when were white finish thunder basses first made?

Hi there.

I took pity on an old sad disassembled Thunder 1A bass on ebay, the body is solid but stripped bare (no skunk stripes and no sign of original paint)

and the neck looks as though it has been standing in water (head end)  lots of cracks and black water staining.

all the hardware is there and all original.

Serial on the headstock is 3102616 and there is some white paint remaining on the side of the headstock although none on the neck itself.

Perhaps not the original neck/body combination?

my question is, when were white ones first produced? as I want to bring it back from the dead but I want to stay as original as possible. The info page shows an 85 model but is a little vague on dates.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

The CAT SCAN from '85 shows the IA as being offered with a white painted headstock and natural body. The wood descriptions vary somewhat from what you've described, but then, Mats was infamous for changing specifications.

It's likely that you have a solid maple body there rather than the more familiar ash/maple/walnut. Pix would help, but sounds like it's an original.

The white Thunder I-A basses seem to be a bit of a weird one from what I can tell - they're not pictured in any of the catalogues, or shown on any price list that I've seen (either in 'real-life' or on the website), but as Barry says, they are mentioned under the options in the 1985 catalogue (& there's obviously the '85 model shown on the website to bear this out).

If yours was originally white & is an '83, then I suspect they were probably brought in with the rest of the solid body colours, which looks like it was 1983, but why Westone doesn't seem to have publicised them at all is very strange, as I've always thought the white ones look really nice.

Barry wrote:The CAT SCAN from '85 shows the IA as being offered with a white painted headstock and natural body.

I suspect this is just a trick of the light Barry, caused by the headstock face being in a different plane to the neck/body.

 Here are some pictures. As you can see, there is evidence of red paint on the headstock and body, but the neck is finished in clear and the edge of the headstock has a trace of very old white paint. This leads me to suspect the original white finish, or was it obviously red? but with a clear coat neck?

cheers.

punkyjam67 wrote:

Barry wrote:The CAT SCAN from '85 shows the IA as being offered with a white painted headstock and natural body.

I suspect this is just a trick of the light Barry, caused by the headstock face being in a different plane to the neck/body.

Nope, don't think so. It's a professional photo shot, and that's not likely to happen.

Barry wrote:

punkyjam67 wrote:I suspect this is just a trick of the light Barry, caused by the headstock face being in a different plane to the neck/body.

Nope, don't think so. It's a professional photo shot, and that's not likely to happen.

Fair enough, but have you ever seen a Thunder with a different coloured headstock face to the main body colour? Also, why is the headstock on the Thunder I in the same picture also bleached out in the same way, even though white isn't offered as a colour option on that model?

You can see the effect more clearly on the preceding page of the catalogue with the Thunder I & I-A guitars - the Thunder I in the foreground has a headstock apparently quite a bit lighter than the body colour (which in reality wouldn't have been the case), while the natural I-A at the back has the headstock appearing even lighter still. Whatever's causing it, I don't believe those particular pictures can be relied upon to show a true representation of the colour of the headstock...