Westone Spares

OK, gang... this is for all Westone owners and especially for those of you with Bendmaster Deluxe and FT trems, I would suggest you hustle over to Spares and place your orders... it's closing for good come 5 April...

http://www.westone.info/spares/index.html

Has the Westone info site closed for good?

Link

I noticed some time ago that Thorn deleted his account on here too.

Oh wow. I feel sick. Is the whole site really gone?

I don't know what to say.... I guess we're flying the flag now chaps....

Geez, I knew David was getting out of the "parts" business, but I had no idea he was closing the entire site too!
I just had a look on the "waybackmachine". There is text but the pictures have been blocked...so there's not even any archive available.
Something we said??

Any chance in passing the hat to collect donations to try to at least buy the archives from him so they can be maintained here??

Warrn wrote:Oh wow. I feel sick. Is the whole site really gone?

Indeed, this is horrible. I was hoping it was my server or something. Wow, there has to be a way to access the info and make our own site? I'll donate for sure. Man, i wish i had saved pages in my computer or something. This sucks!

We're not sure if David would cooperate but PM sent to Corsair with a request to approach him, and a suggestion to rebuild here. We may see some sort of resurrection of the "info" site yet.
Stay tuned.
Film at eleven.

....fingers, (and toes, bloody h#ll, eyes too) are crossed.

Hopefully it'll work out and torch get passed on, that was/is a great site! Helped me a lot when deciding which Westies to go for...

Which one's did you get?

I'm sharing Barry's hopes that we can get the archive stuff from Westone.info resurrected on here. How else do I feed my addiction?

I'm sure David/ Thorn had his reasons for closing the Spares site down, just grateful for his help in the past.

It would be great if the remaining parts could also be passed down. Hell, I'd throw a 10 spot towards that!

My thoughts on a solution --- If we could get all that info and add it to the wikipedia Westone page, then there is no hosting, upkeep, hastle etc..
So just a question on getting that info and inputting it to wiki

It really is helpful info to know what model was made of this & that and what year had this & that. Wikipedia would be permanent, and any one off types could be submitted by anyone.

Good idea but isn't Wikipedia designed so most anyone can add information to an entry page? I would fear the possibility that those cheep pieces of poop currently made in China and marketed in Germany could be confused with the real deals we all love here.

Wikipedia mods would delete it all. They would say it's not important to have. Someone could start a Westone wiki though.

Keep the ideas flowing chaps - I reckon we have to look at every and all possibilities!! If realistic, I'd like to keep it "inhouse" as it were, but that's only my opinion...

There are some Westone Bass catalogue pages HERE

Does anyone know how the Matsumoku info pages are run, is it part of the forum site or is it privately set up?

It would be great if Westone could be included in their listings, it's clearly set out with room for the models and the catalogues, would this be possible?

DAN.

corsair wrote:Keep the ideas flowing chaps - I reckon we have to look at every and all possibilities!! If realistic, I'd like to keep it "inhouse" as it were, but that's only my opinion...

Agreed. Duofuzz has an excellent point as well. I am also a forumite at the Mats site and always wondered why Westone, Univox and Electra had links to separate sites. Having posted now at both forums ( and lurking abit on the others as well ) it is clear that the forums are holding their own quite nicely each to their own.

If it is a matter of the membership here needing to host our own archival site I am more than willing to contribute my time, energies, dollars, etc. and I'm certain others would step up as well.

Corsair has the right thought here.... all hands on deck!!

Does anyone on here have a good relationship with David who ran the site? Corsair, anyone? If so, then how about contacting him to ask if we could have his info.

Even if it comes to a matter of cost, I will be willing to donate as I'm sure others would as well. This is our hobby, it's worth it.

The Chad wrote:Does anyone on here have a good relationship with David who ran the site? Corsair, anyone? If so, then how about contacting him to ask if we could have his info...

Chad, see my third post on the first page. It's already in the works; but don't hold your breath.

Since we appear to be public now with ideas/solutions, my suggestion to Corsair, offline, was that we bring the "info/history" site in house. In technical terms this would simply mean creating a sub-domain of www.westoneguitars.net, similar to the way this forum, forum.westoneguitars.net is presently organized. That will cost nothing to do and control remains with us.

Or, we can simply build on the current top level domain, www.westoneguitars.net. This already has a couple of pages with links and some information on Prestige guitars. It's already an attractive start on a site, built using a pleasing template from WordPress. Extending it would be the easiest option. A web site format offers the widest range of options as far as segmentation of topics, search, and presentation is concerned.

I would not recommend any involvement with WikiPedia. A quick look at it reveals that the bulk of the current "Westone" content relates to hearing aids! Maybe that's a related by product of too much rock n roll, but it's an unnecessary confusion we can do without. Because it's a completely open format anyone, not just forum members, can enter and delete, rewrite or deface any of the information there. Do you want the long post you spent considerable time on, with pictures, tampered with by some cyber vandal? 'Nuff said.

I don't think a Wiki is the the right format that we're after. Without a consistent approach to design, presentation and editing, it would soon become incoherent and frustrating to use.

Just noticed that the message on the old info site has been updated - WWW.WESTONE.INFO

It is'nt looking good

DAN.

Well there's our answer John. The guy's going to remain an egotistical A*hole.
We're on our own boils and gurgles!

I will really miss that site, It's a real shame that all that fantastic info has gone. He obviously had his reasons for not wanting to share his knowledge with the world anymore but I guess we will never know why. I'm sure he will still be lurking around here to witness the aftermath.

Whad' d'ya sayin' ? Youse tinkin' dat me an' Moose an' Rocco aughta' pay him a little visit? Mebbe we can make him an offer he can't refuse?

bowenjaybee wrote:...He obviously had his reasons for not wanting to share his knowledge with the world anymore but I guess we will never know why. I'm sure he will still be lurking around here to witness the aftermath.

Despite his apparent "expertise" and former dedication the man appears unbalanced for whatever reason, and we're better off not relying on him. There's certainly no point in whining or begging him, he's obviously not interested in anyone or anything else but himself; it's a control issue with this guy and I have no time to waste on his type.
Best to ignore him and carry on.

We have a knowledgeable group of members here and a wealth of posted information. Over time we'll create our own reference base, with superior pictures, better access, and under our own control.

Well. Lets start our own .info! Those of us that have the models that were listed on that site could ms paint/scan wiring diagrams to start. Though it is a shame that the left over parts are allegedly trashed.

I think unfortunately Barry's right on this... we'll just have to get it together on our own.

Have a look around in here;

http://www.guitardir.com/main.php?Context=AboutSE

.... click on Electric guitars and scroll down the left hand list to Westone; there's a lot of info there, and I'll ask the owner of the site if we can use it. He's a good bloke - a Frenchman who emigrated to New Zealand and I'm quite sure he'll be OK with it.

Otherwise, we just pull our own guitars to bits and compile any and all data on then that we can; perhaps Damian or Martin - or in fact anyone who knows how to do this - could do a circuit diagram for us??

Make it so! The only thing I got is the Clipper 4112 wiring that I'm using for my Westone.

Well I don't know turn my back for a minuet & the info site has gone belly up, sh 1 t! When I saw the site had been closed to divert traffic to the sale site, the thought did crossed my mind that the info site may not be opened again.

I see you all have been thinking about what to do, I haven't a clue how these forums/boards work. I guess adds pay for the site. Can the site be modified or are we stuck with whats on the home page?

For my two penarth, & I appreciate it may have all been discussed it at length. As we all know, there is more info tucked away on this forum than was ever on the Westone info site its just not readily accessible. Should another be launched as everyone seem to be agreed, it should be built on our forum. If a heading as in ''Members Westone's'' could be added called ''Westone Info'' or whatever, with a list of Mat's guitars as links, (tell me if I talking through the back of my head I usually do) surely members could add photos with a brief descriptions that could be edited if need be by more knowledgeable amongst us, it would take a little time for it to build but it is no more than what members already do when posting their picks or advising others.

If this was possible, additions would be posted to a set plan, perhaps anonymously to save unnecessary complication & anonymity, a front & back pick of the guitar plus headstock, bridge & p/ups in each colour, plus a brief description preferably taken from a catalogue or a pick of a catalogue page when available. Catalogue pages would come available as time went on, for my part, I have the Sid Pool catalogue, I wouldn't be surprised that between us, all the catalogue pages would be available.

Again, I have the Sid pool wiring diagram & have posted it. Its a bit hand drawn but I can soon draw it up better, should all this get going the rest will all come out of the woodwork I'm sure.

Barry's right of course & It would be nice to have a reference that had uniform sized pictures of good quality, unlike the info site.

No I don't want the Job should it be available but would be happy to scan items for it if that would help

Thanks for the offer Fish.
Please see the entry here as to what's going on currently:
LINK

Anything to help.
Fire away.

Iceman wrote:I am also a forumite at the Mats site and always wondered why Westone, Univox and Electra had links to separate sites.

Because at the time Matsumoku.org was set up, I guess Thorn and the Electra admin stuck their hands up and took a little of the pressure off Neal who put Matt together. However, I do know he helped both Thorn and the others with material to get 'em started...