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Westone Rebuild

Westone Thunder 1-T Rebuild pt 2…The Damage


The guitar arrived safely, although frankly if it had been kicked to my house from 200 miles away the damage wouldn’t have been much worse! I unpacked it and before any stripping down, I took a few photos and got a basic overview of what needs doing. It’s a pretty extensive list…the issues are as follows;

  • Pickup selector switch broken 
  • Mini Toggle switch broken
  • Nut missing
  • Both pickup rings broken, and mounting screws all chewed up and rusty
  • Missing machine head ferrule
  • Bridge saddles rusted, all screws in nasty conditon
  • Jack socket missing
  • Tremelo cover missing
  • Tremelo arm missing
  • Some frets in poor condition
  • 2 neck screws missing, others damaged
  • wiring looks very shoddy..no idea if the pickups work
  • Body has gouges and scrapes, paintwork in very bad condition
So I have my work cut out for me! On the plus side, the body feels weighty and substantial and the neck looks good. I reckon all the rest is fixable with these two good fundamentals.
Close up of the damage
Close up of the damage
In a flurry of enthusiasm I stripped the whole thing apart, unsoldered the remaining wiring, removing the pickups and bagging everything for later investigation.
I had two pieces of luck straight away…my parts box gave up a matching machine head ferrule and I had a spare Tremelo arm, bought for my Squier Strat but the wrong thread..it fits the Westone perfectly!
The body will need sanding, filling and re-spraying, and I won’t be returning it to black…I feel like a new colour and the current condition  is so poor a refinish won’t harm the guitar’s value.
I’m thinking maybe a darkish metallic blue/grey colour I have seen…A Volvo car colour.
The wiring mess
The wiring mess

I have also toyed with the idea of metal pickup covers, but it seems pointless buying parts until I know if they work or not. I may need two new humbuckers.

Next post I’ll begin the rebuild. Thanks for reading!

One reply on “Westone Thunder 1-T Rebuild pt 2…The Damage”

Give it death, chook! You can’t to anything to it now but make it better, eh!! I liked the purple idea you had for a re-finish and I hope the p’ups are still working; they should be MMK45’s I think which have more grunt than a wild pig!