Westbury Deluxe A

1981 Black Set Neck Rock Maple Body and Neck. This guitar was made in Japan at Matsumoku. The "A" stood for active. While not a true active set up, the guitar had a boost circuit that is powered off of a 9 volt battery housed in a compartment in the rear of the guitar. 2 Dimarzio Dual Sound pickups. The pickups are very hot and the dual sound option works very well. The controls are as follows: Master volume, Master tone, 6 way varitone type switch, 2 dual sound mini-switches (one for each pickup) on/off switch for boost circuit, variable boost control, 3 way pickup selector, in/out phase pickup control. 22 fret neck. Weighs in at just under 11 pounds. The damn thing is very heavy. The circuit is the same as the Aria Pro II Thor Sound 600 if you didn't know.

There are a lot of different sounds you can get out of this guitar. Using the series parallel switches with these pickups can change the sound dramatically. Also using the volume control really gives me the ability to sweeten the sound. The boost circuit is wild. I can overdrive my amp to a singing sustain with a turn of the knob. I have a Hughes & Kettner blues master that together with the boost switch can nail a plexi sound. For pedals I have an Ibanez UE405 that I use the analog delay and the parametric eq, then into either the H&K when I practice at home or a Carvin Quad-X preamp and a Carvin DCM 600 watt SS power amp. This guitar is so hot with the quad-X that over driving the power tubes in an amp will leave me with my brain bleeding. The guitar alway has a full sound that can get muddy on the neck pickup with too much boost,,,but adjust the volume or the varitone and you can get dirty without the mud.

The fit and finish has always been very good. I think they dipped this thing in black lacquer about 10 times. I do have a few dents but NO paint is off this body. It is amazing. The action sets up really low without buzzing and bends are easy with the 24 3/4 inch scale neck. The nut was perfect when I bought this new. I have replaced it 3 times as brass does wear down. Frets have been Plek'ed twice. There is still a ton of fret wire left to groove. The case even held up over time. But a flight case has been used when I travel.

It's gonna be 30 years old in a year and a half. In all this has held up very well

Out of business since 1985.

This is a great guitar. No it won't do a strat sound but it really isn't meant to. The switches were what sold me when I first bought this new. It sounds like a LP when it wants to and can do a bunch of other sounds easily. If you use the controls, along with the volume knob you will see that you can tame this monster to play beautiful music.

I found this guitar after the frets were worn out and it layed rusting for many years.

I call this guitar my Les Paul simulator. It feels much like the black beauty I owned many years ago yet the neck adjusts better and there are many many useful and different sounds available.

The Dimarzio pickups are 4K a coil making them PAF like. Every possible switching option is available AND an on board preamp if you want more output.

The PA-like pickups are very nice. Add all the switches and the on board preamp and you can get many nice sounds. It was produced originally during the time when brass nuts were popular. I couldn't get the brass nut off this guitar fast enough. With a real nut on it, the tone of the guitar improved greatly. The guitar also remained tuned better with a handmade real nut on it.

I got the guitar nearly used up and restored it. The neck adjusts and acts much better than the Les Paul I owned. Its black so I can't comment on wood choices. The only minor complaint is typical of SG like guitars--the guitar is head heavy. I hate that. When you let go of the guitar, the head wants to drop to the floor. I widened the string spacing to 2 inches.

I refretted this instrument 6 years ago because the previous owner played it till the frets were almost non-existant. Its had jumbos on it for that time and still is very playable. I have never had a set neck guitar that had the neck adjust as well as this (and I have owned some very expensive name-brand guitars).

I got the guitar used so I have no opinion here.

I have been playing for 30+ years. I have owned cheap guitars and expensive guitars. The only Gibson scale guitar I prefer over this one cost me much much more. With a little work, this guitar turned out to be an amazing addition to my guitar collection.

twangy to rich to screaming to mellow to bluesy to ballsy this
baby does it all. its the only electric i use to play rock, blues,
heavy metal, or clean singing ballad like solo's.

beautiful flawless all gloss black one piece
set and ready to go from Chaisson music in new jersey

play it still for the past 17 years its the only electric i have
and the only one i need