Undetermined Les Paul possible Westone

Hi!

Few weeks ago I bought a Les Paul guitar, that has a "Westone" logo. I tried Google, and checked all photos and catalogues on Your site still i can't determine for sure if it is a genuine Matsumoku Westone , Korean model or custom job.
Here are some photos:
(sorry for bad res)

Serial number is: MW04070931
https://i.servimg.com/u/f80/14/10/88/28/zdjaci10.jpg
https://i.servimg.com/u/f80/14/10/88/28/zdjaci11.jpg
https://i.servimg.com/u/f80/14/10/88/28/zdjaci12.jpg

I'll be grateful for any information.
Thanks.

probably Korean, or Chinese, at a guess as the Matts have product of Matsumoku Japan on the neck plate. What's it play and sound like?

I plug it into Roland 405. Guitar has awesome clean. My friend thought for a while, that it was an acoustic staff. On clean channel you can play reggae (using neck pickup), regular chords, barre chords, and everything sounds nice and clean.
On distortion (especially bridge pickup) it gives a solid signal, and even on high volumes on guitar (volume 10, tone 10) you can hardy hear any statics. It is not a superb instrument, but sounds really cool.

As a general rule of thumb, Matsumoku Westones were in-house designs and the Westone Gibson, Fender and BC Rich copies come along after Japanese Matsumoku production shut down in around 1987/88 and the manufacturing went to Korea.
I have 2 Westone Clippers that date from 1987 and MAY be Korean - no-one really knows for sure! - but I like them heaps... probably becasue I'm a closet Telecaster fan!!

Hi,

seems to me you bought one of the brand new Chinese made WESTONE's.
There have been some advertisings in several German music magazines about the relaunch of the brand WESTONE.
To my knowledge the name has been bought by a German company which are producing a bunch of TELE, STRAT and LES PAUL copies and sell them under the name of WESTONE, see the attached links:

NEW WESTONE LES PAUL

NEW WESTONE TELE

NEW WESTONE STRAT

NEW WESTONE SG

Just go to EBAY.DE, Musikinstrumente, Gitarren and type in WESTONE and you will see the disaster.

BR

H.

hendrik wrote:...Chinese made WESTONE's

Something just ain't right about that--especially Gibson and Fender covers.
I'm getting too old for this poop. (sigh)
(I didn't write "poop")

I have to agree, eh - when a name like Westone which was famous for it's own in-house and innovative design is used for shameless, and very likely sub-par, copies of Strats and LP's, there's something very wrong in the universe somewhere...

Hi all,

here is the link to the full disappointment.
Be aware some real WESTONE's are also in the list.

The "new" WESTONES

Cheers

H.

Hi,

I agree - it is a real shame that such a famous brand is now used for cheap, manufactured in thousands of copies guitars.

Something tells me that, my instrument is not as new as hendrik says.
My "version" of logo differs from that ones from ebay.de
It has only one tone, and one volume controls, what more pickup control is between these controls.
Is is obvious that my guitar is not a Matsumoku instrument. But what do you think about custom job? It is possible?
I contacted the guy who sold me the guitar and he said, that a friend of him brought it from France two years ago. On the body, next to the volume control there's some kind of refurbished area - other shade of black. Someone wanted to cover scratches caused by plectrum. So guitar was used.
Yesterday I decided to see what is inside it. I removed one of the pickups, but unfortunately there was no brand, except of a "R" letter on the other side. Some kind of glue that was inside dry out long ago. That is all I managed do discover.
Do you have any suggestion?
Thank you.

Barry wrote:

hendrik wrote:...Chinese made WESTONE's

Something just ain't right about that--especially Gibson and Fender covers.
I'm getting too old for this poop. (sigh)
(I didn't write "poop")

Hi Barry,

As a non English native speaker I've learned my English mostly in the U.K and in Oz.
But the word "poop" never came to my knowledge.

H.

Harry, I'm still convinced that your Westone is Chinese and not very old.
God knows what the produce there.
It seems sometimes every country gets his own brand name and gets flooded by cheap Chinese guitars.

Maybe some better pictures would help.

I have to admit I also bought a Chinese made guitar, a Hagström XL-5.
Which is a good make, quality is really high.
So probably your guitar comes from a high end production and just got some label.
As for what I know this is quite common for Chinese production.
I'm talking about some experience I made over the years during my line of work.

hendrik wrote:I have to admit I also bought a Chinese made guitar, a Hagström XL-5.
Which is a good make, quality is really high.

Geez, Hagstrom too???
Well, I picked up a slightly used Epiphone Les Paul Studio which was made in China, in 2007. I have to admit that the quality is darn good!

BUT! We're talking about Westone and Uncle Mats!!! Not the same thing methinks.

Hi Barry,

the brand was resurrected by some Americans. Production is in China and South Korea.
The guitars are surprisingly well made.

Hagström

My new love to vintage guitars was started by Hagström guitars. I've been in Sweden for holiday and came round to the Hagström Museum in ÄLVDALEN, SWEDEN. After the visit I've changed.
The 1st WESTONE appeared a few months later in my life. It's my precious CONCORD III (as shown in my avatar).

But know back to uncle Mats guitars, between all vintage stuff you find on EVILBAY or the local clones or on the several flea markets they are always the best. Plus other brands which are made at the Matsumoko plant.

H.

Thanks for the link Hendrik. They sure look good on screen!
I've never owned one or even played one, but my long time band partner used to have one of the original Hags. I think it might have been a Swede or Super Swede. He seemed to like it, but then he went back to Strats!
Oh well.

Harry,

The 70's and early 80's Westone LP's looked very much like this Matsumoku-built Granada that I recently found.

http://forum.westoneguitars.net/non-westone-discussion-f8/1970-granada-les-paul-custom-new-pics-t588.htm#4644

Specific pics of the early Mats LP Westones are found in Westone.info - Pauline was kind enough to point me over there when I needed that info.

Best,
Ian

Westone is a prime target for the Chinese/ far East rip-off artists, the main reason being that the original company no longer exists, hence no-one is going to unleash hordes of lawyers willing to sue anywhere in the world to protect the name.

Gibbo and Fender will vigorously defend every aspect of their product (understandably, given their investment over many decades) even putting huge sums into lawsuits to protect the shape of their guitars (Gibson v. PRS single-cut kept the High Court in England busy for a while). It's not new, look on ebay to see the clones being marketed as "Lawsuit models".

What goes round comes round, the Japanese music industry was founded on undercutting US/ European manufacturers. Where the Japanese makers came into prominence was in the late 70s/ early 80s when the US big-name manufacturers under-invested and the quality of their product was dire. The Japanese manufacturers had invested heavily and their product and quality control was first rate. Yamaha took Gibson on head to head with the original SG series and uncle Mat went about quietly making the guitars we all like on this site.

When Westone ceased trading, an English company took the name + production over and made some fine guitars. Not surprising that someone else is now trying to capitalise on the Westone brand. I think it's all about doing your homework and knowing what you're buying. I wouldn't rule out current Chinese/ Korean made guitars; my Washburn 166 Pro was made in Korea and it's better than any US guitar I've played at twice the price (but I'm probably biased!)

Correction... my memory was playing tricks... the Gibson v. PRS litigation was heard in the US Courts