West One No 3440

Hi all, just thought I'd share an interesting one I just picked up. Not much info out there about it! 

Hello rainsong and welcome.

There's nothing out there about it because there's nothing to say about it, except that it has absolutely nothing to do with the Westone brand.

This is a cheap knock-off guitar, origin unknown but possibly Chinese, using a corruption of the Westone name. If you enjoy it, great, but it has no connection to anything on this forum.

As the advert is for somewhere in the UK, I wonder this was a generic guitar branded for a shop called 'West One', rather than being an actual Westone knock-off. Alternatively, given the advert's design, this might've been something for sale in a catalogue as a kind of generic cheap guitar.

Thanks for the replies! Yep it certainly isn't a great quality guitar. From what I've found out, they were sold in the "Bell's Instruments" catalogue in the UK from 1974-5 for the equivalent of £300 in today's money, whereas a Fender or Gibson was around £2000. They were also available on hire purchase. 

This one has a sticker on the neck plate for "R.H. Juniper Pianos" of Fulham Road, London. 

According to a blog site called "ismontarinoita" (google translated from Finnish), this model was manufactured in GDR/Italy prior to Matsumoku buying the West One brand and starting to sell Westone guitars. I'm not sure how accurate this information is though.

Another page on the same site shows a variety of similar SG style OEM guitars manufactured by Matsumoku and sold under multiple different brand names in the USA/Europe. The brand badges might have been added to order in the factory, or the guitars supplied blank for suppliers/retailers to add their own.

I'm assuming this is one of those brands. Obviously not a Westone but there seems to be a vague connection (maybe coincidental) via the Matsumoku link... 

Looks like it uses the Chinese construction method of attaching the pickups to the scratchplate. This can introduce a microphonic quality! My 1963 Burns Sonic Model has not only this, but also its bridge floating on a scratchplate with a cavity. It makes it so loud acoustically!

This looks like a cheap 70's guitar.
Probabely Japanese, certainly not Chinese.
Italian electric guitars often had a unique shape. This is a not so unique SG copy so I would guess it isn't Italian.
In the 70's one could order batches of guitars from many Japanese manufacturers unbranded or with your own brand on the headstock.

By the look of the hardware I doubt it has anythig to do with Matsumoku.
It certainly hasn't got anything to do with the Westone brand.
Westone guitar production started in May or June 1980.

It is a fun guitar. If it can be set up to a low action it may be a nice instrument to play.

P.S:
Attaching the pickups to the scratchplate is not a "Chinese construction method". In fact it is the standard Fender pickup mounting method for Stratocasters since 1954.

Of course, brain fade. I meant Chinese SGs specifically.