Hawkwind custom Westone Paduak Thunder bass guitar on E-bay

[Steve Freight]

This is up for grabs on E-bay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=160317604390

Heres the blurb and you know that Guy's work has been well documented before
so as it says a piece of history.

Thought you might be interested to view even if you don't want to bid.

Steve


OK - MEGA rarity here!  A real part of Hawkwind history.

This REALLY is a one-off. It is the result of combining a Westone Paduak
body, with all the rest of the parts from a Westone Thunder-1 bass.

On the Westone forums, this one-off guitar is known as the Thunduak-1
(Thunder+Paduak). Obviously custom painted, in acrylic, with Hawkwind's
DoReMi album cover.

This was built, customised, and painted by Guy Thomas, who did the custom
paint job on Dave Brock's recently sold Paduak-1 guitar, back in 1984. That
instrument was sold here on Ebay for a very hefty 4 figures, and if you've
read this far, you will know that it was painted with the "Warrior on the
Edge of Time" LP cover. Seen on many websites, also on the back of the Album
"It is the business of the Future to be Dangerous"  (where Thomas gets a
credit.) There is a very long story to this instrument offered here, and the
association with Hawkwind, so here goes, with it's complete history, and the
Brock/Hawkwind association:

1982 – Thomas saw Brock playing a Paduak-1 at Donington. (Harvey was playing
a Thunder-II bass, and Huw had a Concord-II)

1983 – Thomas bought the same Paduak-1

1984 – Thomas painted a really cheap Jazz bass with the warrior cover, both
sides. (back & front of the LP cover) That bass long since gone!

1984 - Earth Ritual Spring Tour.  Thomas got backstage at Slough, met the
band, showed Dave a picture of the Warrior Jazz bass - Brock liked it

1984 - Summer – Thomas painted his Paduak, just on the front, with the
warrior cover

1984 - Winter tour - took the Paduak to Crawley - Brock loved it

1984 - Winter tour - Dunstable gig, Brock gave Thomas his own Paduak to
paint the same way!  Far better than the paint job on Thomas's!  It was
returned to Brock, one week later at the Reading gig, where Brock used it
for the very first time on Orgone Acumulator, when a string snapped on his
main Ibanez axe!  Just after the previous track, he gave his main guitar to
his roadie to restring, legged it back to the dressing room, to pick up the
Paduak, returned to the stage and was fumbling with the switches to work out
the loudest setting and it was horribly out of tune too!  Aha - fond
memories!

1988 – Thomas's Paduak (this body) got damaged, whist removing the neck, the
outer corner of the neck pocket snapped when one of the neck screw heads
sheared off, and brute force resulted in the damage, which was neatly
rounded off. Alas losing that screw, meant that the guitar neck was never
quite as firm as before.

2006 – Fast forward 16 years. After the guitar sat in bits all that time,
Thomas acquired the parts of a Thunder-1 bass specifically for this project.
A bass has a substantially larger neck pocket, and it was suitably adapted
to take the wider neck. The original damage has no impact at all on the
fixing of the bass neck, which is now absolutely rock solid. Because of the
conversion from guitar to bass, the old pickup holes had to be filled, and
new ones routed, so that meant sacrificing the original finish. It was
decided, that rather than try to re-invent it as another Warrior Paduak,
that the Doremi LP cover would be used instead. This was done, this time in
hand brushed acrylic with several top coats of acrylic aerosol. (Back in '84
Brocks version was finished in Humbrol enamels, with top coats of spray
varnish!)

Here's a few links to Thomas' Westone/Hawkwind association:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Super_lenton/Guy_Thomas

http://www.starfarer.net/gtrstuff.html

So, to summarise, the bass comprises of the following bits:

Paduak: Body, Strap buttons, Neck plate.

Thunder: Neck, Machine Head Tuners, Pickups, Bridge

Custom made "Thunduak-1" truss rod cover. (I have an original Thunder-1
truss rod cover somewhere)

It is fitted with brass knobs – typical of the Westone guitars of the early
80's

This guitar is newly fitted with medium gauge Dadi Nickel strings, and is
nicely set up, with good action and spot-on intonation. As well as being a
great piece to just hang on your wall, is actually great to play.

Great output from the "Puncher-1" pickup (as fitted to Thunder and Concord
basses).

OK – this is not pristine – there's plenty of minor knocks to the body and
neck, but nothing to detract from this genuine piece of Hawkwind history, or
from the instrument's playability.


-- 
View Steve's Photos of Hawkwind Porcupine Tree and Isle of Wight
http://www.flickr.com/photos/venthawktree