Spectrum Rising Sun + Pink Pantera

Hi everyone! I found this site and plan to creep around shamelessly for a while, so I figured I should at least register and say hi.
Will Skees from Tomahawk Wi.  A younger me had a few of these Westone guitars, among others, and lately I've been missing younger me....so I have embarked upon a grand mission....TO RECLAIM EVERY GUITAR I ever used to own...

This is proving difficult because apparantly at 15 I was some kind of frickin savant as to what would become rare and valuable 30 years later....I just thought they were cool back then.  So regretfully, I have no Westones at the moment, despite having an altogether-too-large-already collection, according to my wife. But I am patient, and will perservere. (and sell some so my wife doesn't hit me)...

I'm looking for a 1985 spectrum LX with the rising sun graphic and a lipstick Pink pearl Pantera. No others will do - must be those two. Unsure on the year of the Pantera...but when I traded mine in to Guitar Center of Chicago in 1995 it had cracks in the finish from freezing....sad too cuz it was the smoothest guitar evaaahhh, if you know what I mean. The Spectrum was the first new guitar I ever bought with my own money...saved all summer...from Community Music in Rhinelander Wi. The Pantera I got was a trade-in in Superior Wi. I borrowed the Spectrum to a friend when I was sleeping on couches...it floated away like things sometimes do....
Dont laugh. I will find them...maybe..eventually....

Pink Pearl X300 Panteras are pretty common  - or they were not so long ago! - so just keep an eye on on the auction sites and I'm sure you'll come up trumps at some stage.
I have one and like it loads; make sure the hardware on anything you buy is complete - the bridge, stringlock and Switchmaster knobs are specific to Westone and are really, really hard to get a hold of, especially that Bendmaster FT bridge on the Spectrum LX....

..... hmmm;the LX with the meatball is, however, another story; one of the lads in here got one fairly recently but I've only ever seen 2 come up on auction sites in the nearly 10 years I've been watching but you just gotta keep looking, eh!

Welcome to the madhouse, Will...

Hello Will and welcome to the Forums. Good luck in your quest.

I do think, however, that using another member's guitar as your Avatar is perhaps not the best way to identify yourself visually, especially since it is a rather rare and well known model on this board.

I'm sure you meant no disrespect but it does belong to someone else and the norm here is for folks to showcase their own instruments. I would suggest changing to a Westone or Mats instrument that you actually have, or something generic eh?

Thanks for the welcome! About the avatar....oops...never thought about the fact I was usng someone's personal pic...my bad...sorry. I used it in a couple of craigslist wanted posts a few weeks ago...honestly never made the connection that that image search i sent out came from this site, but in retrospect.....duh.

This is one  of mine.....

Thanks. No harm, no foul, no worries Will. I'm sure the owner appreciates the change too.

Many people lift pix off our website for various reasons, usually for a forum discussion or occasionally as an example of what they're searching for, as you have done. Fair enough.

Where I tend to draw the line is when it's presented as or intimated that it belongs to the seller/buyer. I've had that happen to me several times on Kijiji, etc. and I've had to go "medieval" on their behind!  

But, seriously, the Rising Sun is as rare as chicken lips, so you may be in for a very long search. 

Heh but thats half the fun! Check out the rest of my quest list.....
eko 500 3v in red metallic
either a guild or a gretsch acoustic with a near blatant copy of a hummingbird type inlaid pickguard.....
A gibson "the paul"....might have found that one - not super rare.
a " Drifter" semi-hollow es 335 copy...no model no as of yet...
the last one is kinda meh...never really liked the guitar....but it belonged to the Tomahawk band dept and wound up with me when the jazz lab folded and music director quit in the same year....hehe. 
Thats pretty much it.

I work as an electrician for the Pipeline, so I get to check out a lot of pawn shops and whatnot in the midwest...anything anyone else is lookin for I can certainly  keep an eye out...not much of a speculator, but I can at least pass the info on....  

when I get home this weekend I'm gonna try and find pics of those Westies of my own....The Flag spectrum I know I have....

it was my high school yearbook photo....

UW Superior, circa 1988...photography class.....
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Classic picture! Really captures the era.
Very cool!

Welcome to the Forums

Thanks! added due credit for the pics I used on craigslist as well...-thanks for the tip!

Thumbs-up - NP anytime

Glad that's resolved fellas! That's the spirit.

Oh, since this was getting way too involved for the Hello Forum I moved the discussion over to the Wanted section.

Welcome Will.

I'm intrigued as to what photo was used!

You'll find your Pink Pantera more quickly than your Rising Sun, most likely.  Searchtempest my be your friend... use it!

Thanks! Never heard of Searchtempest before - gotta be better  than my current brilliant method of jumping from craigslist area to adjacent craigslist area like Carmen Sandiego until I get stuck in a corner in Florida or Tijiuan

All praise to The Chad and Searchtempest....1 down, one to go...


I know its not Pink...and nicked up...but I'm happy...
a westone owner again!

And thus your journey begins into the addiction... (again)
Congrats, and a nice one too!

Nuthin' wrong with that Will!
And hey, if you leave her out in strong sunlight you could soon have that pink Pantera!

'Course, many beers would likely have the same effect! 

Yeah! Get in! Is that an X275? It has what looks to be a Bendmaster FT....

Have an Eko 500/4v if interested.
Not 3 pickup version though, it has 4.

I think its a x275, but it has no neckplate.....still in shipping.....is the older trem very much inferior to the deluxe? I'm sure i had a 300 back in the day.....identical to the pink one on the website...but I'm willing to settle if the pkay is close....frankly I got tired of waiting....not very patient....
Westbone - what color is the eko? hoping for red....

The FT was probably the better bridge though it has an Achilles heel in that the little string ball claws are prone to breaking if mistreated.... and they're an orphan!!

However, if they do break, these days we have a fix!

Late to this party, but hello to Will.  You should use that old photo as your avatar!  I've seen the rising sun three times in the five years since joining the Electra and Westone forums.  That other watering hole is nice, but I can't afford most of "them classics", and am a child of the '80s, so here is where I pitch my flag.  The Spectrum was on the 'bay twice and somewhere in the midwest on CL... but it was probably purchased and shipped to some far corner like Florida (hey, that's me!).  For a related "one-that-got-away" story, there was a pawn shop south of me last year that had a pink X300 on CL for $75!  I was fiscally challenged and it sold the day I called about it.  The scars still haven't healed.  On the otherside of unhappiness, there are great folks here... I traded a Spectrum LX for a white/pink pinstriped Dynasty (my avatar is same, but my other one).  The total cost was only shipping... $40. So, here there be friends and neighbors.

Thanks for the kind words! High school circa 1988....note the calculator watch....certainly a chick magnet in any age....

Oh, mate!! That's outstanding!!

The best, lol!

Dude - you could have been in Autograph with that guitar and bad boy smile. "Turn it up, the radio...."