The Electra Forums

Hi All,

Just discovered the site, it is brilliant! I have had a Westone Thunder II for about 16 years. It is pretty beaten up now, and in my youth when I didn't know better I decided to sand off the black paint, and then a few weeks later decided I didn't like that and repainted it black again... badly. Anyway, now that I have reached the ripe old age of 32 I have decided to smarten the old girl up again.

It has a chrome Bendmaster Deluxe which is missing the trem arm, and I am also missing the tops and nuts off the locking nut. As you can imagine she doesn't stay in tune very long, and bending strings is a joke.

I have a few questions:

1. Firstly can anyone help identify the year of my Thunder II. Having looked in at all the articles and catalogue scans I can find, I can only see Thunder II's with two humbuckers - however my one has a humbucker and two single coils, definitely all stock. There are two pots for volume and tone, and three on/off switches for the pickups.
2. Will a standard floyd fit replace the bendmaster?
3. Will a floyd locking nut fit the headstock?
4. I am going to strip off the bad paint job, and refinish, either in natural wood, or with a replacement black coat. Is there anyone out there with any tips or experience who can provide some pointers?

I will confess that I am not particularly precious about keeping all original hardware (don't hit me!) so if I can replace the trem easily with a floyd, I would be perfectly happy to supply someone on this board with the parts I have removed - namely the Bendmaster which is complete except for the missing arm, and a locking nut base.

I will post some pictures when I get a chance if that will help with identification - thanks in advance!

N

Welcome to the forum noisemag

The only Thunder guitar with 3 pickups and a whammy is the Thunder III from the 1983 catalogue, the pickup order is Single Humbucker Single (SHS), as you say a picture will help.

Does it have a serial number?

As you can see, the truss cover has Thunder II on it, unfortunately there is no serial number. The holes for the pickups are all as stock, that is to say, there is no routing or filling to suggest that there was once a different pickup arrangement.

The only parts not on it when I bought it in 1988/99 are the volume and tone knobs.

I guess it could be a mixture of two guitars - any thoughts?

N

OK, a bit more research. I checked out the Catalogues here:

Westone 1988 Catalogue

These guitars have Bendmaster Deluxe trems that look like mine and the one of the clippers (which I also used to have) has the same pickup and pot/switch layout.

Although the catalogue doesn't show the Thunder, it is listed on page 2 of the price list.

Did you look very closely on the back of the headstock for a serial number?

Guitar ReRanch has some good tips and supplies for finishing guitars.
http://www.guitarranch.com/

It is certainly a very unusual Thunder, I have never seen another one like it, the neckplate is unusual as well, they normally look like the one below.



I thought the Thunder series had been dropped by 1984, this guitar may suggest it continued for a bit longer.

Hi jbyear1,

Yup, I looked very closely all over. There is a small gold sticker on the back, which used to say Made in Japan (although anyone could have added this). The sticker has long since faded though and there are no other markings on the guitar, no serial anywhere - the only potential option is the neck joint, but I don't recall anything being there. When I strip it down I'll take another look. Thanks for the tip on the refinishing.