Westone XT10 Tele copy

First of, Westone nowdays appears to be a brandname wich has changed owner since the glorious days of japanese manufacturing gone. It now is owned by Music Meyer, a german wholesaler giant, who uses it to produce low cost copy models competing with entry level brands or giant corporations as Squier of Fender of Epiphone of Gibson etc...
More info on http://www.westone-guitars.info/
This instrument in question is a 2007 made, alder body, natural honey colour, 21 frets, bolt on, 25.5" scale, fairly chunky, 9.5 radius maple neck, Telecaster copy. It has belly contour cut, and sports Wilkinson single coil pickups, 3 way switch, 1 tone 1 vol controll (both 250k with a 0.047 cap), Wilkinson tuners, and sadly NOT the famous wilkinson WTBCR 3 compensated saddle bridge, but some unidentified lip-less, chrome, modern six saddle bridge, wich I am going to replace sooner or later with the afformentioned WTBCR.
When I bought it I was on a market for a low cost but sturdy telecaster. It satisfies on both account. The glossy but not tinted neck is chunky, wich is the most important comfort reason for me. The quality appears to be great, fit and finish are both fantastic.
Although I can not find any sign of proof on the guitar, wich came in a cardboard box with an allen wrench and horrid cheap cable, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't made in China.

It sounds like a good tele. Trev Wilkinson claims this pickup set to be '60s voiced. I can't argue, since I never had a chance to even touch a '60s tele -although I had the pleasure to be the landlord of a gentleman, who was a proud but careless owner of '53 blackguard blonde, wich I played regularly under bedroom condition and gained more pleasure from it than from, let' s say, a reasonably priced oral sex from an experienced professional.
Suffice to say, the pickups and THE 0.047 and 250K CONTROLLS, are great. When shopping for a tele, one should be clear about one's needs. The different cap and pot values play a hughely underestimated role in a telecaster's sound. This combination is the one I favour, but still will try to modify it with the installation of a 1meg cap on the volume controll, just as it was on the original '52. All the required information can be found on the official fender site, in neat pdf versions, or just go to tdpri.com for a fountain of information regarding the first massproduced solidbodied electric guitar of the history.
The only thing missing from my equatation, what would skyrocket this handsome piece of wood with wires on it to a bloody great guitar is the 3 saddle bridge. It is a well disputated question, and I refer to it here, in the sound category, since I appear to be a person, who can hear the difference between the old style and the newer 6 saddle variant, mainly some percussive attack I miss from the bridge I have at the moment.
One more word on the cap value. The classic tele neck pickup combined with the 0.047cap and 250k pots is simply my favorite sound an electric guitar is capable of producing. With higher value components this is the first thing seems to me going down the drain.
The sound is old fashioned and raw. They handle gain only to an extent, but an old style single coil tele is not something speed metalists are normally goin' for. They don't have to much oomph, but I have a Steinberger with a single EMG 85 in the bridge for that.
They sound sweet, wether it be my TECH21 TRI-AC, my Harley Benton GA5H head and 2*12 or my Microcube. The latest's Classic Stack position with the gain at zero, no effects, tone controll at 12 especially sounds like a good match for bedroom heroes. Wery much pushed Tweed like sound, which is still perfectly clean in the neck, jangly in the middle, and just over the edge in the bridge position.

Fit finish was great out of the box. It is a not particularly well matched 3 piece body, but for the price of 100USD one can not expect custom shop attention to detail. Set-up on a musical instrument of this price range wich travelled around the world in a cardboard box? Well, considering this, it was ok I guess.

It has some contact problem when switching to the bridge position, but it ain't the switch, as I checked, it is some minor wiring issue I am reluctant to maintain, since it is on the verge of falling victim of a biting modding bug eating me recently.

The warranty is one year if memory serves. The hungarian distributor is very friendly and professional.

I only miss the 3 saddle bridge. But I am going to install one pretty soon. And while I'm at it, will probably change the tuning pegs to ping style, purely for cosmethical reasons. I want to try different pickup combinations, the EMG T set (alnico) is really tempting, but first will probabla try Dimarzio's DP389 (ToneZone T), because, for the time being, I am very happy with the Wilkinson neck pickup's sound (I very much like the bridge too, the dimarzio something I just would like to try).
It's quite heavy. Maybe this is the only thing I am not a big fan of.
I started in the early eighties, and I also own another Westone, and ES335 copy, wich I will review soon, and two Steinberger copies, a Spirt GTPro with a single EMG 85 in the bridge, and Hohner G3T with the original EMGSelects. Have a mongrel fretless bass and a Yamaha FG310 acoustic too.
My favorites are the steinies, the chunky neck, the modern sound , the look, the feel, the weight....
But I really wanted an inexpensive beater of a tele and found it in this natural honey colored wonder. Check 'em out. Thanks for reading.