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Westone Thunder active guitar wiring

This diagram is based on the wiring in a mid-1983 Thunder IIA. I have compared that guitars wiring to the wiring in a 1984 Thunder IA - they were identical. This wiring diagram should be suitable for any Thunder active guitar with controls for volume, passive tone and active tone and 3 mini switches for coil tap, phase reverse, and active on/off



NOTES:
1 - the white wire from the neck pickup connects directly to the red wire on the shielded cable to the pickup switch. The join is wrapped in insulated sleeving

2 - there is a pcb on the back of the phase switch which provides the interconnections between the terminals. If the switch needs replaced the pcb is not needed and can be replaced by 2 link wires as shown
3 - this is a bare wire which connects to single terminals on the coil tap and phase switches and also is soldered to the bodies of all three mini switches
4 - this battery earth connects to the switch terminal on the (3 terminal) jack socket - the circuit is completed when a jack is inserted, connecting this terminal to earth.

The 3 mini switches are all DPDT. The volume and tone pots are 500K log, the active tone pot is a 500K linear pot with a centre detent. The tone cap C1 is a 0.022 microfarad mylar capacitor.

All the passive components on the PCB are easily available, should any need replaced  - the only active component is the IC, an LA6358 dual op-amp. These may  be difficult to obtain, and can be directly replaced if needed by an LM358.

Page last updated 27th June 2006