WestoneGuitars.net Updates & Requests

As I write this, all the original content from David Blair's 'old' info site has now been converted, edited and reformatted to the 'new' site. Some additional material has also been started, notably the FixMe section.

I wanted to start this thread aimed at communicating information about our new site. The intent is to let members know about new features as they are released, and more important, to receive ideas from the members as to what needs to be added/corrected, etc.

I'll also be using this thread to "beg" for new content!

FEATURES SUMMARY
For those who haven't tried WestoneGuitars.net yet, I think you'll find it a lot more versatile, and much easier to locate information now.

Search Bar
This is the single most important addition, in my opinion. You'll find it in the footer of each page. The results will list all references to your query. A very quick way to get what you need.

On The Fly Translation
We have a world wide audience and not everybody's first language is English, so, located in the footer is the Translate bar. Click on a flag icon (the most common languages on here) or chose one of the dozens of other available languages from the drop down. The page will quickly be translated to your new language choice.

Bread Crumb Navigation
Just added this week is a feature that I'm still playing with a bit, but I think it's pretty helpful as it is for the moment. Under the main menu options at the top left of the screen you'll see a navigational trail generate as you work your way through a menu. I felt it was possibly getting a little confusing by the time you got three levels deep, and it was easy to forget where you were or how to get back. With the bread crumb trail it's easier and quicker to jump directly back to a sub-menu rather than repeatedly clicking on the browser back button.

Share/Save Button
Just added today, at the bottom of every page, you'll now find a small utility that will allow those who use "Social Media" networking to easily book mark or share a particular piece of information. You'll find all the usual suspects under the popup, and you can even email from it as well!

Mobile Device Viewing
Also added tonight is a utility that "should" automatically re-format the site to a mobile theme for visitors on iPhone, iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm and Torch, Palm Pre and other touch-based smartphones. I don't own such a device but I thought I'd include it for those who do. I had a quick look using a developer's web browser emulator but I'd appreciate knowing if it's helpful on the real thing. There is a button on the bottom of the display to toggle back to the web based version if you don't like it.

That's it for now, more news as it happens. I'll be making a formal begging request soon for additional pix and info for a new feature I have in mind!

Jeez, man - and all this while working a new job?! When do you sleep?? Thanks Barry; this is just great...

Thanks you very much Barry, you're a great help to us all.

Now quite jerkin' around and put my Dynasty's pics on your site. The Dynasty's you have on there now are simply inferior to mine, so just let me know what shots you want.

The Chad wrote:Thanks you very much Barry, you're a great help to us all.

Thanks Chad. Nice to know it's all appreciated.

...just let me know what shots you want.

That's the "begging" part If you already have good ones posted on the forum just give me the links(s) and I can grab 'em from there. Cheers!

Wow!!!! Way to go Barry and thanks for all the work.

I use a DroidX for 95% of my posting/viewing on the forum. On the .net site I find that...

1.) The hotlinks to the forums both work properly
2.) The email dropdown correctly sets up to send to your consulting webpage mail
3.) The RSS feed must not be actively subscribing at this point.
4.) The on/off toggle for mobile or classic view functioning as it should.

By clicking my bookmark to the site it also defaults to the mobile display view so I can assume it is auto detecting my mobile device. I do need to toggle to the classic view to access anything other than the homepage (models, fixit, etc.) as the dropdown that appears along with the RSS and email buttons is only displaying the home page as a selection.

Really impressive stuff so far. Wonderful work on your part. Again, thank you so much!

Thanks Ice.
Good to know the mobile translator is working (more or less). It ain't perfect but at least you can toggle it off.
I removed the RSS feed temporarily. I'm not sure if it's needed and I haven't really set it up properly yet anyway.

Mobile Viewing Update
I've made some more adjustments and you should now be able to view about 95% of the site content. Ice, can you or someone else check it out please?
Thanks!

All in working order Barry. The fixit tab does not appear but I assume you are still constructing as I see that caveat on the classic view page.

You are the man!!!

The new site looks excellent, great work Barry It would be wonderful to see some of the not so good photos replaced with better quality shots. I'm sure everyone on here would be keen to contribute. I'd love to see my 1984 Spectrum II on there.....PM sent with links to my other Westone pics.

Jay

Iceman wrote:All in working order Barry. The fixit tab does not appear but I assume you are still constructing as I see that caveat on the classic view page...

Thanks for checking that out Steve. I'm not sure why FixIt isn't showing (that's the 5% that ain't right yet). I have a hunch it may be a limitation of the software being used; dunno why that would be though. Anyway the main functionality is working and that's the main thing for now.

bowenjaybee wrote:...It would be wonderful to see some of the not so good photos replaced with better quality shots.

Yeah, the site is long overdue for updated pix and it's always been the plan to update or replace many of them. Thanks for the links Jay.

bowenjaybee wrote:...I'd love to see my 1984 Spectrum II on there...

Your whim is my command
Information UPDATED

Barry wrote:Your whim is my command

...we're still talking about guitars here, right?!?

corsair wrote:...we're still talking about guitars here, right?!?

Unless you are a sexy female member of the opposite sex...um, yes.

Great job there Barry, much appreciated.

Barry wrote:

bowenjaybee wrote:...I'd love to see my 1984 Spectrum II on there...

Your whim is my command
Information UPDATED

great stuff

Love the work and effort Barry

You are doing an amazing job...

Let me know if I can do anything to help.

P.

Well, team; how about we all have a troll through the pix on the site and see if we can provide better ones of our own guitars in the relevant sections... bearing in mind, there are probably loads that are OK?!

Would that help any, Barry?

Thanks Pierre!
Pictures are the main thing to focus on now. If you have some that you would like to add, especially if they are better than the David Blair originals, post the links and I'll work on it ASAP.

The posted pictures of the Dim IV and Rail basses are mine, if you would like different/better ones I can take others, or perhaps just find originals before he resized them.

Boyz and Gurlz,
as I said above, I'm looking for pictures at this stage, for two reasons:

1. To update/refresh current examples on the description pages
   
2. It might be nice to see a collective members' "Gallery" of some sort (no details worked out yet)
   

So the idea would be that you can go to the "Information" page to identify your guitar and get the specs and details, or if you'd like to see the range of a particular model, you can go to the "gallery" and see what members have discovered (or restored) to date...or, straight out guitar porn if you like!

Like I say, no details yet so I'm open to ideas, if they're reasonable to implement.

Thanks Warrn.
Hey, they're your pix. Whatever you want to see on the site is up to you. I'm just the techno-geek here, and I'm donating my dubious IT expertise to build the foundation and structure. How the rooms get furnished is up to the members. I don't own the site you folks do.
The only criterion should be that the new pix are better/clearer/bigger than the ones they replace on the description pages.

corsair wrote:Well, team; how about we all have a troll through the pix on the site and see if we can provide better ones of our own guitars in the relevant sections... bearing in mind, there are probably loads that are OK?!

Would that help any, Barry?

Yup, that's the idea. As you say please give it serious thought and consideration before deluging me with links. Many pix are fine as is. Perhaps if you can make two lists, one for the information section and one for consideration in the "gallery"?

It's all been said Barry, Thank you, guess I for one will be spending a lot of time on the new site looks good on iPhone too

fish wrote:
... looks good on iPhone too

Puh-leeease.... say it ain't so Fish!! You couldn't have been corrupted by the Dark Side...

Next thing we'll find out is that you're left-handed I suppose....

I'd like to suggest pics of the wiring as well. If the wiring is original and a pic is next to the schematics as they are now, it is a nice usable image for one to follow. That may be overkill, but IMO I would love to see pics for the guitars I have if I knew they were 'as is' out of the factory. I've seen a pic or 2 of the 350MA's active wiring on the forum (Westbone's I believe), but would love to compare the passive wiring to mine to see if it looks original (which I'm 90% sure it is).

Iceman wrote:

fish wrote:
... looks good on iPhone too

Puh-leeease.... say it ain't so Fish!! You couldn't have been corrupted by the Dark Side...

Next thing we'll find out is that you're left-handed I suppose....

It's a Droid free zone here Ice Apple rules OK
How did you guess I was cagey handed, mind I guess I may be one of the few lefty's who plays right handed.

Hey, didn't Barry do good, great site

Barry = The Man

'Nuff said!!

Thanks fellers. I'm blushing a bit with all the kind accolades

It has been intensive at times, but please let us not forget that it would not have happened at all with out Neil Smith's selflessly providing the facilities and then allowing me to run amuck in his playground. And of course, our own Corsair's support and blind faith in me has been been a rock right from the start.
So good on all of us!

Hey, I'm really pleased to hear that the site has translated so well to smart phones and other mobile devices! The whole "Social Networking" accommodation was really an after thought on my part, so it's a big bonus.

Onwards and upwards!

sarcaster wrote:I'd like to suggest pics of the wiring as well...

If you got 'em, I'll add 'em.

Barry wrote:

sarcaster wrote:I'd like to suggest pics of the wiring as well...

If you got 'em, I'll add 'em.

Would it be bad form to suggest pinching off of other sites if need be?

I know the Electra site has a very clean schematic of Tom's original wiring plan for the H-S-H pup configuration. Even though it debuted on the Phoenix model it also holds true for many Westone models.

Or a .url link to the page there if pinching is seen as "not cricket".

The Interweb thingyhas made plagiarism rampant in our time, but I'd still prefer that we use things with permission. True, Electra is our sister but still you wouldn't steal yer sis's knickers now would ya? You'd ask before tryin' them on...I think.

If you see something that overlaps in the Westone line, may I suggest you make a formal request to the folks over there for permission? I'm happy to give them credit. Heck, we already have them in our Links section.

Paul Clark (X189player) is the admin over there and is a really good bloke; I can't see him refusing if asked nicely, eh!

I'd steal my sister's knickers....

but its Saturday night and I have been drinking!!

Hoax

hoax wrote:I'd steal my sister's knickers....

but its Saturday night and I have been drinking!!

Hoax

....shut it....

Quickie update...
I managed to find the bug that was preventing the FixMe section from displaying on the mobile display.
You can now access all site content on yer mobile devices.

Hello Barry. I posted a help topic in the technical section with many questions about the Phoenix X650 bass. Any chance you got those wiring schematics laying around? Very nice site, btw. Thanks for yer time.

Hi dustburn, I did reply to your note there already and directed you to a replacement pickup mod for the GT. As for wiring, I know bugger all about Electra/Westone model equivalents, but you can check the wiring section of the site for ideas. Cheers!

Hey Barry, I pm'd you with direct links to some great quality Dynasty pics.

I have been attempting to improve the "speed" of our web site and I've installed a few technical tweaks just today.
I'm not sure whether it will make a huge improvement or not but, could I ask the regular users to please make a mental note next time you're accessing the site to see if there's any noticeable difference in page loading times, image appearance, etc?

WestoneGuitars.net is a nice looking site but it is graphics heavy, and we are sharing computer server resources so sometimes things will slow down a bit and be beyond our control. Still we'll do the best we can to get it moving along for you.

Sure seems a bit faster to me. I've been using it pretty frequently the last few days (work is slow) and it is quite quicker today.

Thanks for that feedback hobster. I never really know for sure if what I'm doing is working the way it should or not.

Certainly seems quick enough from here.

Cheers Damian.