Pantera x350 MA alert! $950 BIN!

I have no affiliation with this item.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Westone-Pantera-X-350-Very-Good-Condition-/281201709636?&_trksid=p2056016.m2518.l4276

I thought about getting it, but it would just be a case queen with me, and I'm getting more excited about having great playing/sounding guitars than I am having rare/collectible guitars.

I just can't believe I even saw it, it has been up for something like 4 hours at this point with a BIN and no one has grabbed it yet!

Are you guys slipping?

Good job I don't have the money at the moment, or I might be tempted to do something rash there...

That's why I'm highlighting this: to get y'all to remove temptation for me...

I like your thinking!

Good looker there, passive model.  Throw a proper locking trem on that thing and you'll be good to go!  Those Bendmaster Deluxe's should've been locking, makes it stay in tune much better under heavy whammy use.

Man, the market has gone way soft on these.
I remember when you needed to bid $1k just to get an x390. Now an x350MA isn't selling at $925 shipped?

Now, grant you, I'm part of the problem. I never thought I'd have a chance to buy a sub-$1k x350 Pantera.

But now that I can, my interest has moved back to collectible Hamers and top-notch player Yamahas.

I may regret not getting this one, but I'm really surprised it is still available at this price.

Like I'd said, we were our own source of inflation!  It's true.  The Electra's are the same way.  It would make a cool study on the niche collector's market.

I'd go for it but the postage/taxes are crippling, that and I think im about to lose my job.

I picked this up after the seller lowered the BIN price. I am actually the original owner. The guitar was stolen 20 years ago and I have been trolling the interwebs ever since looking for it.

It should be here tomorrow.

yourmailman wrote:I picked this up after the seller lowered the BIN price. I am actually the original owner. The guitar was stolen 20 years ago and I have been trolling the interwebs ever since looking for it.

It should be here tomorrow.

Brilliant - good to see that perseverance definitely paid off! It's funny how things turn out sometimes, eh?

Yes it is. I have now found 2 of the 6 instruments that were stolen. My 1981 Rickenbacker 320, which I found about 3 years ago at a music store in New York, and now the X350MA.

After I found the Rick, I found my list of serial numbers. The Westone had a picture of the serial number, so it was easy to match.

The other 2 I would like to find someday are my 1976 maple Strat and my 1972 Hofner 500/1.

My very first electric guitar was a 1960 Rickenbacker 450. I found it searching, but the guy had already sold it. The buyer did not want to part with it. I found another one that was identical to mine and only 5 numbers off on the serial number. I was young and stupid and traded it for the Hofner.

yourmailman wrote:I picked this up after the seller lowered the BIN price. I am actually the original owner. The guitar was stolen 20 years ago and I have been trolling the interwebs ever since looking for it.

It should be here tomorrow.

Congratulations!
I hope they didn't mistreat it over the years.

wow - great to get it back, but sad to hear you had to buy it back.  the BIN price was surprisingly low on this one.  I know it doesn't have the flame on the back and has the BMD, but I thought it would sell higher.


That being said, if someone stole my 83 strat I bought new as a kid with my own $$, and it got stolen, I would pay to get it back after all that time.   Good to hear it gets back to you eh

It's in pretty good shape. The original knobs are gone, as is the bridge pickup cover and the wrench holder on the back of the headstock. Fortunately, I have several other Westones that I can scavenge the parts from to get it back to stock. And I still have the original case. I was using it for my x300 Pantera at the time of the burglary.

It has a few bumps and bruises, but appears to be in pretty good shape. I'll know more once it arrives.

What are the odds I wonder?
Congrats on retrieving her! Bloody same you had to pay again for her though...

Congratulations on  finding a lost one. It is always nice when you can find one that was lost or stolen. Enjoy it and congratulations

I'm glad I didn't buy it from the original listing.
I almost did.

A horror story for you ...  

The Pantera arrived today. I giddily unboxed it and unwrapped it, only to find that FedEx had somehow sheared the end of the BendMaster Deluxe off. Not only destroying the assembly, but leaving 6 impressions in the lacquer under where the fine tune part used to be.  

The seller told me he would pay for a replacement, but I have not been able to locate a black one yet. I have the original knobs in the original case that I still have. I have a spare allen wrench holder and pickup cover that I can cannibalize from other Westones, but no black BendMaster Deluxe.

The kicker is, that it was packed really good, and the box doesn't seem to be crushed, but there is a crease at about the level where the BD was in the box.

So, if anyone has a black Bendmaster Deluxe, I am ready to buy. I just can't see putting a chrome one on it, but it may come to that.

Damn you FedEx!

I put a chrome BMD on my blue 350 and it looks good I think:
 

 
 
But it may not look that good on the original color.  I keep my eye out for a black BMD to replace the beat up one on my 390 but have yet to find one that looks in real good condition.  To get one in good shape, you may need to buy a whole guitar, and then part it out.
 
Curiouos to see a pic of the damage - sounds like an unusual break.

So, if anyone has a black Bendmaster Deluxe, I am ready to buy. I just can't see putting a chrome one on it, but it may come to that.

It might be an option to glass bead blast a chrome BMD and then paint/powder coat it. Would be a lot of work and/or expensive though...

LINK (I'm not associated with this site...just a quick search)

yourmailman wrote:A horror story for you ...  

The Pantera arrived today. I giddily unboxed it and unwrapped it, only to find that FedEx had somehow sheared the end of the BendMaster Deluxe off. Not only destroying the assembly, but leaving 6 impressions in the lacquer under where the fine tune part used to be.  

The seller told me he would pay for a replacement, but I have not been able to locate a black one yet. I have the original knobs in the original case that I still have. I have a spare allen wrench holder and pickup cover that I can cannibalize from other Westones, but no black BendMaster Deluxe.

The kicker is, that it was packed really good, and the box doesn't seem to be crushed, but there is a crease at about the level where the BD was in the box.

So, if anyone has a black Bendmaster Deluxe, I am ready to buy. I just can't see putting a chrome one on it, but it may come to that.

Damn you FedEx!

If it comes to chrome, I have one I'll send to you. It doesn't have the fine tuners themselves, though.

Free, because you've been through enough w/ this guitar, and if I can help in some small way to make it easier.

Brainfertalizer,

Thanx. I may take you up on that. I have the tuners. They are fine. They are just not attached to the assembly anymore. The individual saddles all seem to be okay. Wonder how it would look with the chrome base and everything else in black? Hmmmmm

Here's a pick of the part that was sheared off.

OUch - that's not gonna get fixed.  If you do a chrome bridge, it would probably look better to get chrome tuners too.

  To Mr Brainfertilizer for his his generosity here. Its gestures like this that I really like about this forum.

Just a thought... take all of the remaining good parts that are black and put them on the chrome base plate.

Mate, I sanded and painted a chrome one black some time ago and it looks fine!

Let me check my parts as I've got 3 or 4 spare BD....

westcoaster wrote:  To Mr Brainfertilizer for his his generosity here. Its gestures like this that I really like about this forum.

+1

PM me your address and I'll ship it out Monday.

I don't like "Me too"s as a rule but...

... You have to love this forum. ;-)

Mailman... I have the same model with a BMD and it's my favorite rig with a bar... sensitive and dependable, once properly set up. Congratulations! I've had five stolen and never caught a whiff from any of them.

I am so lucky to have found 2 of them. I'm not sure I will ever find the Hofner or the Strat. But the Rick and the Pantera were my favorites. So I can live with that.

The bastard also took all of my first pressing Beatles records ... both on Capitol and EMI. None of them had been played more than a hand full of times. It was my custom to record them off to tape. First to reel and then to cassette, and play those.

I can't imagine what those would be worth today if I still had them.

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to gittarasaurus!

He read about my plight, sent me a PM, and worked out a trade that got me a replacement black BendMaster Deluxe.

A truly awesome dude! Someone who should be held up as a fine example of the kindness that somehow seems lacking in a lot of people in this world.

gittarasaurus ... I salute you!

Absolutely! Mike, you're a great guy!

+3, Mike does indeed rule.