Westone Restoration

[pablopepper]

Here's an interesting project. My buddy found this hiding under his house, a long forgotten about fixer upper, so we decided to breathe some life back in to the old girl. He thought it was a Yamaha, but after a little google sleuthery we figured it was a Westone Thunder Jet, made in 1986 at the Matsumoko plant in Japan. This could be fun.



Unsure yet as to whether to stain or paint or even colours, open to suggestions. The headstock, even though it was originally painted black, has a birdseye maple veneer. Nice detail.

[andrewdosborne]

Wow, great find. I went under my house once and found an old antique horse whip?!?!?

[wokkaboy]

nice find Pablo, so you doing the work for your mate or has he given it to you ? Pity its a lefty.
The timber grain looks nice enough to stain, any idea what type of wood the body is ? Looks dark enough to be mahogany.
Edit did a bit of research, website says solid alder body. Maybe it used to look like this Pablo
http://www.westone.info/thunderjet.html

[pablopepper]

Oh cool. Nice find Wokka. I'd say that's exactly what it looked like. I'll be doing it up for my mate. No good to me, it's backwards! Lol. It'll be some good practice, my first lefty!

Most interesting thing I've ever found under my house was a cat skeleton. And spiders.

[keloooe]

Nice find Pabs! I found some old Electronics Australia mags (dated June '79) and some programs and books from the DOS era... I was interested, rest of the family think of it all as junk...

Should be a cool finish no matter what you pick!

[WeirdBits]

I loved my Westone Thunder I, wish I still had it. Great find, shame it's a lefty.

[dingobass]

Dad and I found a secret room in the attic of the house
I grew up in...
In that room was a Vickers machine gun, 900+ rounds of ammo still in the belts, three Lee Enfield .303 rifles, two Webley .38 pistols and 1/2 dozen British issue hand grenades and a bunch of other military equipment. All packed in greased paper in the original cases...
Needless to say with that type of ordinance sitting right above the living room next to the chimney there was a bit of a panic and quick change of underwear required....
Local Filth was called, and after investigation it was discovered that it was most likely bought back from the Western Front by the Colonel who lived in our house in the late teens and early 20's.

[wokkaboy]

wow thats a cool story DB, so this was in Bowral ?

sounds like you had enough military supplies for a small army !

[stan]

great project Pabs, I'm a leftie, so just send it on down and I'll help you out by taking it....

[Nickosaurus]

Pretty cool that it's an old leftie. Must be pretty rare!