XA1430 Corsair - poor guy

Saw this lonely old guy in a pawn shop today. Broken headstock, loss of the high-E tuner. Priced at $99... overpriced, but I was tempted to take him home like an abandoned puppy. If anyone needs him for parts or thinks he's worth fixing, shoot me a message. I am in Florida in the States, and average shipping charges for guitars with UPS is $50 (ouch!)

PM sent....

Go get that thing (unless Mike is having you get it for him).

The parts alone are well worth the asking price. I could use the locking nut assembly myself...

The bridge and stringlocks are worth that alone, and the pickups are OK, too..... Someone grab that thang!!!

OK - I'm a newbie, so I couldn't reply to Mike's PM... but it is his if he wants it (and he said he did). I have sent my email address to Iceman so he can connect us (no in-fighting here, okay?). I should be able to get over to the place tomorrow to purchase it.

For the record, I didn't plug it in or even play it... The photos are as much info as I have on the guitar. I had stopped in the small shop and really didn't have time to do even that. I took the quick pics and left. Being a bit new in the Westone gang, I thought someone might be interested. I'm a regular poster (and player!) over at the Electra Forums site. In fact, I'm working on a line of Electra T-shirts that will soon be available. Below is one example. I've considered doing some Westone designs also, and emailed this Forum's main administrator to ask if it would be okay to sell them here. He kindly replied that he would communicate with the other Admins and was going to get back with me. I would welcome input from any of you if the thought of custom Weston shirts sounds appealing.

Here's one of the Electra shirts that will be available soon (in chocolate brown):

Okay... maybe that was inappropriate to put the Electra image there and ask for input. My apologies, John, if that was unacceptable. I'm a fan of odd guitars and love making shirts... its a weird and wonderful marriage.

I think some Westone Pantera shirts would be cool - but heck - I'm a Pantera nerd.

drsyn67 wrote:Okay... maybe that was inappropriate to put the Electra image there and ask for input. My apologies, John, if that was unacceptable. I'm a fan of odd guitars and love making shirts... its a weird and wonderful marriage.

I'm sure its cool with the boys, great shirt by the way. Loved it when i saw it at the Electra forum, count 1 purchase here!

hobster wrote:

drsyn67 wrote:Okay... maybe that was inappropriate to put the Electra image there and ask for input. My apologies, John, if that was unacceptable. I'm a fan of odd guitars and love making shirts... its a weird and wonderful marriage.

I'm sure its cool with the boys, great shirt by the way. Loved it when i saw it at the Electra forum, count 1 purchase here!

Thanks, Hobster. If the stars align, I'll have some of those Electra shirts ready next week. I haven't mentioned it there, because at this point I just want to post photos of the shirts once they are printed - instead of "talking it up". The guy I work with has had some issues, but we're working things out and should be ready next week.

Nice guitar, I hope someone grabs it.

And for the shirt... MAKE WESTONE SHIRTS. There, I said it.

Make one with the Dynasty. Two reasons: 1. It would look super cool. 2. It would appeal to buyers as an "80's" shirt, whether they're guitar lovers or not. Like the other misc. guitar shirts you see at Kohls and WalMart and such (I'd seen Strats, Peavey T60's, Les Pauls, V's of various sorts, etc. on shirts already and people love them). A Dynasty shirt would sell that way, wouldn't it?!

Let's keep the commercial operations to a bare minimum on here, eh, guys...

Chad, you know that they're are already Ts for sale on the Westone info site, which is where I feel these should be as well.

PM Barry and he'll make a spot for you, drsyn!

Update on the "Poor Guy / Corsair"... I picked it up today at the shop. The owner had done his research and advised I might find a neck for it on this forum (so much for haggling on the price... he wouldn't bend).

Mike (gittarasaurus) sent payment on it today, and it ships out tomorrow. So everyone can harass him for taking advantage of a newbie like me It is a beautiful guitar, and it would be very easy to get attached to, but I'm good to my word and enjoy making other folks happy. So, I guess someone wants me to find them a Pantera?

Unless you can run down a Reb Beach model for me.

Yeah, an x390ma will do nicely in its stead, I guess...

Bugger off, Steve... The poor bloke's got enough to do looking for an Electra Lady and a Westone Raider I in blue/gold sparkle for me.....

corsair wrote:Bugger off, Steve... The poor bloke's got enough to do looking for an Electra Lady and a Westone Raider I in blue/gold sparkle for me.....

Best I can do on short notice, John...

http://erie.craigslist.org/msg/2841149652.html

You're killing me, here......

Oh hey, that's in PA!!! Hmmm, I don't like the one humbucker thing though, but that's a good price!

Iceman wrote:Unless you can run down a Reb Beach model for me.

...hey now, that's getting into my territory Steve! If one pops up, we'll have to fight for it!

Is that Raider close enough you'd consider checking into it??

Not at the minute, Steve, no... the omens are not propitious!! We have some financial issues to sort out and have to get our gear across from NZ to here as well as pay for the stuff that's coming from the UK.

Otherwise, yeah... I'd been in like the proverbial big hairy dog!!

Ah, no John... I meant was Chad willing to look into it for me.

NUTS!!! A notification just came in from ebay.... I just won a guitar I wasn't suppose to win. High bidder pulled out in the last minutes. OH BOTHER...

Iceman wrote:Ah, no John... I meant was Chad willing to look into it for me.

NUTS!!! A notification just came in from ebay.... I just won a guitar I wasn't suppose to win. High bidder pulled out in the last minutes. OH BOTHER...

Is that a dig at me about the 350? or did the same thing happen to you

Not at all, Pat. It did truthfully happen to me just earlier. A Washburn is on it's way to me.

My apologies... your incident sincerely did not even cross my mind.

Well I called about it. Trouble is it's about 4 hrs away from me!!!

The Chad wrote:Well I called about it. Trouble is it's about 4 hrs away from me!!!

Fug-gedda-bowd-it then Chad. 'Preciate the call though...

some guitars just seem destined for abuse....
poor ole westie, like rodney dangerfield, don't get no respect!



the box was plenty messed up by the USPS, but the body made it without any damage other than what was done by the previous owner. i'll post more pics elsewhere around here, but here is a quick look.


turns out to be a Seymour Duncan pickup in the bridge (59BJ on the back). the middle and neck pickups look to be replacements as well. not sure what they might be. i found a westone neck that should be perfect for this and should arrive here shortly. i should be able to put it all together to make a working guitar again. not exactly as original, but a good player in any case.

Gosh, poor thing..

Looks great though. And now, probably for the first time ever, this guitar is in good hands :bball:

Price-wise, that seymour in the bridge already makes it a steal. My girlfriend once offered me a sweet Korean guitar, turned out it had a seymour duncan in the bridge and a dimarzio in the neck (both remain unidentified to this day though).

Do you intend to keep or replace those pickups btw? Looking forward to the result of all of this!

Holy CR@P they killed it! Mike - I should have added more filling to that box and not relied on the double walls of the interior to keep it safe. Then again, that may be the only thing that saved it. Good luck with it - make her roar!

Hopefully your new neck will work just fine. What's it from, a late model Spectrum?

The Chad wrote:Hopefully your new neck will work just fine. What's it from, a late model Spectrum?

yes, a spectrum but don't know exactly what model. does look to be a korean made neck. it has a scarf joint, and sticker on the machine head for serial number. should be a perfect fit i would guess.

it is one of those things, you think to yourself, 'i haven't seen any westone necks for sale on ebay for a long time, just that one way-overpriced guy that's been there forever.'

and then, SURPRISE! just like that. the exact thing i need appears, and even for a good deal, about $40, delivered. that is for the neck w/ tuners, string lock, truss rod cover, six tuners, undamaged headstock too. only item missing is the nut, but the other neck has one i can use.

between the old and the new, everything i need is there. the only differences will be the new one is a reverse, and has chrome hardware.

not really much of a problem i'd say. should be fun and easy project.

Alright man, good score. Reverse heads are better looking anyway IMO, much more edgey ya know?! Should work a treat and fit just great, like Beavis said, you're the best friend that guitar ever had.

The Chad wrote: like Beavis said, you're the best friend that guitar ever had.

nice of you to say

since some peoples thinks i'm crazy .... >>> <<<

or they wonder ....

what's he building in there?

~ awesome Tom Waits reference, Mike!

Remember this story from four years ago... newbie buys broken headstock XA1430 Corsair for prominent member on the forum, lives to regret it?  (I didn't regret getting it for him... just knew that I would regret not keeping it).  Later this morning I'm making one of "those" drives to pickup the sister of this instrument... same color, same year (1987), only difference is chrome knobs. My stable of Westones is still the two Dynastys, a Spectrum DX (so comfy!) and an Electra Workingman. Once the robin has left the nest, it may be family photo time. I've read the repeated mentions of the great necks on these, and mixed reviews on the pickups and switches  (you know what they say about opinions)... now I'm wishing I had plugged-in the original 5-string purchase to know if I'm in lust, or not.  My biggest concern is the pickups will sound muffly like inactive EMGs.  Hoping against logic that this 1430 will have similar crunch like a Corsair 7470 signature... like this guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7fJwrnzTgU