Technical adjustments necessary?

Morning, everyone! I'm new to this, so forgive me if I sound foolish. I bought this Westone Dynasty as a 14 year old kid in '91
for all of $150. At the time, I thought it looked cool and I wanted to learn how to shred some metal. I haven't touched it in years, though, and am now blowing the dust off it and give it life again. The output jack connection seems fuzzy and will need to be cleaned/straightened out. As far as I know, it still has all original parts.
Questions:
-should I replace the humbuckers? A friend of mine is pushing me to buy some Duncans.
-it didn't come with a tremolo bar (or the needed insert to make a trem fit into its extra large hole) - where can I find one?
-I don't have the fine tuners feature that seems to be on so many other Westone trem bridges - should I bother getting that fitted?
-how diehard should I be in keeping this baby all original parts?

Sorry- I can't seem to get my phone to upload photos to this thread yet, but I'll work in it. It appears to be an '84 Matsumoku from Japan. It currently has a treble humbucker, a middle single coil, and a bridge humbucker. They don't appear to be of the UBC variety, but I'm not entirely sure.

Thanks for your input!

You have my favorite model there, the Dynasty!  I own two, one original and one modded. 

Dynasty's are not going for much anymore, even mint you'd be lucky to see $400 out of them.  So I'd say have at it! 

What style music do you play, how much do you use the trem?

Hey- thanks for the reply! I know the Dynasty originally sold for around $500, so it's a bummer to hear of its depreciation, but I still love it. We got history and it's always felt good in my hands.

I'm leaning towards installing the Duncans and simply keeping the originals (they can always be placed back in). My friend recommended the '59 for the treble and the Distortion for the bridge. It should beef up the sound overall but also be able to produce a nice clean tone.

What style? None in particular. I want the instrument to be very versatile. I know, however, that I'd like to rip out some Metallica and Led Zeppelin solos on it. But to be honest, I like blues and jazz too. That being said, I don't know how much I'd ever actually use the trem bar, but I'm itching to have the instrument be complete, you know?

I'm a fair beginner at guitar. I'm actually a classical cellist who enjoys other string instruments too (like mandolin, hammered dulcimer, etc). But I've been itching to finally follow through heavily on electric guitar.

Very good.  If good versatility is your aim, I would not use a Duncan Distortion.  They sound great in metal and hard rock, but not good for cleans.  My recommendations are a Duncan SH-5 in the bridge and a Duncan Jazz in the neck.  SH-5 is a hotter PAF style humbucker with great harmonics, and the Jazz are amazing neck pups, very sweet and round in tone, better than the 59's in many opinions.  Alternatively, the Slash set would work very well for you. 

Fine tuners are not needed.  One of my Dynasty's doesn't have the fine tuner bridge.  I love it, works just fine. 

There is something about the trem arm replacement on our site here, I dont' remember where...

We need pics!

Thanks for this info!
I didn't realize the fine tuner bridge was a separate option on the model - I was thinking that mine was just missing those parts, so it's good to know that it's supposed to be the way I have it. I agree that fine tuners on an electric guitar are not so necessary.

Lemme work on pics - this site won't let you upload, you have to link online and I've never done that.

If you need a trem arm 'thingymabob'(insert) send me a PM.

Thanks Westbone - I'll take you up on that. Looks like I have to "friend" you first? I also saw another fella who makes replacement switchback knobs...

Since we can't upload photos here, I tried linking to Photobucket, but then was told new members can't do that for 7 days...... sheesh. Sorry y'all.

edmcello wrote:Thanks Westbone - I'll take you up on that. Looks like I have to "friend" you first? I also saw another fella who makes replacement switchback knobs...

That'll be me. 3 way toggle knob.

As for the wait prior to posting photos ect. it's to stop spam and all that crap.

I'd be casting my net wider than Duncans, too; they're good p'ups, no question, but there are plenty of good pickups out there both premium priced and reasonably priced!! 

Your guitar should be fitted out with MMK45s which are fairly well regarded in their own right and are very possibly a DiMarzio DS1 clone; I do know know I like the 45s I have in different instruments across the Westone range!

But yeah; sale values for these guitars aren't great right now, so tinker away - pickup swaps are easily reversible and you may very well find a sound you love!

Westbones' fix for the trem bar assembly is elegant and well affordable - works like a charm!

The fine tuner bridge - probably the Bendmaster FT in the case of the Dynasty - is nice but unnecessary; the non fine tuner Precision works very well when it's set up correctly.

Switchmaster control knobs are a hell of a thing in that they are peculiar to Westone.... who went belly up in 1987 so there is no current source for them, apart from some real enthusiasts who set about making them, either by casting them in resin, or currently a member here is talking about 3D printing them.
Westbone does a fine barrel switch tip as once again, these are a Matsumoku oddity.

Looking forward to having a butchers at yours when you're able to post pix!

Thanks corsair. Thanks again for everyone's help - this has been a great experience so far

Just want to say "thanks!" again for everyone's feedback and help - this forum's been great. As promised, here's some pics. To include the nice wammy bar and bushing courtesy of Westbone!

Nice!! Speedknobs look OK, too; I quite like the notched ones...

The guitar looks to be in good order... are you still going to swap the p'ups out?

Looks like Duncans are already in there....