by a ridicuous "jog" that the strings are forced to do after they enter the back of the bridge in order to rest in the groove in the saddle. There's an accumulated offset error across the string pack which ends up with one or more strings either tracking diagonally up the fretboard or, in the case of one of mine, right off the neck entirely!

In an effort to try and correct this, the bridges were installed at an angle which didn't help too much and looked bloody stupid! (see a good example HERE) We've been trying to understand the reasons for such an awful design in the first place but can't come up with too much. My hunch was that it worked OK on the basses so they tried to adapt it to the guitars...unsuccessfully.

In any event the mistake seems to have been quickly corrected later that same production year and a "proper" design substituted.
If you have anything to comment on this I'd be very interested since I have a grudge against whoever came up with this goofy design.
I'm sure hoping it wasn't you!

Cheers!

[tpresley]

Hi Barry,

I knew we could wear out this crew! See, you guys already knew about all there is to know about these instruments!

Pickups - The 45s were selected after about 12 different pickups were "cleared" for production. Toshi has a great ear and in reality, they had already selected the pickup by the time that I had made up my mind. I'm not a true fan of some of the earlier MMK pickups as I found them a little overcooked in the lower mids. Also, there were many isssues about the capacitance in the OFC wire which robbed a ton of the above 5k. Also, lots of movement in the coil bobbin structure caused them to be a little to lively. Resonant feedback etc....

Single coils were a very funny issue for me. We had constant problems with inconsistent winds. I think that the original culture for single coils was developed from a cost model. I threw out hundreds over the years due to either a mis-spec or a simple phase inversion. We fully identified that we needed the reversed wind on the center pickup on our 1-1-1, 1-1-2 and 2-1-2 models with 3 different wind specs depending on the models. Too often, a production lot would come thru with the incorrect metrics. Sometimes, there was no audio damage but it simply pissed me off. Eventually, after returning enough to Maxon and others, the issue was resolved.

Brass

That's a slippery slope discussion. My original training called for bone on the nut but with the changes in playing styles and vibrato utilization, bone became less practical. In a perfect world, you'd have a "0" fret since the open string harmonic content would be identical to a closed string - with the exception of resonance occuring on the off side of the neck. Delrin and nylon synthetics were nice and slippery, easy to mold and easy to work, they simply alterned the open string vs closed string resonance. This didn't impact the audio on the heavily overdriven, compressed "hit the rail" content but really came out in recordings and the natrual acoustics of the instrument. Brass was an economical material. It didn't have too much expansion/contraction and had a natural metalic lubricant if fitted properly. As far as the other accesories - knobs etc... I think that it was more of an easy manufacturing process and didn't require a tooling.

BarrelSaddles - Badly engineered, not well thought out and clearly NEVER would have worked. The inertial difference and torque loading on a single support peg was bound to fail. I'm not sure how it ever got on any of the Matsumoku production. It was likely a standard part that was simply ordered for specification. The concept of a "Barrel" for a bridge isn't the bad idea part, but the application parameters violated a mess of physics.

Not sure where the design came from but in all fairness, there've been many concepts of guitar designs that were thought out well and simply didn't work, some concepts thrown against the wall and worked well and others that could NEVER work, that for some odd reason, did. The important factor with Matsumoku and one that I always admired was their commitment to making a fantastic product.


Be Well!

Tom

[Barry]

Hi Barry, I knew we could wear out this crew!

The old guys always outlast the young 'uns!

I'm not a true fan of some of the earlier MMK pickups as I found them a little overcooked in the lower mids. Also, there were many isssues about the capacitance in the OFC wire which robbed a ton of the above 5k.

Yeah, many of us have noted that there does seem to be a variance in this pup, with resistance ratings in my own case ranging from the low 5's to the upper 11's. I have a 310 Avenger which roars but, as you say, is rather "boomy". On the other hand my Thunder and Vantage VS600 are ballsy buggers but with the ability to "finesse" the sound when needed.

(brass) didn't have too much expansion/contraction and had a natural metalic lubricant if fitted properly. As far as the other accesories - knobs etc... I think that it was more of an easy manufacturing process and didn't require a tooling.

So much for radical design concepts!

BarrelSaddles - Badly engineered, not well thought out and clearly NEVER would have worked.

I'm putting that quote on my guitars which have those bridges swapped out!

The inertial difference and torque loading on a single support peg was bound to fail...the application parameters violated a mess of physics. I'm not sure how it ever got on any of the Matsumoku production.

As I've remarked in other posts, it's a bloody wonder the guitars even can be played at all with these things. I have even completely lost my top E string when it torqued right off the fretboard!

Even at that, I can tell you that I was still very apprehensive about changing it out. I thought that there must have been some mystical far Eastern design reason for using this dumb design, and that by removing it I would screw up the guitar's mojo! Glad to get confirmation that both my design and player instincts were right in taking it off.

with Matsumoku and one that I always admired was their commitment to making a fantastic product.

Absolutely! We're still discovering some remarkable examples of both the more popular models and some of the more obscure ones, particularly in the Aria Pro II lineup.

Many thanks as always Tom!

[boutjp97]

Mr. Presley any ides on this beast I just picked up?????

LINK

The BM Deluxe (not the Kahler) and what appears to be the lack of active pickups make it kind of strange. Also the seller states that the neck has X350 not X350MA. Is this a prototype or some limited run maybe? Were the few X350MA's made with the trem called the X350 maybe? Any thoughts from anyone will be much appreciated.

[X350ma]

I've got the same guitar, also with the bendmaster trem, original case, key, wammy bar, warranty application, etc. Had it since 89 or so. Mine also has X350 stamped on the fretboard, but I thought it was an 'ma', which stood for maple??? I had no idea there were less than 48 made. I'd be interested to know exactly how many like mine were made. This has been my favorite guitar for a long, long time. Still is.

Great bunch of info here!

By the way, mine also has passive pickups.

[boutjp97]

There is very limited information on this model so passive pickups and the neck reading X350 not X350MA may be normal, but the BM deluxe still has me itching my head. The X350MA in the catalogue has Pantera on the fretboard not X350(MA). Then on the Pantera X350MA advertisement it states that the kahler deluxe trem is available, and if you look at the one I just bought the locks at the nut look to be kahler???? I don't know, I just want to play the thing, can't wait to get it.

[tpresley]

Hey Guys,

You have 2 of the rarest production models we ever did. Frankly, these were made at my request for personal use. I wanted the maple, but not the Kahler. Since I couldn't mod the maple body without destroying them, and not wanting to hand build one, I did the next best thing, I ordered 6 culled from the MA run and had the Bendmaster installed at the factory! Long story short, b4 I could get mine set up, we ended up selling them to dealers at our Expo. I did make one other production run of 6 more and I don't really know how many of this batch ended up in the US since every one was grabbed by either fans at stores or collectors. My opinion ... maybe the best electric ever made.

[boutjp97]

Wow! My left arm is tingling and chest tightening. Amazing. I couldn't be happier. Thank you for that information Mr. Presley.

[Barry]

Outstanding!
Do we have lots of pix of these beasts here somewhere??
This really needs proper visual documentation to go with Tom's comments!

[boutjp97]

I didn't get it in the mail yet, only pics available of mine are on the ebay link. I promise to post when I get it, maybe even upload some video to youtube.