NGD - Westone Spectrum ST

[NippleWrestler]

Matsumoku made, built in 1986. Sort of an SG and a Strat made a baby in the 80s. Maple body, maple neck, rosewood board. It has the Magnaflux pickups in there which are total garbage but seem to be well regarded by collectors. They're bright, thin, low output (6.3k each), but the neck clean tone is rather passable. The controls are master vol/tone (with a coil split), and your basic 3 way. Nothing fancy.

Has the super ultra rare factory case:



I picked this up off FB as a weird impulse buy, I've always loved this shape but never found one in lefty for a non-crazy price, and in NZ. Last one I saw was at Bungalow Bills, it was red, and it was $750. Anyway, this was strung with acoustic strings, had 3.5mm action, 5 springs in the back, a bridge about 5mm off the deck, and grey electrical tape as "block inlays". Behold:



See?

Here's the headstock. That black and red combo reminds me of 80s HiFi units.



They came with Gotoh tuners as standard, and Gotoh also made the bridge from what I see. Speaking of the bridge, it has these weird funky saddles on there. They look cool but don't provide any actual benefit beyond the aesthetic from what I can tell.



The neck has these weird marks all over it. They don't come off, you can't feel them, and I think they're under the clearcoat as I can't remove them even with 0000 wool. All suggestions welcome.



Is that trapped moisture maybe? A chemical reaction?

It's pretty cool. I'm not sure if I'll keep it for any length of time as the pickups could do with a change, there's some dead spots on the neck and I need another guitar like I need a hole in the head but it is cool for what it is, a mid-80s attempt at something different.

I wonder how much these things are worth. Was there even a Westone dealer here?

[The Scarecrow]

Weird, but cool in an oddball way. My late uncle's band would practice in the rumpus under the house adjacent to the garage at my grandparents place in the late 80's and the guitarist had one of these, remember the distinctive font colours. Our school music department had a SSS one in the mid 90's with same colour scheme as this, it had that distinctive musty odour that all instruments and amplifiers of that age seem to have. I played it a couple of times and remember the action was high enough to get a boat under. In the early 00's I saw a few of these crop u at Cashies/Dollar Dealers, usually for fairly inflated prices.

[NippleWrestler]

Weird, but cool in an oddball way. My late uncle's band would practice in the rumpus under the house adjacent to the garage at my grandparents place in the late 80's and the guitarist had one of these, remember the distinctive font colours. Our school music department had a SSS one in the mid 90's with same colour scheme as this, it had that distinctive musty odour that all instruments and amplifiers of that age seem to have. I played it a couple of times and remember the action was high enough to get a boat under. In the early 00's I saw a few of these crop u at Cashies/Dollar Dealers, usually for fairly inflated prices.

They were $349 USD list price when new (according to the catalogs) so not chump change in the 80s. But we're living in weird times and the prices of older MIJ stuff has been creeping up... shit, people are asking $600 for crappy Vester strats.

There's no weird smell here, and the action now is too low if anything after a brief foray into a setup. It's definitely appreciated not having 5 springs in the back and acoustic strings on the front.

And, it would look fuckin rad with EMGs in there.

[foal30]

Charlie Jemmet’s had Westone stock in the late 1980’s.

I guy I knew purchased the “Rail” Bass from there maybe 1988

[foal30]

Floss from Loves Ugly Children had a Westone P bass as well

[jimi]

Did you get a matching keyboard to go with it?