Can anyone identify this guitar?

Hello everyone,

Just joined the forum.  I have had the following guitar for at least 20 years now, and bought it along with a Vox AC30 for a combined price of £60!  I have always assumed that this guitar was a Westone Thunder, or a variant, but after digging this out of the cupboard to start renovating it, and overhauling all the electrics, I wanted to identify the wiring diagrams.

So, I found this site, and for the life of me, my guitar is similar in style to the Thunder, but it does not seem to match any of the models.

The major differences seem to be:

My guitar has four controls, two for volume and two for tone, yet the standard one seems only to have three controls.
The headstock of my guitar is more of a Les Paul shape than the standard Westone shape.
My guitar did not have a neck plate when I bought it, but all the others do
Clearly my guitar has a glued in neck, and I presume that the truss rod is accessed through the headstock.
The shape of the cover on the back of the guitar is different to all the models on here.

Picture Links here:-






Any advice on this on how I could identify this, that would be great.  It may be that I have a bit of a frankenstein guitar and it's not a Westone at all, but there is so many common features that it would seem strange that it's not.

Cheers, Mark.

Definite Mats look about it - I wonder if its a T3 prototype ?

It looks like an early 80's VANTAGE from what I see. Built in Japan.
Here is a link to the catalog.

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/catalogs/c1980s/catalog_th.html

J.

the body shape has a kind of Vantage vibe
looks like a set-neck version of this one...
Vantage 650

looks like a Hondo to me....

Just noticed that the headstock is different on the Vantage. On yours the headstock has a "V" shape. The Vantage has an upward point.
Not to say that it couldn't be a prototype.... I saw one in my area with a floating tremolo, none of the catologs identify this model, but its for sure Vantage.
I will have to check out the Hondo.

J.

take a look at this...

http://wietsesguitars.nl/page27.html

defo a Hondo imo.. 

It is a Hondo and was made by Matsumoku.

Model is Hondo Professional H1030 and is as good as a Westone.

Hoax

Yep, definately a Hondo. Nice call Catalyst.. you win the prize.
Nice guitar.
I just saw a Vantage that looks like that on Kijiji locally thats why it was the first thing I thought of. The Vantage, that was totally mint was for sale for $150. Wife VETO'd the purchase.

jimmydime wrote:Wife VETO'd the purchase.

  someone mention prizes?...

Guys - thank you all! So I assume this was made in Japan and as the serial number is 1040023, that equates to April 1981 - the 23rd off the line...?

I am going to dismantle the guitar and take a look at the pups and electronics. I remember when I last plugged it into an amp (a small Fender job) the pups had super high output. They scream and feedback quite easily!

The neck is a lot slimmer than my Strat or LP, almost like a tele, and the neck is fast. For a guitar over 30 years old, its not bad, and one thing I would say, for a budget guitar, this is a whole lot better than budget guitars half their age.

I don't suppose anyone has any wiring diagrams for this Hondo???

Thanks again guys!

Mark.

You don't need a specific Hondo wiring diagram. Just go online and use a generic les paul diagram.

As already stated it was made by Matsumoku, so was built in Japan.

Hoax