Westone meets Fender

I don't know who this will upset the most, Fender Stratocaster lovers or Westone purists.

I recently purchased a 1983 Concord II neck from ebay, it came with the original Westone machine heads, neckplate and screws. I thought it would come in handy for my latest Strat project....it did... and this is the result...




The body and bridge are from a Japanese Fender Stratocaster. It is wired with 250k CTS pots, 0.047uf paper in oil capacitor, Oak 5-way switch and Ironstone Alnico V pickups (Very nice sounding, low-priced pickups from The UK)




The Concord neck fits great and the screws lined up perfectly with no modifications. There is a small gap where the square heel end meets the body but I can live with it. The action is nice and low and I had no problems with intonation.








I've always wanted a Westone Concord but this hybrid will do me for now. A great sounding partscaster with the added bonus of having a comfortable, lovely Westone neck.

Envy raging green envy ! me likey ! want it ! love it, best of all worlds, ( I am a strat man at heart ) so strat body + mats neck = quality. I would expect it to be great for weight, and smooth as silk to play with that neck.
great stuff for me ! to be fair, I have never been a purist at anything except drinking good beer, now if we had been talking mixing guiness with Magners cider I would have had an issue.
Cheers Steve.

That's very nice indeedy. Real nice match. Looks very good.
The shape of the headstock goes flowingly with the body, nice. What you going to call it a Westorcaster.
Told you those Ironstones are ok. Which one's you use platinum, gold or silver. Good value eh!
Bet playing that feels comfortable and sounds sweet.

I think it looks great. A complete and working guitar is always better than separate parts.

Westbone wrote:Which one's you use platinum, gold or silver. Good value eh!
Bet playing that feels comfortable and sounds sweet.

The Ironstone pups are a set that the seller had on special offer over Christmas, they are close to his Silver grade pups, 6.4K bridge and 6.1K middle and neck, excellent value. It's a beautiful neck, plays great and feels just as good as any Fenders I've played.

The guitar is a nice partner for my all black Spectrum II...

Excellent! Inspired mating!

Anything with a Westie neck on it is going to be an instant upgrade!

+1.... Lovely, and Barry's dead on; Westone neck improves any guitar!

Very cool! Looks great and you have a super combo there, the Japanese strats are as good as any in my opinion. I have an 89 USA made Clapton strst and a Japanese Fender Squire from the 80's and i actually like the tone and feel better on the squire. Cant go wrong with that neck.

That looks quite nice with the sleek Concord headstock instead of the bulky Fender one! Good work!

I just love this. It looks great.

WOW! That looks amazing! Beautiful Guitar!

I was scared to see the pics, but WOW, great idea! Looks almost natural that way, don't it?!

And stop teasing us with that Spectrum II already...

Fine work. That's the way to do it.

Thats one great hybrid there. Gotta love that neck.Great job

Sadly the Westocaster guitar no longer exists

It was parted out to help fund the purchase of my real Concord II. It was a fun experiment though and I do have another Strat so all is good.

I think it looks great. . Nice parts caster.

bowenjaybee wrote:Sadly the Westocaster guitar no longer exists
It was parted out to help fund the purchase of my real Concord II. It was a fun experiment though and I do have another Strat so all is good.

Pity. But it was still a great thing to witness.
But more important Jay, you've given us some valuable information for future project options. So a big thanks for that!