Westone Thunder III

[ezbass]

I'm moving house this week and so have been clearing out all the nooks and crannies. I found a bunch of old photos from 1984ish mostly of an old girlfriend (now suitably binned, got to keep the Mrs on side eh?) but amongst them was a picture of the two instruments I owned at the time, a Washburn Woodstock (a guitar I know, my bad) and my defretted Westone Thunder III. This was my second ever bass and had swapped my first one, a Yamaha BB300, with my flatmate for this one (he still has the BB300). Anyway I thought I'd share this piece of '80s nostalgia with you. As I added another P p/up to one of my P basses not so long ago, this Westone must've left an impression on me somewhere in my brain, I certainly didn't remember it having a P/P config.

Edited July 19, 2010 by ezbass

[iconic]

[quote name='ezbass' post='898809' date='Jul 19 2010, 12:12 PM']I'm moving house this week and so have been clearing out all the nooks and crannies. I found a bunch of old photos from 1984ish mostly of an old girlfriend (now suitably binned, got to keep the Mrs on side eh?) but amongst them was a picture of the two instruments I owned at the time, a Washburn Woodstock (a guitar I know, my bad) and my defretted Westone Thunder III. This was my second ever bass and had swapped my first one, a Yamaha BB300, with my flatmate for this one (he still has the BB300). Anyway I thought I'd share this piece of '80s nostalgia with you. As I added another P p/up to one of my P basses not so long ago, this Westone must've left an impression on me somewhere in my brain, I certainly didn't remember it having a P/P config.

[/quote]


wow, I have one these on loan, the StingRay went back and now have a Thunder III fretless, lovely bass got some real loud meow noises too, and sometimes even sounds like a cat yawning ....

....looks very Aria SB too!

Edited September 1, 2010 by iconic

[Cygnus x-1]

I had one of those only fretted, mine was exactly the same except the pickups were a cream colour. I sold it to a mate to buy my Antigua burst USA jazz.

Got £250 for the Westone, paid £295 (s/h) for the as new jazz, oh happy days! wish i'd hung on to them, the two of them now would be worth serious money, have a feeling my mate may still have the Westone, although I ain't seen him for 5 or 6 years.

[Gust0o]

Good spot; and a timely reminder that I also have some old pics to bin!

[iconic]

had a fiddle with the one on loan, has 2 P pups and 1 J....and too many controls for one person to deal with!

Out of interest how much are these beautiful basses nowadays to buy?

[Paul S]

A Thunder III is good nick would fetch £350 +/- which, when you consider the quality of the instrument, is well cheap. Thunder IIs around £250-300. Thunder IA, with far less complicated controls but no through neck maybe £150, bit less sometimes. Thunder Jet, the simplest of all, for around £100. They are all great value secondhand and I love them, as you can tell from my signature. I use my Thunder 1A more than my other basses - just love how it sounds and feels.

[ezbass]

[quote name='Gust0o' post='942896' date='Sep 2 2010, 12:41 AM']Good spot; and a timely reminder that I also have some old pics to bin![/quote]
Ah the memories are fun but the dark looks from the other half just ain't worth it. To be fair there are no ex boyfriend photos so sauce for the goose, etc.