”When we talk about Matsumoku, the "Nostalgia effect" immediately starts and Westone was the top brand of this legendary factory located in the Japanese city of Matsumoto. Today Daniele tells us about his splendid Spectrum LX bass.
Lorenzo
Article by Daniele Pieraccini
The Westone guitar brand was originally produced by the Matsumoku factory in Japan (1981 to 1987/88) and later by SLM (until 1991).
This bass guitar , which I remember very well seeing in the 80s in the hand of a “colleague” bassist from Florence, has a feature that I find brilliant: it is equipped with two necks (one fretted and one fretless) interchangeable with a few strokes of the Allen key and ten minutes of time.
According to the serial number, it is a model produced in July 1986.
I recovered it about a year and a half ago on the market at a reasonable price, given the quality and uniqueness of the instrument.
The most relicked and worn part is the back of the body, otherwise the conditions are acceptable, for a 35-year-old bass.
The fretless neck has dot markers on the profile, white in the normal positions (3,5,7,12 …) and red for the others.
The body is in maple, the neck is Canadian hard maple, the fingerboard is rosewood and the nut is in graphite.
Aesthetically, the instrument is, in my opinion, very beautiful: aggressive but with a certain elegance.
Despite the rock or even metal impact given by the look, it may not look bad in different contexts.
The shape of the body recalls a bit the Fender curves in the bottom but with Gibson-style “horns”.
However, a very modern and classic image at the same time.
Aggressive and modern sound
Matsumoku, under the Westone brand, produced not only the pickups but all the electronic part of the instruments.
The pickups are unbalanced coil; the volume, while changing configuration, always remains consistent and above all beautifully powerful.
At the neck we find a Magnabass II (model P) while at the bridge a Magnabass IV
This type of pickup was also included in many Aria basses (made by Matsumoku, of course).
Then we have active tone controls, coil taps and phase switches.
The electronic is active with double batteries, two 9V. This bass is really really loud and a bit aggressive, but quite capable of mellower tones as well.
Quality and quantity
Those pickups, while showing off a great range of tonal possibilities, do not resemble any other in particular: Fender, Gibson, Seymour Duncan, EMG, Di Marzio … and this in my opinion is a big plus. It is rare to find so many useful and personal sounds in a single instrument.
The quality of construction and the number of timbres available make this instrument an opportunity not to be missed!
Listening to the demo you can get an idea of the tonal possibilities of this Japanese gem:
warm fretless meows, powerful and defined slap sounds, punch with both pick and fingers … endless fun!
… but how does it sound?
Click the button and watch the exclusive demo of this splendid Westone Spectrum LX!
