Westone Thunder 1A Bass - Matsumoku Active Bass from 1986 - Review

I thought it was about time I reviewed this beautiful piece of history, which has been with me since 1986.  It's difficult to remember now that a hugely conservative (and sadly sometimes rather arrogant) bunch of guitar players viewed Japanese guitars with just as much suspicion and scepticism as they view Chinese guitars now: they were cheap so they couldn't possibly be any good, and what did the Japanese know about instrument building anyway?

Into that climate of change came Matsumoku, modelling a concept that would revolutionise guitar production, as one high quality production line produced guitars for many different brands.  This was a factory concept that could easily be rolled out to Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and now China.

I remember as an impoverished student in the early 80s looking at Westone Basses and really liking what I saw (particularly a Westone 2 fretless in a secondhand store in Nottingham).   However a friend lent me his Burns bass for an extended period so I didn't need to part with any cash at that stage.

In 1986 the Burns had to be returned, and I was visiting a girlfriend in London, and ventured out with about £160 in my pocket to Denmark Street to finally pull the trigger on a Westone and hard case.  It was snowy in London that day and I had to walk through and inch or two of snow carrying my new purchase back to Norbiton where I was staying.

This bass has stayed with me ever since, put up with all sorts of abuse, and bears the scars to prove it.  I have never had to adjust the truss rod, never done any work on the frets, all I have done is clean it and restring it and very occasionally change the batteries (which seem to last for years).  This last restring I tightened up the machine heads which over the years had worked a bit loose.  The quality of the parts and workmanship is, now I look back, just absolutely stunning.  I've not even had to adjust the strap hooks.  No crackles in the pots, the micro switches still work the same as ever.  The active electronics still function perfectly.

5 ply neck, rock solid

So after 31 years some of my reflections on a long partnership.  I kick myself for not buying that secondhand Westone Thunder 2 fretless, but I still love the Thunder 1A.  It was innovative at the time, with its coil tap and active electronics, allowing it to produce a whole variety of tones.  The attention to detail in production really has to be seen to be believed.  The quality of the wood still amazes me - the ash, walnut, maple laminate of the body is extremely well executed.  All the joints are as steady and as tight as they were 31 years ago when this was made.  The 5 ply neck is slim and fast, and rock steady.  The rosewood fretboard shows almost zero wear. the frets only very slight wear.

Superb neck to body fit

Playing the bass is comfortable, the low action and the slim neck make it a joy to move around the fretboard.  It has plenty of weight without being too heavy.  The brass hardware is a little tarnished in places but all functions as it ever did, and the tuners are smooth and true.

None of this of course changes the fact that for most bassists this isn't one of those desirable basses that they will go out of their way to find and pay big money for, so if you like them they are still a real bargain if you can find one in good condition.  You'll certainly be hard pressed to find better quality workmanship than a Matsumoku guitar - sad the factory was so short lived...

Review of Indie IPR Hollow - Hollowbody electric guitar

I found this guitar quite a number of years ago now in a pawn shop.  It gets used mainly at home rather than out and about, though it has done a few gigs.

I remember looking at these new in a local guitar shop when they first came out, and they seemed to get some favourable, if rather a limited number of reviews.  The retail price was quite high, around £6-700 if I remember correctly.  However, as with a lot of lesser known brands, when music shops failed to shift all the stock, prices dropped dramatically.

Indie was an innovative company concept that others have since followed: coming up with ideas for  guitars in this country and then producing them in Korea, where building standard and quality control is relatively high, but costs low in comparison to making things here.  It is of course a model of business that companies like Ibanez have followed for years.

Indie produced a number of original models, but also sold a number of guitars that owe a huge design debt to existing brands.  I still regret not buying an Indie Rickenbacker copy from the same pawn shop at a silly low price.

The IPR pays homage to a PRS, sharing many design features with that brand.  I bought this one because it only cost me £140, I passed it by at full retail value because it wasn't quite what I was looking for, but if the price is right...

The guitar body appears to be constructed from a hollowed out piece of solid mahogany capped with another piece of mahogany, with single binding, topped with a thin veneer of very nicely figured quilted maple - not nearly as high quality as my Ibanez in the previous review, but still a joy to behold.  The hollowing leaves a centre block on which is fitted the hardware.  Personally I don't like the PRS style wrap around bridge.  This guitar came with one compensated for a wound g-string, and so I have replaced it with a new one compensated for a plain string.  Adjusting for intonation on these bridges is limited and a bit fiddly and annoying, I've never understood why PRS uses this system.

The pickups are very good quality Indie own brand 'GR8's (see what they did there?) I don't see any need to change them as they sound good to me.  The neck is of rock maple according to the spec sheets, with a very nice ebony fretboard, again single bound.  Unusually for a guitar of this design the scale length is 24 3/4" rather than 25".  The fret work (24 frets in total) is of very high standard with the fret ends all nicely rounded and smooth.  The fretboard is set with abalone dot fret markers.  The nut looks like bone to me and is very well cut.  The tuners are mini genuine grovers and very smooth and responsive.  The guitar is relatively lightweight.

I have not been able to find another IPR quite like mine.  The black headstock carries the Indie logo in abalone inlay which I have never seen before and I wonder if this one was an early issue/prototype model.

The finish is of high standard, and I can see why Indie were trying to position this guitar in the £600 price bracket when it came out.  Overall I really like this guitar and the sound it makes but I do have some criticisms.  Firstly the bridge which I have already mentioned, and which I have at its lowest setting - giving no room to manoeuvre if I wanted the action any lower.  Secondly the pickups don't sit totally parallel to the strings and this always annoys me, as it betrays sloppy workmanship.  The guitar is rather neck heavy so does neck dive if you are not careful.  The controls are nicely set into the body but because the veneer is so thin, the indentations show the mahogany body under the veneer.  The body of the guitar is beautifully carved on the top, but the back is not body contoured at all, making it rather less comfortable to play than the Ibanez in the last review.


I'd recommend this as a well made, nice sounding guitar, but with enough little niggles to stop it being absolutely first class.

Ibanez SZ520 Electric Guitar Review, 2003 model

The quilted maple is stunning

I couldn't find a great deal about this particular model of guitar when I searched so I thought it deserved a more in depth story/review.



Mine was made in the World Music Factory in Korea in 2003 - a factory which produces brands such as BC Rich, Chapman, Dean, Gretsch, LTD, PRS SE and Schechter.  This model was made at the time just before Ibanez started producing the vast majority of their guitars in China.  2003 was the first year of production for these guitars and the line gained new pickups in later years.  The ones supplied with mine are the original 'SZ' pickups, which are stamped with 'Ibanez' on the back.  I took them out of the cavities to have a look and check out the magnets. Although the Ibanez Wiki page says these pickups have ceramic magnets, mine has an alnico magnet on the neck pickup and a ceramic on the bridge.  They are wired for independent operation of the coils and the SZ has the rather nice feature that when the pickup selector is in the middle position, both pickups are in single coil mode, so you get that nice twangy telecaster sound, a feature I really like.  I like the tone of both of the pickups and don't think I would swap them out for anything else, although they are quite trebly.

Beautifully executed neck join

The neck on this guitar is a real joy to behold and especially to play.  I have quite a number of Ibanez guitars and I have never been disappointed with the playability of the necks.  For those who like clutching a baseball bat it may feel a little slim, but I personally like that.  The neck is three piece mahogany, with a volute at the nut end.  It benefits from a very straight string run from nut to tuner.  Mine appears to have a bone nut, which is very well cut indeed and the fret work is excellent and smooth, with no obvious high frets, and nicely smoothed off fret ends.  Not bad for a 14 year old guitar.

The neck on this example has no divots or dings (except for some slight wear marking in the rosewood in the first three fret positions.)  The real joy is in the neck join which is beautifully smooth and rounded, allowing complete access to all the upper frets.  The scale is a rather unusual 25.1", which gives the guitar a unique voice, somewhere between the classic Gibson and Fender scales, just slightly longer than a PRS.  The inlay has grown on me, I would never choose this, but it is well done, and the side markers are abalone, which is a nice touch of luxury.

Showing the thickness of the maple cap

The strings run through the body in 'compensated' holes and over the Gibraltar III bridge.  I likethese bridges, they are much more comfortable than a tunomatic, and just as adjustable.  The hardware is all nickel plated rather than chrome.  The downside of this is that the nickel on mine has worn off the bridge at the low E end.

The top of the guitar is of an extremely high grade quilted maple veneer, one of the best I have ever seen, superbly bookmatched.  This veneer is applied to a very thick carved maple cap, which is partially revealed to form the body binding.  This makes for a classic sounding guitar, that is relatively light to wear.  The body is very well balanced with no neck dive when being played.

The guitar sounds amazing when I roll the tone off a bit.  The pickups deliver a lot of power, though I haven't had them up on the multimeter yet to determine just how much.

What Ibanez did with the SZ is to fill a niche that none of my other guitars can quite reach, the unique combination of pickup choice, coil split, maple cap, scale length, playing comfort, stunning looks, make this guitar one of the unsung and underrated heroes of guitar history.  But I am not complaining, with a different name on the headstock, and less innovation, I would never have had the joy of buying, playing and working on this beauty.

Alden Monte Carlo Guitar

I came across this guitar used. It was in excellent condition sold with good quality gig bag included.  I picked it up and had a good look, walked away and then after some consideration went back to the shop the next day and tested it out and came home with it!  It was in really wonderful condition, except for one slight ding which I have now repaired, still just visible, but smooth to the touch.  I gave it a clean, new strings and oiled the fretboard which was a bit dry, then set it up to play as well as any guitar in my collection.

Something about this guitar really appealed to me, I can't quite say what it is, but there are some times when you pick up an instrument and it seems to be more than the sum of its parts, even with old tarnished strings and badly in need of a clean and set up.  Suddenly against your better judgment you end up adding it into the family...




This guitar is an evolution of the the Epiphone Casino, and new is not too far off the price of that guitar.  However it has some important mods which I like.  The neck join is at the 19th fret which gives improved access to the upper neck.  The top, sides and back are in a very attractive flamed maple, not very highly figured, but good to look at.  This is not a hollow body guitar like the Casino but has a centre block which carries the pickups and bridge - this makes it a lot more feedback resistant.  That being said it is still a very light guitar to hold and play, very resonant, and very well balanced.  Mine sounds amazing unplugged and I think that is what attracted me to it in the first instance.  The maple neck is a comfortable profile and well made, using scarf joins at the headstock and heel.  The parralelogram block work is expertly done and the mother of plastic inlay has a deep quality and catches the light nicely. 

Plugged in through a Hughes and Kettner valve amp the sound has a very mellow single coil defintion to it.  People describe P90s as having something between a humbucker and a fender style single coil tone.  I have another guitar with P90s on a tele thinline body.  That guitar sounds more jangly.  I think the Monte Carlo is the next step on towards the humbucker sound but still very much a single coil with lovely bell like sounds using the neck pickup.  Maybe the semi-hollow body and metal pickup covers add to this.  I find it works extremely well with strumming open chords - giving an almost acoustic feel to the playing.  I like the trapeze tail which seems to change the responsiveness of the strings, but that might just be my imagination.

So what about the negatives?  A few cosmetic grumbles, but no deal breakers. The neck pickup sits rather proud of the body where the body is contoured around the neck.  The 18th fret was slightly high at the B string and needed filing to get the action spot on where I like it.  The flame top is not finished to the very highest of standards noticeable only where it meets the binding it looks as if the routing was done with a rather blunt tool (but you do have to really look close up to see this).  I had to tighten up the tuners, as when I took off the strings to oil the fretboard, they were rattling about, maybe due to slight shrinkage.

Would I recommend this guitar?  Well, it is a bit of a one off - no-one else is offering quite this combination, and it is fast becoming one of my favourites.  It has perhaps some of the appeal that attracted the Beatles to their Epiphones all those years ago, but addresses some of the issues of upper neck access and feedback inherent in that model.  It is reasonably finished for the price, there is nothing, in my mind, construction wise that rules it out.   The lightness makes it a joy to play standing up without getting back ache.  Certainly as a used guitar it is amazing value for money - I couldn't buy a kit to make my own guitar for that price, new it is probably not going to hold its value, but if you bond with it then it is a lot of guitar for the money.