You collect Westbury guitars?
Talk about an eclectic, esoteric interest.
I've personally never seen lefty Westbury basses, though supposedly they were made.
My first bass was a Westbury Track II. I posted pix and it's history back in the thread, "Your First Bass" but the photos appear to have vanished. Nevertheless, it bears repeating.
Mine was a righty Westbury Track II, which I flipped. An MIJ Matsumoku that I bought with HS graduation money. Bought it at an infamous music store in Brooklyn after changing my mind on my initial purchase of a Gibson EBO after my friends convinced me that the Gibson was a piece of crap. (I sure wish I didn't listen to them now). My father thought the music store owner was ripping me off with the Gibson, so in typical hot headed Irish fashion threatened the guy and "convinced" him to sell me something else. I wonder if my father would have done that had he realized he was threatening the member of a very notorious mafia crime family?
My friends convinced me to take up bass when nobody else wanted to, so I became the singing bassist of my first band. First gig was about 3 weeks after I took up bass, and I still have a video of that performance. It still gives me stomach butterflies watching it, as I can recall the feeling of my first gig. The bass was originally in a natural maple finish, but following the trend of the time to apply a Piet Mondrian paint job to guitars (see Adrian Belew, Eddie Van Halen, etc), I did the same to mine - using acrylic paint right over the gloss finish with no sanding, prepping, etc!
Eventually, I also yanked the frets out, filled them with plastic wood, and shellaced the fretboard, making it virtually impossible to move around on it. After getting my '72 J, I traded it to Jaco's then percussionist Manny Montero (who I was in a band with) for a crappy Dr. Rhythm drum machine. I did buy another one off ebay a couple of years ago, but I'd kill to find my original again.
Pre-refinish:
(Trying to look like a member of the Specials. The blue sneakers keep me from making that happen.)
https://picasaweb.google.com/101806303684625867671/CirceOfFive#5703932669956519938Post refinish:
(Also note the Oliver bass head and padded blue sparkle Kuston cabinet. Not to mention the cheesy 80's zipper shirt and cargo pants!).
https://picasaweb.google.com/101806303684625867671/CirceOfFive#5703932758751372178
