Wesley B504 SMS

I've bought 2 of them in the end, a blue one and a metallic yellow, both are 24 fret and have twin passive humbuckers, with a volume each and a shared tone control, with a comfortable neck, not too wide and not too skinny. chrome hardware which works really well, tuners seem to be really good.

The tones are really good, i've played metal mostly but have thrown a bit of slap bass in now and then. even though they are passive pick ups, i have to plug into the active input of my laney richter head to give the limiter a break. recorded in the studio straight into a D.I box, and have cranked it live. and it has always sounded good. jammed with a covers band and for the slow stuff all i had to do was roll the bridge pickup volume and the tone back a bit and it went really smooth and mellow.

both basses arrived in tune! both necks had a few bits of fretwire that needed a bit of attention,but 2 minutes with a needle file later and sliding up and down the neck was fine. not touched the action or truss rod on either bass, not needed to. as far as finish goes, carrying the blue bass in a gig bag meant that the body gto a really bad chip in the finish (i always use hard cases now), but my brother works in a car body shop, so i stripped it down, sanded it and now it's a really nice VW Black Magic colour! i changed the nut on this one to a graphite when my wife knocked the bass of the stand and it snapped it, so the E string fell off sideways, oh and i changed the plastic control knobs for chrome ones and it looks much better!

I love this bass, and i am so confident in it that i've gigged without taking a back up! I changed the strap buttons to straploks because you are a doofus if you don't use them. i HAMMER my strings and this keeps coming back for more. I've tried ernie ball musicman basses in the shops and they didn't feel any different. at one gig the bassist of the headlining band had a go and asked how much i paid for it, i said guess, and he said 3 to 400 pounds. he didnot believe me when i told him it cost me 70. i tried his 1000 pound warwick buzzard,and it was appaling!

It came with a 12 month warranty, but thatran out ages ago, even so i don't think i'll ever have a problem with one. when i emailled them they were really quick to reply.

this bass was so good i bought another one, and if they ever get stolen i'd buy another one in a shot. they are easily the best bass you can buy for under 150 pounds and the beat some basses that cost four times as much. i wouldn't just recommend these as backup basses, i'd reccomend them as a first choice bass.

Bought brand new from Ebay, where the company seem to do most of their selling, for about #80. Okay, so maybe not so much a feature of the bass itself, but the thing arrived incredibly quickly and the company's policy of bundling a second item with free postage meant that a 10W amp came with it for no extra postage cost. Quite imperssive.

It has a very comfortable two octave neck which is almost exactly the right width all the way up without feeling too twiggy or too hefty. It's only a four string, but it's a lot more accessible than some other basses on the market, right up to the top frets.

The bass itself:
It's very nice indeed. Very attractive shaped top, with a slight nod in the direction of the Ibanez Ergodyne. All chrome hardware (Passive V+V+T controls, two-per-side small stylish machine heads).

The pickups are, well, they're buckers. No idea of the manufacturer at all, as they're not marked and the Wesley site doesn't mention them. They are actually nice and meaty- Suprising for a guitar of this price, it can deal quite well in a band situation and not struggle when you give the amp a bit of a nudge.
The tone control is also particularly effective. back it right down and you get the bottom endy, warm tone, pitch it up and it becomes almost a Precision style split pickup sound.. Nice for a bit of popping or slapping if that's your bag, or maybe just that bit of edge.

I got the sms, which is a silver finish. It does also come in a rather tasty metallic blue.

Aside from the nice shipping deal mentioned above, the guitar also comes pre-strung (standard, but at about #10 a set, this makes it even more of a bargain) a lead which, okay, it's free but it's one of those molded plastic ones that you don't expect to last longer than three months... It's a tad noisy as well) and a couple of allen keys,

It arrives very well packaged from the manufacturer.

I play a few different styles.. Often changing from one to another halfway through a song- From heavy rock and metal (Gah-dunggadunggagungga) to more melodic (dooongah- doweeeng-goonga).

The pickups on this thing, as talked about above are suprising. They're very capable of dealing with a wide range of tones and techniques (finger, pick, slap, pop...) and copes equally well with all. this is a decent all-rounder bass and probably, if set up, would make a half-decent backup for any bassist no matter the specialty.

I have taken to runnning it either clean through whatever amps there are in the studios, through a home-built 100W amp.. or for an extra bit of edge, run through a Boss Chorus pedal- It helps with muddy amps orcabs and for a clean tone it adds a little more.

HHHHum-wise, I've only noticed there being any once- this was in a poorly shielded studio where even the guitarist was experiencing a lot through his ESP custom with state of the art, flash as hell EMG pickups and posh lead. Basically, I don't blame the bass at all for it.. I've run 250W amps on absolute top boom and it's been silent without any hum, fuzz or other unpleasantness.

It's easy enough to twaek the sound for anyone to use.. Even if they aren't PHDs in Sound engineering and think EQ is a men's lifestyle magazine. Top marks for the sound.

This is the part where the bubble bursts and things start getting serious.

The action when I first got the bass was very nice. I didn't have to set it up at all.

The back of the neck, In places at least, are as rough as a badger's bum. The fretwires appear to have been fitted by a trainee.. They hang over the neck like razorwire and haven't been finished.

The headstock also bore a small crack when it arrived, which seems to have been remedied with a dab of wood filler. The crack's since opened up again.

About three weeks ago I noticed a horrible buzzing on the E, A and G strings. Upon closer inspection I found that the nut had come off and was only held in by string tension.

Then the bad bit.. After repairing the nut with a blob of epoxy resin, I found that the action was just unbearable. Especially at the 8th fret. The neck had bowed really badly, but luckilly in the good way.. like longways, rather than warping in 3 dimensions. A truss-rod tweak and a shim of card under the neck/body join and it was almost playable again.

IIIII am unsure if this is just a fault in my neck or just shoddy workmanship on the wider scale.. I hope the former. For this I wouldn't recommend this bass for much more than a beginner's instrument.

If it's possible, i'll amend this review when I have sent it off to the company for repair. It has a 1 year manufacturer's warranty.

The finish- The paintwork is not bad at all. There were a couple of little blemishes in the paint, not to mention a tiny ding on one of the horns. This is what you get when you paint wood and ship it several hundred miles though. The volume and tone adjustment knobs were a bit crappy in truth- THe grub holes for teh tightening screws hadn't been tapped out properly, so the holes were ful of swarf- The grubs wouldn't tighten and the knobs didn't grip the pot-posts properly.. I replaced these for black ones muyself, and I think they look better than the chrome anyway.. No biggy.

The nut wasn't really cut very well.. The E string doesn't sit in the groove properly- Plastic nut, so not too hard to remedy.


In all, the finishing of the bass, for the most part, has to be done by the customer. If you're lucky and the neck is fine, tehse are all little problems that can be fixed in a few hours, of for a tenner, can be all done at your local guitar shop.

For the neck saga, I'm afraid I'll have to knock their rating down a bit.

Live, I reckon with a proper set up, this bass could withstand not only a gig, but a tour. It's actually fairly rugged- the pups and gear are of a good enough quality soas not to meake you sound amateurish and the overall verdict is that you could probably depend on this bass if it gets through the initial six months.

The hardware is apparently very good quality- the tuners are solid and the bridge is well set and sturdy.

The strap buttons are as standard those normal type ones. I changed mine, as would any gigging bassist, for straplox. The body is, I believe Agathis, which is apparently quite soft. The screws that hold the strap buttons in are however very well set and feel unlikely to rip out.

It's probably a reliable guitar and one that will last for a good fair few years. Because of my experiences with it though, I would be hesitant to put a great deal of faith in it though and wouldn't even consider gigging it without a backup. Actually, it is my backup- rather than my main guitar (a yamaha RBX774).

All wesley guitars, if new (and via Ebay) come with a 1 year warranty.

This section is something that I'll be in a better position to answer when I send it back, but I am confident from my dealings with them when I bought it that their communications will be very good indeed.

They're an intelligent enough company to be able to deal with and expect to be dealt with like an adult, unlike some certain places where they treat you like you're simply the bearer of a wallet.

Obviously, I've not yet had the pleasure of trying to get customer support out of them. Hopefuly it'll be very painless.

I bought this bass for two reasons: 1) It was very very good price. 2) It looked the mutt's nutts.

I was not dissapointed with it when I recieved it and despite the troubles, I'm still really glad I have it. Where ese will you buy a brand new, rather attractive and such a gorgeous sounding bass for that sort of money?

It's got to be the most professional beginner bass on the market.. Ignore those Encore P-bass copies things in Argos... This is a serious bit of kit.

The neck problem, paint ding, duddy knobs, tacky nut and naf glue are all either (hopefully) one-offs or so easily repaired that they're very easily overlooked as flaws. If you're looking for a professional active four string bass that will see you through a tour via Hammersmith Apollo, Birmingham NEC, Sydney Opera House and Maddison Square gardens without so much as a tune-up, this probably isn't going to be very good for a main guitar. If you want something to get your teeth into bass with (on a decent quality, low-priced, well-balanced and comfortable bass), or you're looking for something to drag to rehearsals once a week, and perhaps the occasional gig as a backup, then this bass is going to really float your boat.

I've had a few troubles with it, but I do love it.