Westone Concord II - where to start?

[Mr H]

In a moment of madness I picked up a badly listed (weak description, one poor photo) Westone Concord II bass of eBay. It was described as "for spares or repair", so fair enough...

The packaging caused merriment and apprehension in equal measure:



The cardboard was packed with the contents of his bin by the looks of it - a load of dirty plastic bags and bits of paper and strips of plastic. The neck section and the headstock section could be turned slightly away from the adjacent bits, which was a bit alarming - felt like the neck must be knackered. But it wasn't. Not by the journey at least.

Several bits are not original. The only identifying marks on the bridge are a capital B on the bottom of the inner part of each saddle.






I'm fairly sure all of the electronics have been replaced. The P-pickup at the neck looks fairly new and bears no manufacturer's name or logo. There's no bridge pickup, though the serial number and headstock logo on the bass indicate it's an '84 version which ought to have had a J-pup there, and there's the ghost of a filled cavity:




The pots can't be original either, that being so. No numbers on them (250K, that sort of thing), just an angular S-shaped logo.




The blue refinish has been spoiled somewhat by seemingly being rested on bubblewrap, having the neckplate screwed on, and the scratchplate replaced with loops of wire trapped at the sides before the finish was dried. And the sparkly replacement scratchplate looks very homemade, with untidy edges and a cockeyed pickup cutout:



The neck's been on and off a few times by the looks of it, so much so that I think the original holes have been filled with some sort of cement before the screws were put back in at an angle to grip some wood. Thanks to this forum I've a good idea how that can be fixed.

The washers on all four tuners are squashed and split:




So there's a lot to do before I can get this working. Amusingly, my woodwork and wiring skills are zero. Easiest job seems to be fixing up the tuners - are those washers pretty bass-tuner-specific, or will any plastic/metal combo of the same size do? The bridge seems fairly solid, but if anybody can identify it as something a bit crap I can replace that somehow. Sorting out the boltholes in the body and neck could be exciting, but definitely needs doing. I'll probably replace the pickup, but not bother refitting a bridge pickup because that seems like an awful lot of work. The main work, I guess, would be a refinish. I've had a search of this forum and got some ideas to be thinking about. If I ever get that far then a replacement scratchplate would be called for.

Should keep me busy (or feeling guilty about not being busy) for a year or two. Thanks for reading.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Mr H

[tommorichards]

i think so. You can use an appropriately sized split washer and what i used was a rubber o-ring i found when i fixed the ones on my headstock. A thin washer probably wouldnt go amiss. Of you could by a new set of tuners, and thieve the washers from them.

[gary mac]

Love the packaging .

Think I had this one on my watch list and almost put in a bid. I didn't, but almost.

Will be interested to see how it turns out.

[Mr H]

Found that bridge for sale [url="http://www.guitarfetish.com/Oversized-Top-Mount-Bass-Bridge-SUSTAIN-Black_p_579.html"]here[/url]. $25-ish. Well, there are cheaper bridges I suppose...

Thanks for the above, chaps. I can get rubber O-rings of about the right size from work, but in my experience they're usually splitting after seven weeks, so are probably not the ones for this job! I'll look elsewhere.

[Paul S]

I imagine you have found it already but, if not, there is a forum dedicated to Westone guitars [url="http://forum.westoneguitars.net/"]http://forum.westoneguitars.net/[/url] - what the folks on there don't know about Westone guitars and basses isn't worth knowing.

[Mr H]

Thanks Paul - I've had that site bookmarked for well over a year, and haven't remembered to look at it since the Concord landed. D'oh.

Neck and headstock hardware cleaned up nicely, though the neck/fingerboard is showing its age.