Westone Thunder I

I bought this guitar second hand when I was 17 years old. I'm 44 now and I still have it. It's completely original, I haven't changed anything since buying it.

The sound of the guitar is great in combination with my LAB7 amplifier. I can make it sound dirty and distorted and clean and sweet just by switching channels of my amplifier.

Perfect!

This guitar holds up very well when playing live. I never bothered to take a back up guitar with me when playing live.

I've been playing it for 27 years one and off and it has never let me down. I grew up with the guitar and probably wont ever part with it. However, I might consider giving it to my younger brother if there ever comes a day when I cannot play it anymore. But he has to promise to give give it to one of my two sons when he's through with it so it wont leave the family.

It's one of the best guitars I've ever had. Everyone who has a go offers to buy it off me, but I won't part with it. It's so easy to drift off with it as it's so comfortable to play & it sounds sweet as a nut. Same as below, if you see one of these, don't think twice, buy it.

Everything is said about it and I agree.
I have a 1983 Westone Thunder 1 , natural one , with an Ash/Maple/walnut body and hard maple neck. Copper nut and bridge.
It looks gorgeous to me

WOW!!!! WOW !!!!
Unbelivable and great sound , this one can beat any Gibson LP and other high priced guitar, but......... for a fraction of the price.
High output coils with lots of upper harmonics and low ends
If you are in blues,rock or actually any other stuff this is it.

Bought second hand and the action it had was a little high for me so I adjusted it and now it has a great low action without any fret buzz.
Neck strait as can be.
This is a natural one

No problems at all till now on.

Don't know , the original Japanese plant is no longer there.

I play for more than 300 years.
I can only say , look around you..... if you can find one GRAB IT without any hesitation.
These guitars still do around 200/250 euro's , ridiculess for such a fine instrument.

This is a Westone Thunder 1-T (for tremolo) made in Japan in 1983.

H/H configuration - I think they're the original Westone Hammer humbuckers. Both pickups can be coiled tapped via a small toggle switch. The controls are one volume and two tones (one for each pickup).

It's a 24.75" scale guitar, rosewood fingerboard on a three ply laminate maple neck (with the centre laminate grain at 90 degrees to the outer two laminates, very clever). The headstock is also set at a 7-degree angle Gibson-style, but carved from the laminate, not glued on like a Gibson - even cleverer. The 22 frets are superfat and low.

The body is (apparently) maple. I say apparently because it's covered in a couple of millimetres of black lacquer. Therefore no idea how the body is layed out internally. Body layout is an offset double cutaway.

The tremolo is a Strat type, helf in place by three very stiff springs (it's much stiffer than my similarly equipped Strat). Tuners are Westone own brand, non-locking. The nut is the original bone.

It's relatively heavy, somewhere between a Telecaster and a Gibson ES335 (the backache guitar).

Cor! The humbuckers produce a very confident and rich sound, but with plenty of upper harmonics. Even on the neck pickup the sound is clear. Very Les Paul.

The single coil sound is (so far) less compelling. It's not a Fender twang, which I was surprised about given that the tremelo and bridge arre straight out of a Strat, but it is "hollower" than the humbucking config. Suspect it'll just stay on the neck humbucker, which is stellar. I have had some noise on single coil which suggests the shielding isn't doing its job.

It's 24 years old so I've no idea how the factory set it up. As it came to me the action is possibly a little high. I'm not planning to abuse the tremelo (and as it's a strat type, you probably wouldn't want to) so I'm going to try lowering it.

This guitar wants to play live. It's built more solidly than a telecaster and anyone who's ever thrown a tele across a stage (as I have) knows what that means.

The *real* Westone is long gone; the factory burnt down some tiem in the 80s.

I've been playing for over 20 years. I have a Jap Fender tele, a Squier Strat and a Gibson ES335. The fairest comparison is between this and the 335 and at the moment (possibly I'm still in my honeymoon period) it's better than the ES335. It feels more competently put together (I won't bore you with the story of the low E saddle on my tunomatic bridge, but suffice to say that Gibson seem to think hammers are suitable tools to use for setting intonation) and more importantly it sounds nicer. And for a tenth of the price!

In truth it's most like the Tele: it's a solid working guitar without too many frills, put together by Japanese craftsmen. Now I've got one (and I've waited 24 years) I'm not going to part with it. If I lost it I'd probably sell the Gibson to buy another (although I might hunt for a Thunder 2 which has a 25.5" scale length - could the tone be even better?)

the features are great. it has a brass bridge and brass knobs. looks smaller compared to my fender, but i think it looks way better..nice and easy frets to play on.

sound is great on the westone thunder 1.I use it to play rock, a little blues and everything else..i started out playing my fender strat, but after switching to the westone, its been the main guitar for me now..real nice sound

mines was given to my dad by my uncle. he bought it used already. then ofcourse me now...but everything is quite nice with the natural wood look and everything else..i adjusted the neck and the bridge to try and make it easier for me to play...it was a long time ago but i wish i never had adjusted it..nothings wrong but its that i just wanted the original adjustings...

this guitaris really reliable. really heavy too. after playing this guitar for a while, it can really hurt your shoulders..but ive gotten use to it.its been the only guitar ive used for gigs...no back ups...again this guitar was purchased long time ago...and it still works and sounds nice..

ive never had to deal with any repairs, i didnt need to.

this is a great guitar. even though heavy the nice sound and quality should make up for it. overall its a great guitar!
ill never give or sell this guitar away.

i think it was made in the 1980's in japan. forget how many frets.... it came with a realy cool case. Id love to have a whammy bar on it, but if i did, itd just be there for me to look at it....

It suits any style, iv played all sorts on it and its a very versatile guitar. I use a overdrive pedal and realy messed up fender up with it and it only hums a little, which is probaly all from the amp. It has a very nice sound. Its so good half the time i dont bother turning on the amp its so loud. I like the versatility of it.

I know nothing of how it was set up out of the factory as its 2nd or 3rd hand. Its great to play and it good for fast solo's particuly. It has absolutely no flaws on it, and youd expect it to pick some up by now.

Its very strong, iv seen it be dropped from waist height ( i bought it off someone i already knew so had seen it played many times ). Everything feels very sturdy and strong. None of the finish has worn off which is a wonder at this age. The strap buttons are very solid. Its a very dependable guitar. id probaly have a backup guitar at a gig, purely for the strings, as i find them strangely easy to break, but i would alway rely on the guitar itself.

never dealt with them.

Iv been playing awhile, but i only own this guitar and an acoustic, but iv played gibsons and other very expensive guitars owned by my freinds and but i by far prefer this one. One of its wonders is its rarity, if i owned a strat or something itd be no fun as everyones seen one of those.

Usual matsumoku job
1983ish .As others have already gone through the details ,I'll suffice to say its a 2 humbucker with a coil tap , with through body strings.

I play jazz. blues and sometimes country flat type picking (an odd mix ) so mainly use the single pickup options .It has a very good sound for this,with good volume and depth . .Sometimes I wind up the overdrive ,cut in the humbuckers and rock and it will do this very well.it has great sustain and will play like an acoustic.I used to play through a 80's Peavey and hated it but its a changed guitar with an old Marshall .I'm no expert on electric guitars and many of the finer points just go over my head

I thought it was not very well set up but it was originally bought from a mail order catalogue which is hardly a good place to buy a well set up guitar .after I played around with its intonation its now fine.i like the fret board a lot ,nice hard rosewood withna tight grain ,very smooth and very quick .i would prefer the neck a bit thinner as I have small hands and fingers but its OK .It stays in tune and will not go out of tune very easily even with drastic string bending .The bridge ,nut and knobs are brass and tarnish very easily .i replaced them with chrome versions .The wood now has a fine satin sheen that comes from polishing it lightly for 23 years.it has chrome tuners .

it seems as solid as a rock and there is no finish to wear off , its just all natural wood with not much else .I replaced the strap buttons with Schallers .its good enough to gig with ,bury your granny with ,or invade a minor irritating country with.

no experience

been playing since early Elvis,Cliff and Hank . First guitar a cricket bat ,great sustain but people kept throwing balls at me ,various Hofners that still make me shudder (necks like tree trunks ) played in early Shadows type bands and then .... went acoustic for 20 years playing round UK folk clubs ,blues clubs ,a bit of bluegrass style .Bought a JV Fender strat 62 and played a bit of country for a while and then gave up after having to sell the JV and sulked for 20 years until I started playing the Westone ,which my daughter bought .I prefered the JV strat at first but not sure now ,the Westone is a good versatile guitar but if any wants to swap for a JV white 62 Strat .I''m willing to swap .If I lost it I would look for another but be very careful it had a fret board as good,its half the greatness of this guitar .If you can get one I would try it as its got some very sweet tones hiding in the vibes .

I bought mine from a pawn broker in the mid eighties. When I first saw it I thought it was made for country music - NOT. Excellent pickup variation. I wish it had a whammy bar though. Mines probably the rarest Thunder 1 on the planet - its a lefty configured for a right hander (yes I got the strings inverted as I play a right handed guitar left handed).

I used to play live with it but now I'm an old fart, I use it to record straight through my sound card and I let the PC do the effects work for me.

I can get really smooth jazz feels from it or I can thrash it to death

Like everyone else has noticed, it weighs a ton, but that contributes to the depth of sound. Very low action and really comfortable up and down the neck.

I have only 1 ding in it where the strap goes, and that was there when I bought it. Very little fret wear after all these years, so I get minor fret buzz over a few notes. The neck is a straight as a die. I get a bit of earthing when I choose all pickups - it probably just needs a rewire

I'll never sell it. When I quit playing, it will be the family heirloom.

Im not sure where my Thunder I was born, or what year. It is solid Ash with 22 frets, a rosewood fretboard and all the original controls (volume, neck and bridge pickup tone), pickups and switches (neck, both, bridge) and isolator (single coil / humbucker). I've kept the original brass bridge, which wears smooth unlike ferrous bridges which wear sharp, and the last set of strings lasted for three years.
I've got the original case which has been bashed a bit, but is absoloutely fine
It's

I play everything from pentatonic thrash / speed metal to very mellow Dinner Jazz and the instrument can do everything I ask of it.
When my humbuckers are on single switch mode they buzz a bit from a poor earth, but I don't tend to use that tone anyway.

The solid body and brass bridge give a realy warm tone when I'm chilling out, and tonnes of sustain when the gain gets cranked up...

I use a 30W Gorilla practice amp (which is a bit of a joke, to be honest) and a double 12" cone 50W RMS Marshall Master Lead Combo to perform, which has a gorgeous tone with this guitar.

The only thing I dont like is that the pickups are a bit wimpy on single coil, buy like I said, I don't realy use that setting.

No faults at all. I didn't get it new, so I don't know about the factory settings, but after re-setting the bridge height and harmonics, it plays at 100 miles an hour.

The solid ash finish still looks great and if I lost my hands She'd be hung up as a piece of artwork in my livingroom. Absoloutely beautiful.

The strap buttons look like I could bungee off them. The Hardware is solid (I still don't understand why more guitars don't have brass bridges)but I wouldn't use it at a gig without backup. This is only because I keep my strings for so long that you never know how long theyve got left.

The thing weighs a tonne, but if you can cope with that, it's a top noth piece of kit.

I have no experience of Westone, so I can't comment.

I've been playing for eleven years and play using a Marshall Master Lead Combo and sometimes a BOSS Super American Metal pedal.

The only thing I might have changed would be to have a Floyd rose trem fited, but I'm worried about changing the tone. I compared it to various Ibanez, Gibson, Fender and "lesser" makes and models and it came out top in terms of playability, tone, versatility and apperance.

At first the look of the guitar to me was a bit dissapointing after a few years playin an SG but now i think its a good piece of kit

I use marshall amps set to what Clapton used in the 60s with the Bluesbreakers... an when i plugged it in...MY GOD!!!! The sustain was amazing and using the top 3 stings on the 12th fret made it squeal like sumthin i never heard before

The action on the guitar is great and the original pickups a godsend but i fitted in Di Marzios on to it and its even better... its a shame about the stripes on the guitar and just the plain look of it but still pretty good in total though!

The guitar is good live with the right settings but the standard stings that were on it were a bit crap to be honest... so i put on Ernie ball Extra Slinky's to give it more of a bend action on the fretboard... those strings have been on the guitar for a pretty long time and none have snapped!!!

I've been playing for over 3 years, and own a Gibson SG Standard, Les Paul Classic and a Marshall JCM 800 stack.
I play the westone more than the others because its more lightweight than a les paul and more durable than an SG and the sound is perfect.
The only thing i wish it had though is a Floyd Rose Locking trem and then it would have been perfect