Guide / SELECTED VINTAGE GUITARS
Westone: Japanese Thunder, Spectrum and Prestige guitars and basses
Westone’s 1980s instruments combine distinctive designs with varied electronics. Period catalogues and a contemporary review help put them in context.
Japanese guitars in the 1980s: individual ideas
Japanese guitar making extends beyond instruments inspired by Fender and Gibson. Westone’s 1984 material lists Thunder, Spectrum, Concord, Raider and Prestige models, including guitars and basses. We find this variety particularly interesting: the brand offered genuinely different design approaches.
Westone — katalog i materiały z 1984 roku ↗
Thunder: a guitar and bass family
The catalogue archived as 1985 lists a bolt-on Thunder I guitar with 22 frets and a 24¾-inch scale; the bass has 20 frets and a 34-inch scale. I-A variants add more elaborate equalisation and switching. Thunder illustrates the period’s interest in shaping tone within the instrument.
Westone — oryginalny katalog, archiwum Vintage Japan Guitars ↗
Prestige in a 1984 review
In October 1984, Paul Colbert reviewed the Prestige 117 and 227 for One Two Testing. He praised finish, playability and sustain, but reported tuning trouble with the 227’s tremolo and uneven tone-control response. It is a useful player’s assessment rather than advertising copy.
Paul Colbert — One Two Testing, październik / October 1984 ↗
About the source: The review concerns two tested guitars; its conclusions cannot cover every surviving Westone.
Westone as a working instrument
We consider a well-prepared Westone worth comparing with familiar modern standard-series guitars and basses. Neck and fret condition, hardware and functioning electronics matter. A tremolo instrument also needs the whole system properly adjusted. Try the particular model: an elaborate control layout is valuable when it suits the player.