NGD- Westbury Standard

stimpsonslostson

HI Everyone
After taking a year off from the forum, stopping playing guitar and selling almost all my gear. I'm dipping my toe back in the waters again (both of playing guitar and being active on this forum),

To get me started again, I needed a guitar & this is what I bought:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/GmlA9Pe.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/8YWxXt0.jpg[/img]
A 40 year old Westbury Standard.
All mahogany body and neck, decent tuners and Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups. 
Overall I really like it, the quality seems excellent & it's nice to play.Those pickups certainly live up to their name- they drive my wee amp even on a clean channel. 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/sb01F7p.jpg[/img]
I think as "Vintage" guitars go, it's pretty good. The only problem I have is that the screws are missing from the bridge, so I can't intonate it. I either need to find some appropriate screws or replace the bridge, but I don't know what to replace it with! If anyone can recommend something I'd appreciate it.

Hopefully my images work- it's been a while!

scrumhalf

Congrats, they are fantastic guitars and yours looks like it's in great condition.

richardhomer

I remember playing one of those in Chase on Oldham Street in Manchester around 1980. I always wanted one but couldn’t afford one at the time.

That looks a lovely example.

SteveRobinson

These are great guitars. I remember when you could buy them for £150 

Kebabkid

That was my first guitar, but in black with Dimarzio Super Distortions

It screamed after Neil Mcdonald of Nightingale Guitars did a set up on it- you know when you bend a note and it 'meows' and almost goes into feedback.

I wish I'd never sold it. 

Enjoy it

ICBM

The screws shouldn’t be too difficult to replace - I think they’re M3 thread (but would need to check that) - but failing that, a standard Tune-o-Matic bridge should fit. Check the post spacing, but I think one of the standard Gotoh models would be fine.

Funkfingers

Looks like two Super Distortion (or Dual Sound) humbuckers. Original neck position should have been a DiMarzio PAF. (Stud and Fillister screw polepieces.)

Neckwringer

The bridge posts look to be quite small diameter so yea a Gotoh should fit and be an improvement too.

Sarge

m3 cheese head screws are what you need.
Outstanding guitars, love mine! 

Sarge

I took the finish off mine as it was very tired and chipped around the edges, there's some beautiful mahogany in these little guitars.
 

Fuzzdog

I found a rather tatty example (scratched all over, no bridge, pickups, etc) of one of those at a car boot sale a few years back for £5.  Patched it up and gigged with it for a while, still regret selling it as it was a really great guitar.

portobear_65

I had one of these back in the day, my first electric. My mum bought it for me from the Grattan Catalogue, think it was £155 at the time.


Very cool guitar, HNGD!

flyingv

Funnily enough, I see this on one of the FB trading sites only yesterday - I had the very same guitar back in the day ( deluxe )  more of an arched top than the Standard.... great guitars.
https://i.imgur.com/dskjT45.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mgeB6c0.jpg https://i.imgur.com/dlIAGOd.jpg

KevS

I have one at my Mum's..It sounds really good..Mine is rather erm Reliced..
It looks tiny on me..Nice axe though..

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

Looks like two Super Distortion (or Dual Sound) humbuckers. Original neck position should have been a DiMarzio PAF. (Stud and Fillister screw polepieces.)

I’d guess it’s original - I’ve seen them with both combinations.

Iamnobody

Sarge said:

I took the finish off mine as it was very tired and chipped around the edges, there's some beautiful mahogany in these little guitars.
 

Good work. That looks ace. I had one years ago that I intended to strip and oil. The poly was really thick and Nitromors on its own didn’t really touch it. I moved it on (at a profit) part stripped having only paid a few quid for it - found in the yellow free ads newspaper at the time.

Sarge

Iamnobody said:

Sarge said:

I took the finish off mine as it was very tired and chipped around the edges, there's some beautiful mahogany in these little guitars.

Good work. That looks ace. I had one years ago that I intended to strip and oil. The poly was really thick and Nitromors on its own didn’t really touch it. I moved it on (at a profit) part stripped having only paid a few quid for it - found in the yellow free ads newspaper at the time.

Nothing chemical I know of will remove that finish, but a heat gun on low setting and a blunted scraper took this off in minutes  

Flanging_Fred

I think my Westbury Standard is the only guitar I really regret selling.  I have a feeling I’ll get another one one day. Happy New Guitar Day!

Kebabkid

Flanging_Fred said:p

I think my Westbury Standard is the only guitar I really regret selling.  I have a feeling I’ll get another one one day. Happy New Guitar Day!

You sold it? I wish I'd known

stimpsonslostson

M3 Cheeseheads did the trick. It's now properly intonated, restrung & set up- thanks for the help everyone. 

Still getting used to the Super Distortion pickups, I've lowered them away from the strings a bit & that's tamed some of the "boomy" sound I was getting. I think I've found the sweet spot where I can dial in a dirty sound on the amp & roll off the guitar volume to get cleans. 

I like the shape of the guitar too, I always love SG's until apart from them feeling too "long". The Westbury has a similar vibe, but without the stretch. 

Flanging_Fred

Kebabkid said:

Flanging_Fred said:p

I think my Westbury Standard is the only guitar I really regret selling.  I have a feeling I’ll get another one one day. Happy New Guitar Day!

You sold it? I wish I'd known

I did Cos, quite a while ago now. I sold a few guitars to help towards the cost of my R8.