John's new toy...

Hey, troops - I've got a new toy too, courtesy of a very kind man in the US, I have an Electra Westone Phoenix X195, which as the hardcore in here know, I've been after for about 3 years!! It is complete apart from the knobs, which are, of course, the reverse taper ones Westone owners are familiar with and as rare as rocking-horse poo, but I'm stoked...

Hey up big fella,

Well done!

See, I told you, "Everything comes to those who wait"!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Get some strings on that thing, you're wasting precious time!

How does it sound? I noticed it has the same pickup configuration as the Thunder III, sort of unconventionnal but pretty cool looking.

The blueburst is beautiful too, are you keeping it that way or refinishing it?

yeah i like that finish a lot. String it up and upload a jam session

Why than 'ee, y'all, for those kind words - I've been hunting one of these for 3 years and boy, lemme tell you, I'm a happy wee pixie!
As for stringing it up, well, that will have to wait until I've done one or two little jobs on it, like knob finding - (with any luck I shall make some as they are the tapered Westone knobs) - and a little fettling on the bridge plate. I shall be keeping the blueburst finish, but shall have one or two of the worst dings professionally dealt with; I don't want to bodge this one, eh!! Other than that, she is a well loved guitar and even has it's black wang bar, so all things considered, I consider myself very lucky indeed!!

It needs a really, really good cleaning, too....

And I've still got a stratocaster on the bench being customised, too so enough to be going on with over the winter...

corsair wrote:Why than 'ee, y'all, for those kind words - I've been hunting one of these for 3 years and boy, lemme tell you, I'm a happy wee pixie!
As for stringing it up, well, that will have to wait until I've done one or two little jobs on it, like knob finding - (with any luck I shall make some as they are the tapered Westone knobs) - and a little fettling on the bridge plate. I shall be keeping the blueburst finish, but shall have one or two of the worst dings professionally dealt with; I don't want to bodge this one, eh!! Other than that, she is a well loved guitar and even has it's black wang bar, so all things considered, I consider myself very lucky indeed!!

It needs a really, really good cleaning, too....

And I've still got a stratocaster on the bench being customised, too so enough to be going on with over the winter...

Wang bar? Like this?

Oh, dear God - that is so .......different! I'll bet it's NOT Matsumoku, though!!

corsair wrote:Oh, dear God - that is so .......different! I'll bet it's NOT Matsumoku, though!!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it isn't either.

I've never seen one of those up close before, I wonder if anyone really plays one.

lol thats hilarious

DON'T look at me!... I don't want to play with it!... That is obscene!

Hey John,

Those logo's on that stratty thing look awfully familiar!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Well, gang - it's strung up and making noise.. and what noise! This is purely a subjective 'review' as I like the Spectrum/Phoenix body shape to death which pretty much colours any of my opinions anyway!!
The Wilkinson 5+1 bridge is a winner and I would recommend it to anyone replacing a strat bridge; the OEM bridge had been tightened down to the extent where it had chewed chunks off the leading edge and it was not, in the end, feasible to repair it or in fact build one for anything less than a kings' ransom! And the Wilkinson cost less in NZ than I could get it from the US - go figure...
The nut needed doing as well; it had been dropped on the edge of the fretboard at the first fret which as well as graunching the edge a bit obviously had popped the nut out, but an easy fix there! The graunch was steamed out to where it is no longer noticeable under the hand.



The sound is unlike anything I've experienced in one or two positions; it will do a VERY convincing strat in neck and bridge and then you can dial in the centre h/b, reverse the phase and/or coil split - I can even get that strat 'quack' happening in the 2 and 4 positions. The h/b is an MMK 45 so there's a s**t-load of grunt on tap when required; I don't know what the singles are but they have plenty of poke as well. All in all, I'm as happy as a dog with 2 di.... tails; all I need now are the 3 knobs and I'm golden! Anyone...??

Nice one, John!!! Well done mate!

Why do you look like you are back to front though?

Pauline :flower: :queen:

...creepy, eh!!