The majority of Westone guitars of the 1980s were made by the Matsumoku factory in Japan and imported by St. In 1984, they merged both brands to make the "Electra-Westone" brand, before dropping "Electra" from the name entirely from 1985 onwards. They began importing the Westone-branded guitars to the United States as a replacement for their previous line of Custom Kraft–brand instruments manufactured for them by Kay and Valco since the mid-1950s. Louis Music registered the Westone mark in the United States in 1976 to market Matsumoku instruments in the country. I have also had a listing on the Guitarz Blogspot, which if you haven't ever seen is here:Guitarz Blog This.The first guitars to bear the Westone name were made by manufacturers in East Germany and Italy until 1975, when Japanese company Matsumoku acquired the rights to the Westone name, producing acoustic guitars and copies of some US models. Hi to you all! All set for my 60,000th visitor and it passed me by! There have now been 61,000 visits to my collection blog - amazing. This Westone Spectrum MX is a Matsumoku-made guitar. : Here's another "Spectrum"-named guitar from Japan, this one bringing proof that Haryama weren't the only Japanese guitar makers in the 1980s producing cellophane finishes. Westone Spectrum Mx From 1985 In Red Cellophane Finish As we've mentioned before, Westone was the house-brand of Japan's Matsumoku factory with guitars being produced from 1981-1988. : We've looked at several Westone guitars previously here at Guitarz. Japanese-made Westone Guitar From 1964? I'd Aways Thought They Were From The 1980s I remember thinking, back in the day when they were being produced, that Westone guitars were all rather ugly - although I would have been first to admit that they were "ugly. : It's funny how your perception changes over time. Matsumoku-made Westone Thunder Iii Guitar From 1983 : Ah, you know we're big fans of Japanese-made guitars here at Guitarz, particularly those from the now legendary Matsumoku factory (could they ever do any wrong?), so I can't help myself showing this Electra Westone X-700JB. Electra Westone X-700jb Futura Bass, Made In Japan Circa 1984 © 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year! The auction for this example is ending very soon with bidding currently at less than £100 at the time of writing, someone could end up with a very nice guitar at a very nice price. This is a quality British-made guitar, which would have orignally retailed at around £500. The design, which appears to be somewhere between a Fender Lead II and a G&L SC-2, was by legendary British guitar maker, Sid Poole. I do wish that eBay sellers would always include at least one photograph of the entire length of the guitar, face-on, and not cut parts off, e.g. (The Westone Cutlass pictured here however, is not headless.
However, as part of Westone's 1990s-era Prestige series, the Westone Cutlass was actually made in the UK by Status, known for their Status Graphite basses which started out as a headless design in the 1980s. On seeing the Westone name you'd be forgiven for thinking that here was another Japanese Matsumoku-made guitar.