Westone

This guitar, like most Westones, was made in Japan. It's an early 80's model. Hard tail, brass bridge with strings that run through the body, 21 frets on a Gibson scale length, two humbucker pickups with mini-switches that allow you to choose coil tap, coil splitting and active circuitry on/off options. Volume, and passive and active tone controls. with knurled, brass knobs. Three way pickup selector switch. The active electronics and brass bridge are intended to increase sustain, and they work- the actives probably do much more than the bridge, but brass IS a dense material, so it probably contributes a bit. The other mini switches allow you to either split the humbuckers, so they sound like, and effectively are, two single coils, or tap the humbuckers, turning off one of the coils- instant single coil pickups! These options give the guitar incredible depth of tone- Les Paul, Telecaster, and even some Strat tones are available with the flip of a switch- if only you can remember which switch does what- keeping tabs (no pun intended) on them can tax your memory, a bit, I just keep flipping switches 'till I get the tone I am searching for. UTILIZATION Proper cutaway assures access to all 31 frets. Two 9-volt batteries mean the active circuitry is likely to be powered for a long time, as long as you remember to either remove the instrument cable from the jack, or turn the on/off mini switch to the off position. Those "actives" do much to allow you to get a nice, if rather saturated, tone. Contouring, ala Fender Stratocaster, makes it comfortable to play, and the guitar is well balanced- no neck diving that I ever noticed. SOUNDS As I said, lots of different sounds are available- if you can't find your tone with this guitar, you just ain't tryin'! Virtually all styles of electric guitar music can be had, but it can take some time to find the right settings of switches and knobs to get there. I've played this one through solid state, tube/hybrid and all-tube amps, and even though it sounds best through tubes, it works well with solid state amps, too. OVERALL OPINION It's great fun to have a guitar that's different from the pack, both visually and sonically- that's what I like most, along with the versatility, of this guitar. The double skunk stripe on the body lends it a neck-through look, even though the "1" model is bolt-on (Thunder 2's were set necks, and 3's were neck-through) and the natural finish of the main wood of mine is not as pretty or as striking as the translucent red stain on other Thunders (like the one pictured at the top of this review page.) I'd only owned one or two electric guitars prior to finding this one in a pawn shop in Jefferson, Louisiana (just up-river from New Orleans,) and I got lucky- this turned out to be a great value and a great guitar, if a somewhat nondescript looking one. I'd quickly buy it all over again.

How's THAT for an attention-grabbing title??!? By "shread," I mean this guitar was made for shreading lead guitar play, with it's locking bridge and tuner. As for "RED," the whole guitar is red (except pickups and hardware.) I mean, body, headstock, neck, and even the FRETBOARD! It's a translucent stain, not paint, so the wood's grain shows through- BEAUTIFUL! One of the coolest looking guitars around! Like most Westones, this one was made in Japan (some later models were made in Korea.) "Hot strat" pickup selection- two Magnaflux IV single coils with a Magnaflux II UBC humbucker. Volume, tone, tone controls, with push-pull pots for phase reverse and/or the coil tap. 22 frets, Bendmaster brand, Floyd Rose type micro-tuning bridge and locking nut. Fairly thin, fast neck. Westones often have a somewhat strat-ish body, but no one would mistake the profile of a Westone for a Strat! Please note, this guitar, and all Japan-made Westones, bear little or no resemblance to the "Westone guitars" being made today in China, and in my opinion, that company is not doing anything to honor the legacy. Modern "Westones" are just another cookie-cutter copy of Les Pauls, Strats, ES's, etc, and are Westones in name, only. UTILIZATION Easier access to last fret than a Strat, as the body is more cut away and the edges more rounded. Contours where the body meets your belly and your fore-arm, too. Good "heft," without being too heavy, good balance- no neck dive. I am not sure what this site means by "are the drivers stable?" as I don't know of any "drivers" on an electric guitar. Perhaps they mean pickups? SOUNDS I also can't see where "What amps or effects do you use it?" is a pertinent question, either- the guitar sends a signal to the amp, so the amp affects the tone of the guitar, but whatever amp I play may be different than yours. This is a review of a GUITAR, not an amp. Sounds- mostly hot strat-like sounds, but by tapping the humbucker, you get a single-coil pickup in the bridge postion- instant "normal" strat sounds. Pups are fairly hot, so a stronger signal is sent to the amp, resulting in easier distorted tones, if that's what you want, but smooth, clean jazz tones are easily available. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this guitar- it's RED! I mean, all red, bright red, shiny red, red, red, RED! No one ever fails to notice this guitar! What I like least? Well, that it's red- on the fretboard. Looks totally cool, but I worry that if I were to wear through the poly coating, I'd start wearing off the red stain underneath, and it's appearance would go down hill, fast, from there. Therefore, I don't play this one too often. It plays quite fine, and delivers very good tone- the SX was the top of the Spectrum line, with more bells and whistles, and often a nicer finish. They were available in all blue, and some had a more conventional dark stained fretboard- you would not BELIEVE how much the color-matching fretboard makes a visual difference. If you could find one these days for $70.00 USD, it would be almost a steal- but don't hold your breath. Westones seem to be trading for around $300 and up, these days- worth it from a standpoint of what they do and how they sound/play, but for most people, that kind of money will buy them a more-familiar MIM Strat. Westones are an acquired taste. Having said that, I would certainly buy this one again.

I am always cautious when it comes to getting studio in ear headphones especially when they cost more than 100 dollars like the Westone UM1’s do. But they are perfect for live sound and performances, we have been using them for a about a month now and we love how great they sound and even more importantly we love how comfortable they are sitting in our ear. They have a “True-Fit” sound that will give you the best in ear experience. I have not had a pair of in ear monitors that where this comfortable and with a great sound like the Westone UM1 has. The Westone UM1 has an Earphone Precision Interface Cable on it which is basically just a fancy term for a reinforced cable that makes it very durable and high sound quality. I have had these in my ears for a while, and at first when I first started using them it seemed like they were going to be too big for the inside of my ears and I thought that it would irritate me after about 30 minutes of having them in there. I have had several in ear headphones that are sort of too big and tight when they are in my ear and it gets very uncomfortable after about 30 minutes. But with the Westone UM1 that was not the case, at first they were uncomfortable but then it didn’t even feel them anymore. Knowing what I know now I would make the same choice over and over again. We already own a few pair of these. They are well made and built to last, they cable is well made and I don’t see it getting shorted out or anything happening to it. I can see these in ear headphones lasting use many uses and many years as long as we don’t lost them because it is easy to misplace something this small.