Westone Thunder 1A

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.