Westone Corsair XA 1420 Anniversary

The finish is a gloss sky blue with black binding. As far as finishes go this one is as nice or nicer than any American Gibson or Fender. The only flaws I can find are two very minuscule binding/paint imperfections. For reference I'm being very particular here, my Gibson custom shop '57 Goldtop I bought new had at least 12 such imperfections in the binding that are much more noticeable. This Corsair is an '87 model and was not played, it is like new. The Corsair has a 25 1/2" scale neck with a flat radius which is excellent for big bends. For comparison my 9 1/2" radius Fenders will fret out on 2 tone + bends. I can't speak to the factory set up as the guitar is twenty years old, but I'd think that by its appearance the set up is stock. Irregardless the set up is perfect. No dead notes anywhere. Excellent neck to body joint with no noticeable gap. Makes many high end guitars look like minor league players. The fine tuners are nice to have and tuning isn't the chore I had been told it would be with a locking nut.

Sky Blue Corsair XA1420 Anniversary model I won on auction at ebay. Unbelievable! This guitar just smokes! I've been playing for thirty plus years and had never tried a "hair guitar" as I was always a little too conservative and hair metal was really a little past my time. I like quite a few hair bands, but my influences are mainly British invasion bands like the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Who, Yardbirds, Cream, etc... and the early American roots/blues music that influenced the British invasion. As none of my influences played locking nut guitars I pretty much never even considered one. Well, that is until I started picking up some of Uncle Matt's Les Paul copies and found them to be excellent guitars for the money. This Corsair needs no excuses. It is an excellent guitar at any price. I just threw out a low-ball bid because the item was listed as "mint" and I figured I'd give it a try if the price was right. At $211.69 plus shipping I almost feel guilty about not paying the seller more. I won this one by $1.69! The second place bidder shot me an email saying he shoulda' went a bit higher...Well, he really should have. This is by far my best ebay purchase ever. The only thing missing was the thumb screws for the allen tools and the wrenches themselves. The guitar is like new with absolutely no fret wear, no dings, no pick swirls, and not even a ding on that pointy headstock! Truly a closet classic, the Corsair is a highly underrated ax. The Westone humbucking pups are clear and warm, the action and flattish neck radius is awesome. The sounds can cover everything from blues to classic rock with no problems. I can't speak to metal as I don't do any metal. However the pups sound nicer than my '04 Gibson Custom Shop Goldtop. Best "buckers" I've heard hands down. They truly are expressive and don't color the sound. I'll leave that up to my pedals, a vintage Ibanez TS 9 Tubescreamer, vintage DOD analog delay, Tech 21 Comptortion, T Rex Betavibe, and a BK Butler Blue Tube II pre-amp.

The neck pocket is so tight you can't even slide a piece of paper between the neck and the body. Unbelievable! I've paid five times as much for American Strats that weren't half the guitar. In fact I've got a few guitars that'll be hitting the auction block ASAP. I don't know if it's just this one or if they're all of this quality, but considering the quality of my other Matsumoku guitars I'd have to say that '86-'87 were the defining years for quality at Matsumoku. My early 80's Matsumoku's are very nice but can't hold a candle to this Corsair. The fret work is perfect, really. No flattened notes even on monster bends and no dead notes anywhere on the neck. Any real players who are still dismissing Japanese made guitars are missing the boat. I'll never spend high dollars for an inferior overpriced American guitar again. Never. No pics yet but the ebay auction number is 290088001002 if any one cares to take a peek. The pics make the guitar look gray but believe me it's a beautiful sky blue finish.

Can't speak for this guitar as it's relatively new to me but if it's anything like any of the other Matsumoku guitars I own, they're built extremely well and stand up to more abuse than any instrument should ever be subjected to.

N/A Westone, Electra, and Aria are no longer built in the Matsumoku plant in Japan and have been defunct for many years. However St. Louis Music (the parent company for Westone) still exists. I'd think the customer support can be supplanted by some very good web pages dedicated to Westone, Aria, and Electra though.

Truly serendipitous that I ended up with this beauty. Been playing thirty years and have owned "vintage" American guitars such as a 50's Gretsch Clipper, '68 Stratocaster, '73 Telecaster Custom, '91 Les Paul Classic Plus, '86 G&L ASAT, '82 G&L SC1 w/ vibrato (still have it!), and numerous vintage acoustics from Gibson. This Corsair suits my playing style better than any of them. While most of these guitars were good to very good, the '73 Telecaster and 50's Gretsch were junk and the '68 Strat only so so. Ask yourself if you want to collect 'em or play 'em? If you want a guitar to play and aren't some a*#hole with more money than sense that wants to drive up the prices on guitars by placing them in mothballs then the Japanese XA 1420 Corsair is highly desirable.