1990 Villain Pro

My wife bought this Westone and a nice Fender gig bag for $150. I'll have to do a complete setup, get a bar and rewire it, but besides that it seems like a pretty cool axe for the money.

It has a nasty looking crack by the volume and tone but it looks like it's just in the finish.


Like I said the wiring needs to be completely redone. It has a push pull tone pot and a switch I assume is for coil tap.


It's quite heavy for how slim it is.

Wow, that is a really pretty guitar. I love the color.

Yep; me too!! Very cool guitar and I'll be interested in how it plays etc!

Why is the trem block bifurcated like that I wonder? What's wrong with the wiring? The mini switch could be phase reverse and the pull pot coil split, so be wary, eh!!

Thanks guys

I'm not really sure how it plays, but the neck feels good. I need to put another spring in the block, I can't tune it up since the spring claw is bottomed out. I don't know why the block is split like that Corsair, it's a Kahler Spider, the first I've owned. I just hope one more spring will do it because there is nowhere to put another spring

The wiring is a mess, whats wrong? It doesn't work lol. Well not properly anyway. The pull pot and switch don't do anything, the bridge ground has broken loose, and the soldering and wiring is really sloppy. Also compared to my LP it has very little output. Granted the LP has a Dimarzio Megadrive, still I would think the EMGs would have equal or greater output. The one time I did play it I had to max all the levels on the POD, with the LP I'm not at half.

I just love it when somebody messes with wiring, you have no reference point. I'm not sure what the pot or the switch do, Westone. info mentions the switch is possibly a coil tap and has no schematic for the Villain.

I did notice after I posted the pic of the cavity that somebody got a little crazy with the soldering iron, this ones gonna be fun...sigh

Ah, the joys of second-hand guitar ownership, eh!

The bridge thing is interesting, there's a bit involved with setting up a floating trem, well, at least there's a bit of buggerising about with my Bendmaster Deluxes and I'm told FR's require some patience as well so I'm sure someone in here will have the lowdown on how to properly set up a Kahler..

The spring issue could be solved simply by putting a lighter gauge string on?

Nice catch Ttone, I'm jealous! . So much for Korean Westones being junk!!!!

I Googled that Kahler Spyder trem and there is a lot of interesting info on the interweb about them. Some versions of this bridge had an extra feature which could change the trem from floating to a fixed hardtail. It was called 'Auto Latch' and apparently it was activated by pointing the arm towards the floor. No idea if your guitar is fitted with it but it might explain the design of trem block.

As for the spring claw bottoming out, it might be worth finding out if the original Kahler springs are a standard length. I don't know much about Kahlers designs but they could have made their springs different just for the hell of it, just a guess though!

One more thing(sorry! ) EMG's normally use 25k pots on all their controls, check you have them, they sound all wrong with 250k or 500k ohm pots. I think the mini toggle switch is for the bridge pickup, it looks like an EMG 89 which is coil tappable (their 81 and 85 pickups can't be tapped). But the switch could also be for EMG's booster circuit (the Afterburner) or phase reversal circuit (the Pi 2).
If you find something, check the EMG site HERE, they have loads of useful info on wiring.

It will be one sweet guitar when it's done

DAN.

Hi,

the pickups seems to me they are the same passive EMG's as on my Hohner G3T headless.
So the wiring and the potentiometers should be quite similar.
As DouFuzz said, the EMG website would be quite helpfull. Or try to find some info about the Hohner G3T Headless, because of the similar electronics. I guess the wiring from the Spectrum II models would lead you also in the right direction.

Good luck and welcome

H.

Hi Ttone, I hope you gave yer wife a kiss and a feel for scoring this beauty for you, and at a great price!

It's a bit "busy" for this 'ole rhythm player but it has the makings of one serious noise maker for them what likes that kind 'o thing. In other words, most of the guitar perverts in here!

I like the colour and the body shape, and once she's back to normal it's gonna be a great guitar. Best of luck with the wiring and trem work!

DuoFuzz wrote: So much for Korean Westones being junk!!!!

Easy, there Dan; I don't think anyone thinks they're junk - I certainly don't! - but they just aren't Matts is all and as such, in the old forums, used to be outside the scope for discussion!

....Hi Ttone, I hope you gave yer wife a kiss and a feel for scoring....

..you DO mean a kiss and a cuddle, right?!

Easy, there Dan; I don't think anyone thinks they're junk - I certainly don't!

Completely agree with you Corsair.

It's stupid, years ago when all the Japanese built guitars first flooded the market they were deemed rubbish and nowhere near the quality of US stuff.
When the jap stuff was recognized for the great (if not better) quality it actually it was, people started picking on Korean made guitars, then Chinese. Apparently Korean built Epiphone Les Paul's from the '90s are becoming "rare" and "a much better build quality that the new Chinese models" according to the ePain posts I've seen lately, and they have been putting up prices around the 600 quid mark!!!

At this rate I'll have to put my Indonesian built Squier Tele in a vault in 15 years time!

DAN.

Nice geetar there TTone and welcome to the forums!

However, this puts me in a bit of a quandry... strictly speaking, it's not a true Westone so do I play the heavy handed Moderator and move this topic to the 'Non Westone' forum?

For the time being, I'm going to let it bide where it is (only because I'm tired and not very well) but I probably will move it when I'm feeling a bit better, just to keep things neat and tidy, you understand.

Polly

I would say it IS a true Westone, because it's still an SLM model.

FWIW - I also fancy the color. Beauty!

Second, Ttone and I'll bet you know this, but you can sclurp up a lot of excess solder using one of them, uh... hm.. big thick braided solder sucking coils.. Man, its late and I can't remember the name for em... but they are worth their weight.

John, DuoFuzz, Barry, help me out here.

Ian

Soldering braid.

And I reckon if it's on David's site, then it's a true Westone...

http://www.westone.info/villain.html

...how's that for a rationale?!

Yes, I'm in agreement with John, it's definitely good enough to carry the Westone name with pride. It's not one of them dodgy Mockingbird knock offs I'm seeing more and more of, they're just plain wrong!

That Westone.info site is turning into my personal bible! I'm always ducking into it looking for this and that. Especially them catalogue scans, the spec tables are a wealth of information, great stuff .

DAN.

Great looking guitar! And for that price ya can't beat it I think. That Kahler Spyder is worth what you paid I think. Many either love or hate that tremolo. I have always been a Floyd fan, but I picked up a old Peavey Tracer a few years back with a Spyder. And must say, when set up properly, I think its tuning is every bit as stable as a OFR. The only thing I dont really care about on it is that it feels so much heavier/stiffer than an OFR. And plus parts for that trem can be a little hard/expensive to come by these days.For that model Westone....this is probably totally unfounded. Because I have never seen any documentation to prove it. But once a fellow Kramer collector told me that model Westone was modeled after the Kramer Savant or Metallist model guitars from the same time period. They were very thin, sleek and sexy looking. With a metal insert that made into the body that was supposed to increase sustain. The insert is supposed to be in the lower end of the body. Some models had it as a wrap around looking piece on the bottom edge of the body. These model Kramer are somewhat rare these days. I have only seen a few here and there.

Hi! I´m new in this forum, but joined, because this was in mail today:

http://personal.inet.fi/koti/tero.vuorela/521369.jpg

It`s a Westone Villain Pro, pearl white. Fully original, and no marks of use. Think it´s a Korean made, ser. no. 9013***. Made 1990 and sold in Finland 03.03.1992 i got ewen receipt!

Price was about 700€ back in 1992. Today 180 - 400€ in Finland. Of cource the walue of money is a bit different...

Ttone if you need to know about wiring, i think i can look it from this guitar.

And is this a true Westone or not? It has a logo, but it was made in Korea...

Terppa

It's still an SLM Westone, so yes, it's real. It wasn't built to the same standard as the Japanese models, but from what I've heard they're still fine instruments.