Wonderbar!!!

[WezV]

been curious about these for a while... and a late friday afternoon punt means i have one on its way attached to a westone thunder 1a

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200423674665&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123

i quite like these guitars anyway and it should be straight forward to put back to normal and upgrade the p-ups

then i have a wonderbar to play with too :)

[gwEm]

thats very you wez!!

[Philly Q]

I've always been fascinated by the Washburn Wonderbar.  

I think the double set of rollers should be an improvement on the Kahler and give better sustain - but never actually tried one.  Big lumps though, aren't they?!

[WezV]

yeah, the wonderbar is hideous and looks particularly bad on this guitar.  the guitar will look a lot nicer without it

so the plan is to get the westone back into original shape - maybe with some double cream humbuckers i have here.  and then make something crazier for the big ugly wonderbar

i always liked the westone thunder basses so expect a similar solidly built budget guitar

[WezV]

[FernandoDuarte]

This bridge is uglier than beat the own mom :P

[tomjackson]

I only clicked on this because I thought is said Wonderbra.

I feel a bit short changed.

However, nice buy!

[d1dsj]

I only clicked on this because I thought is said Wonderbra.


 I feel a bit short changed.

However, nice buy!

:lol:  :lol:  :lol: nice one! So is the wonberbar a Floyd type trem? Never heard of them!

[WezV]

the wonderbar is kinda an attmept at a modern trem but it has the advantage of needing no routing becuase it is spring based... not spring based like a fulcrum trem, like a fender or floyd and not cam based like a kahler.  its most like a kahler i suppose but hte cam on a kahler needs a route under the trem, this needs none... it mounts from the front and is fully adjustable from the front

but it is a bulky mo-fo and i thing seeing it on the westone shows how ugly it can be.   I am almost planning a build around it though... something industrial.  but first i want o see how it works and see how to make it work as good as it can... then the westone will be probably be put back stock and sold on

[WezV]

sorry tom :)

[FELINEGUITARS]

That was my FIRST electric guitar!!

Bought it when I was 18
learnt the value of straplocks because of the slightly dangerous angle of the upper strat button - guitar fell off my strap (was gutted - didn't break but gave me a scare)

[WezV]

the 81's have the strap button there.  the one i am getting has it on the inside of the horn which makes a lot more sense and puts it at 83-84 in this style

apparently the pickups are quite nice too.  we will see.   My first thoughts was that it would look very bc rich with a set of double creams so i m up for changing them but if they work good i wont bother

[AndyR]

It was my first serious electric as well!

And it cost £3 cheaper (brand new in 80 or 81) than your winning bid :lol:

Sold it to my niece for £60 a couple of years ago. She posed in front of her mirror with it for a few weeks... her brother has got it now... I have been wondering in the past few months about tempting him with a different guitar (an Epi LP or SG with Gibson pickups) to get it back.

Looks like this one was string through as original? Mine was a top-loader. I don't seem to have the original bridge plate, but I'm sure the saddles were a single screw and barrel arrangement like a tele, except there were six saddles - I replaced it with a plate/saddles that didn't keep flipping over while I was playing!

The pickups were OK, I replaced them with something, can't remember what. They didn't offer much improvement, but I was a strat player by then. I put the originals back and sold the replacements to a budding luthier friend at the time who loved that brand of pickups.

Lots of memories in that guitar - ZZ Top's Eliminator was riding high when I was using it live. It sounded very "modern" Billy Gibbons (at the time) with it's stock pickups through a valve amp.

If I were to get it back, I'd probably be thinking Black Dogs.

Back on topic though - Wonderbar... WTF, what's so important about that? The Westone is the big deal here! :lol:

Congrats :D

[WezV]

thanks guys, nice stories

yours would be an earlier one too, they switched to string through and moved the strap button for the second lot

[d1dsj]

Thanks for the explanation Wez.