The Electra Forums

Hey everyone!
A very good friend of mine gave me this guitar...he has had it quite a while but never learned to play so he gave it to me! Nice huh!?

Anyway, I have been trying to look up some stuff about it on the internet, but the thing is; My Westone Spectrum ST looks different from every other model I have seen!!


This is the entire body, nothing that strange...



A close up...hmm, the pickups are covered. Havn't seen that before on a ST...huh? What is that!?


Never seen that switch before...what the hell?!

It is a Spectrum ST, it says so anyway:


The serial number is 6090873, so it is from 1986...that's about it...
I hope someone can shed some light on things here.

Hi Jens,

Welcome!

Not bad at all for a freebie!

I would have to say you can pretty much trust what the headstock says. I'd lean towards the pickup covers and mini switch being added post production, likely by a previous owner.

My guess would be X135BK, but X189player is likely the most knowledgeable when it comes to the Spectrums.

BTW, could I get you to flip those wide pics upright?

Didn't really help that much, but I got someone elses view on it, whcich is great, thanks!

I flipped the photos for you too.

What exactly were you wanting to know about the guitar?

Well, now that you mention it...I didn't really know what I wanted to know!

But you said one thing...that the little switch was probably a costum job. I think you are right! I checked it and it's most likely made my one of the previous owners, you can see that it's been drilled later on.
And now that It's more or less proven that it's been modified, the pickup covers were probably added at the same time.

Hmm...I don't really know that much about guitar electronics and functions, because I just started out, so what wouldbe interesting to know is why it was modified. No one here can probably answer that but maybe you have some ideas?
Maybe the humbuckers was replaced to...I don't know...And do the covers have any practical function or are they just for protection and cosmetic?

Thanks anyway!

The pickups could very well be aftermarket or non-stock, or simply covered. Metal covers tend to "mellow" the tone just a small amount.

I'm not sure why the mini was added. The guitar came stock with coil cut via a push-pull tone pot.

You are probably right about the "why it was modified". Only the owner who made the modifications would know for sure.

Not that any of it is really hurting anything if the guitar performs as it should. I doubt you could find a better starter than one of the Spectrums (equally good, sure, but better would be tough).

I concur, it's an 86 X135BK. Tuners and knobs and bridge look original, pickups don't.

I'd guess somebody swapped the pickups with another guitar, some H-H guitar like a Les Paul type or such. The original Magnaflux I's were great-sounding pickups and it's not uncommon for pirates to swap them into other guitars. Nice of them at least to not leave the guitar without pickups! It would be interesting to see the back of your pickups, any manufacturer name or numbers or such. Pickup covers are style as much as anything, though they do muffle a little bit and so became traditional for neck pickups to balance them with the quieter bridge pickup- but they could be on both. This was common on Gibson-type guitars, but you see them more in 70's guitars with natural wood finish- painted guitars usually have exposed coils, so that gives your guitar a quirky vintage look- plus I'll bet those hums have a nice creamy vintage tone.


Can you get us a photo or drawing of the inside of the control cavity? (back cover behind the knobs). The mostly likely use for a second switch would be coil tap, but you never know, people install phase and kill switches and all sorts of things. The big switch is the pickup selector, right?

I actually opened up the back cover...and to my surprice, the little switch wasn't even wired! That explains why I never noticed a difference in sound when I flipped it!
It looks pretty cool though so I don't really mind. The previous owner probably had it finished but for some reason decided to scrap the whole idea. You can still see parts of soldering and wire left on the switch.

I really like the humbuckercovers, actually I think the guitar looks better with them on than the original design.
Hmm, and soundwise...I don't know how it should sound originally so I can't compare it. But I think it sounds pretty nice. Can get everything from very crisp tones to very mellow ones.

Im not too confident to tinker with it and unscrew the humbuckercovers though...don't want to mess anything up! If it was a computer I'd open it up right away...but I'd better leave the inside of guitars alone.

Anyway, thanks you guys! I think I learned some stuff!

BTW x189player, I love your guitar projects! I would really love to build one in the future.

Ahh.... the famous ghost switch- secret mod of the stars...

Well, you've got the switch, you're all ready to go hot rodding! is it an SPDT (three lugs) or DPDT (six lugs)?

With a DPDT you could wire a coil tap for thinner single-coil sound. Or you could wire a phase reverse, for that Peter Green phased humbucker quack. With an SPDT you could wire a cooil tap for one of the pickups... but you may be happy with it as is.

Great guitar- the ST has the same great body and neck as all the higher-end Spectrums, the SX and FX and such. They cut costs bu using simpler bridge and electronics (fewer knobs and switches and wiring to be done), but the guitar itself is the same great instrument!

Um...X189player...you know quite a bit about guitars, I noticed...Wow...

I learned all I know hanging around street corners, er, i mean, forums like this one...

there's plenty of peeps around here who know as muich or more than i do... i just have a big mouth...