Westie identity crisis

Hi all,

I need some help identifying my Westone model, grateful for any ideas/info.

The label in side says Matsumoku and there is a number on back of the head, see pics.
I believe the previous owner had the Bigsby put on, don't think it's an original feature.

Thanks in advance for your help. Apologies for the sideways photos, no idea why that happened





Cheers,
Steve

Its a Rainbow. Check out the guitars in the Westone info site. There is a link at the top of the page.

Bigsby is not original and i have never seen that truss rod cover before.

Nice guitar.

Hoax

Definitely a Rainbow. I'd bet that truss rod cover is custom.

Machine heads look to have been replaced as well. That or my phone isn't doing a good job of resolving that last pic when I zoom in on it. Definitely a home-rolled TRC but is looks to be a very good one. The bridge doesn't appear to be stock either. Very nice grain on yours!

Serial begins 204 which means April 1982 build which is a month earlier than my recent acquisition, which should mean a first version (and the bouts and f-holes seem to confirm that)... yet is does not have a brass nut. That switch started with the second version builds so that may have been replaced as well or the factory installations were running side by side for a spell.

Curiouser and curiouser...

The strings on the Bigsby installation are wrong.The strings are laying on top of the tension bar!!

They're supposed to wrap around the stop tail then pass UNDER the tension bar and over the BRIDGE as normal. This puts the tension on the strings and is the essence of the vibrato movement. The Bigsby cannot work like that.

Damn!! I've never noticed that.
I don't tend to use this guitar due to something not feeling right and not holding its tuning, that could be it - told you I was a trainee amature!!

Thanks for pointing that our Barry - I'll get it sorted!

Be sure to work the bar a few times on each string as you tune to make sure it's coming back to correct pitch.

I can't see the bridge well enough to tell for sure but I suspect it has standard saddles rather than roller saddles? (i.e. It wasn't upgraded with the Bigsby and is the original). The wound strings often get caught up on the edge and don't release, causing tuning problems.

I suggest you try something like Nut Sauce at the contact points to help the strings slide over the edge.

They are roller saddles so hopefully just the re-stringing will make a difference - I'll let you know.

Thanks for your help everyone!!

Excellent!
I should have also mentioned that you usually need a bit more string length because of the extra travel. You may find that your current strings will not be long enough to re-use.

Bunch of Rainbow talk here lately. It's because we're gettin close to St. Patty's Day.