Westone Thunder IIIA

Hi my name is eddy , i was suprised to read the other reveiw as i had a westone thunderIIIa too and mine was totally different !
to start with , i bought mine brand new it was an american import , it had 24 frets , ebony fingerboard , a one piece maple and rosewood body/neck and an xlr imput instead of the usuall 1/4" jack plug. this was so powerfull and clear that i fell in love instantly. although i did need to make a few alterations. it never had a tremlo so i had an ibanez pro rocker fitted in andys at denmark st. and the locking top nut too. i also replaced all the chrome hardware with gold and had the head custom painted and the rest sprayed. i also had strap locks fitted.we are now talking one awsome guitar!

unless you heard one , you cant explain what a difference the active cicuit makes to the sound. it becomes more powerfull than any other guitar and enhances every aspect of the sound. i played it through a zoom guitar effects prossessor , any guitar sounds good though one of those but the westone ,well randy rhodes is the closest iv heard and even his active jackson was in the shade ( sorry randy ).

the guitar was made of 5 pieces of maple and rosewood laminated together. the action like all new guitars with 010 strings and a no idea shop owner set up. but i soon sorted that out i use my own set of strings 007 009 011 022 032 038 you may think 007 is too light , but not on an active guitar with two 9 volt duracells and a zoom ! the finish was faultless which is more than i can say for my strats and SGs and at 5x the price ! and 24 frets ! find that on a strat or a les paul ! it did need a tremlo and locking top nut to be played proffesionally , and it weighed a tonne ! but to get a gibson with an ebony fingerboard your talking bundles of dosh and you still wouldent get the sound .

i used this guitar on stage every night almost for ten years , i used to use a les paul in one pub because of the fights , i never wanted the westone to get damaged ! in ten years i never even broke the strings . the strings ere changed once or twice a week and the batterys once a month, i used to clean it and look after it more enthusiastically than with my other guitars it was a dream to play and it never ever let me down. i did put strap locks on and even though i used to cain it io stage , it could go all night and not go out of tune ( my les paul and strat couldent make it through one song)

i have never needed to contact the company , i think they closed down or something like that , i did get a warranty from the shop where i bought it but it never needed anything doing to it. the shop never seemed to know anything about westones they had just purchased 7 of them when i went to get my SG re fretted , they said dont waste your money on having it done and sold me the westone !

i have been playing for 27 years now , i no longer play for a living and my westone met its end. ( please dont ask ) .however i can say this , without a doubt it the best guitar i have ever had and iv had them all . i bought a jackson, it took me 15 minutes to change the strings and an hour to tune it ! what a pile of crap #900 down the drain . no , give my westone back any day. all i own now is a hornby
skews les paul copy and my zoom . everything else has gone now (apparently it was cluttering up the house ) but i do have three albums that i used the westone on so i can still listen to the sound of a good guitar whenever i like . on a final note , i belive that the string gauge and sound are what we must get right to be able to play freely and from the heart . i thank god for my gift and westone for my guitar.

This was bought second hand for 100 pounds (UK)and was my first guitar. Made in Japan I think. It had 21 frets and a pearl sparkle finish. Controls were the usual: 1 vol, 2 tone. However, it is the only guitar i have ever seen with single cols in the bridge and neck and a humbucker in the middle position. It also had 2 2-way switches and one 3-way switch. I sold this guitar 10 years ago and bought an Ibanez RG550 (big mistake!). As I was just starting out I didn't know much about guitars so the fact that this guitar had active electronics completely escaped me. However, i have since bought a westone thunder 1A and i expect that the switches on this were similar to those on the thunder 3A (coil tap, phase switching, active on/off). The difference between the 2 models is probably the finish, the pickups and the thunder 3A had a terrible trem on it. The fingerboard was rosewood but the neck and body are unknown. The neck was great for lead work although I find that the frets wear down quicker on Westone's than on other guitars I have. The body style is the same as for the Thunder 1.

The sound was great - plenty of variety - the tone pots in particular really helped create different sounds (unlike the Ibanez).

Generally it was possible to get thick les paul sounds by turning down the treble and boosting bass - very responsive pots - and good strat tones which could be manipulated with the phase switching to give strange quacking noises. Very good clean and distorted - I used it for blues, rock and thrash.

The guitar's action was a bit high so i just mucked around with it until i got it lower. The finish looked great - again an unusual finish to go with the unusual pickups. No flaws that I remember on the finish. I do remember breaking a lot of high E strings so i expect the bridge could have done with a bit of work. The pots worked well and were metal so they felt more rugged than the plastic fender ones.

I used pencil graphite on the strings where they passed through the nut and this helped the tuning stability - but not when the trem was used.

This guitar survived many practise sessions and plenty of falls off the amp - until i learned that a guitar stand would be a good investment. The hardware was very durable - but the strap locks werer very small and the guitar slipped off my strap loads of times - still it increases your reflexes! I would depend on it for live use but i would think about changing the bridge for tuning and string breaking reasons.

Never dealt with them and they are not in business now - although the Westone name is used on some British made custom guitars now.

I have been playing for 15 years and own les paul, SG, ibanez rg550, flying vee, fender super strat, harmony H77, westone thunder I and IA and ibanez black eagle bass guitar. I play through a Marshall valvestate amp (80W) and use Digitech effects for gigs with my band "The Babe Maggots".

I regret selling it to get the metal monster ibanez but it seemed a good idea at the time - so if i ever saw one again i would definetly buy it. I have bought the other 2 westone's recently to try to get close but its not the same without the strange pickup choice.

So if anyone out there has one for sale ..........