Interesting info on my Westone x189 / x199 CD

Well the copy of the CD I posted about in the auction threads arrived today. I will post additional info as I glean it but a few factoids thusfar from Mr. Tim Harman to whet your appetites...

1.) I've seen many questions, opinions and just plain conjecture about the paint that Westone used to finish their instruments. According to Mr. Harman the winner is Dupont Imron.

2.) According to Mr. Harman UBC humbuckers were manufactured to indeed have the stronger coil output twice as much as the weaker coil, as measured in volts. The strong half should output 6v and the weak half 3v. The amount of windings needed to accomplish this was not mentioned.

His comments do not appear to refute anything that TPresley has posted in the past about them but I am eager to hear if this appears to be a correct interpretation of the UBC's performance.

3.) Mr. Harman's opinion on the contribution of wood species to the TONE of any given guitar is about 10%, with the pups contributing 90%. The species of wood is of far greater importance to the instrument's overall structure, rigidity and stability than to tone.

The 2 tracks are only a total of less than 28 minutes, but his dialog takes up over 20 of that I am guessing. Also regarding the origin of the disc the seller who auctioned it shared that he purchased it on ebay back in about 2004 when Mr. Harman was selling them there.

I hope to get in contact with him in the next day or so to gauge his willingness to communicate more about things we all would be interested in. My first questions, if he is willing, would be to establish his bona fides as they might relate to Westone history and development.

More to come, hopefully.

Interesting indeed, sir Ice. Again, thanks for spotting and purchasing this.

I think I agree with him regarding wood's impact on tone vs. pickups. I don't know about the 90/10 thing, but still. There's great debate about this point. Some say wood types do nothing at all, which is untrue IMO. How much they do affect things, don't know. It has to do with how the vibrations transmit through the instrument, and a LOT to do with pickups, pickup height, and string termination points (nut, bridge assembly). Put the same pickups in different guitars and you will hear a difference, although there are a lot of factors involved. Be interesting to hear other's thoughts on this.