Wesley Monarch

Two soapbar passive pickups. Probably made in China - could be Korea if the Spector factory there are moonlighting with cheap knock offs. Looks-wise this seems to be a very close "homage" to the magnificent Spector range and why not. For around one hundred pounds UK Wesley have got a real winner of a bass. Fast, slim neck and light body. Great for long hours - except... The full description of this guitar comes earlier in this section and I have nothing else to add. It does exactly what is advertised. Except..

Pickups are a little weak even for passives. Being used with a Laney R4 plus 15" Laney extension cab. Great sound, versatile amp enhanced by versatile tones from deep to bright and quite a few in between (considering the price of this bass very good),
Used on stage (as backup) and the plan was to use it in the studio because it's just so playable- but...

Set up great - maybe a little high but very very playable. The neck is fast, frets are clean - not a sharp edge in sight and the finish really is flawless. Barely any buzz and all notes playable- on a hundred quid guitar, unbelievable! The tuners are great and the guitar was in tune when it arrived and eight months or more later with hardly daily use it was pretty much in tune when I took it out of it's case to rehearse for a rather important recording session. More on this later. Basically, this would be a nine except for the slightly odd neck pick-up tone pot which seems to move inside it's casing and the problem I encountered last week which is logged in the next section... for the price have to give it

Here's the problem. I wanted to use this bass as my first instrument. Everything about it was so impressive and from the body weight perspective, it was perfect for a long rehearsal session followed by long days of recording. However as I played during rehearsal the bass began to overload my amp causing it to distort savagely and left me in fear of blowing the speaker out altogether. I thought it was the amp, then maybe the lead but it seemed to be directly linked to one of the pots on the monarch. I replaced the guitar with the backup bass (A Vintage P bass - heavy and wide necked but there) and plugged in. No problems at all. tried the Monarch again. Great for fifteen minutes then overloading again. On opening up the back panel I realised the fault at once. The electrics had been installed by someone who had clearly never used a soldering iron before. Dry joints everywhere, wires with insulation stripped back too far intermittently shorting on other wires. A disaster. The worse I've ever seen anywhere. I know that for the price there has to be a downside - certainly when the quality of everything else is so good - but this was unbelievable. Hard to believe that it worked at all! So for everything else this guitar deserves an eight or nine but honestly, what's the point of an electric guitar with rubbish electrics. It's just a very quiet accoustic! So 5. I have resoldered every joint and if this doesn't work I will replace the pots. Pity though, I really wanted this as my number one bass but I'm not sure I can trust it again so - regretfully - down marking it to

Didn't bother. I can fix it but it shouldn't have come out of the factory like that - not even at that price.

So good. Pity about the electrics. Would I buy another one - yes, as a rehearsal or backup bass. But I'd have my tech replace ALL the electrics. Terrific guitar for the money. Best feature is the excellent neck. Very well made guitar other than - well, you know. And for all of you asking 'what did you expect for a hundred quid?" Well, an electric guitar that at least worked electrically. So only a seven. Otherwise a 9 for value for money.

The features were already described below, so I won't repeat them here. A simple 2-pickup bass witha simple control configuration. can't go wrong with that!

I have used it for a bit of everything and a number of amps. It does very well at anything. I was surprised, given the price of the bass, at how nice it sounded. The bridge pickup has that bite and midrange there, and the neck pickup is very warm...

My only niggle is that the pickups seem rather low output. It's not a problem in itself, but it's noticeable quieter than any of my other 6 basses. still, that's what the volume knob in the amp is for, and I don't mind as long as the sound is good. And it is.

I love it.

Again, a surprise. I expected the usual flaws from an instrument of this price range... but it was very well built. The body is similar to Spector/Warwick Streamer basses, although a bit more "clunky". The edge is not entirely rounded, but you can notice the flat edge. Subtle, but it's there, the sign that probably not a lot of time is dedicated to finish these instruments... however I have no complaints about the quality of the build. I've seen mexican Fenders with poor neck pocket fits, and this one is really well made.
The neck is slim and very comfortable. Not as slim as a Jazz bass, but slimmer than most basses. The frets are well finished and this bass came set-up almost perfectly. A slight rattle on the E-string which was easily corrected.
The bass came with light gauge strings fitted. I meant to replace them (I favour 110-50 sets) but I liked them, so they're still on. I've had this bass for 9 months and the strings still sound good.

It doesn't seem any different to any other bolt-on bass. Looks robust. I have no issue with the tuners on mine. The bridge is rather basic and toyed with the idea of replacing it... but I don't think I'll bother.

I emailed the company asking about dimensions of the neck and other details before I ordered it. They replied very quickly and they were very nice. They gave me a very good impression, but having said that, I didn't have a problem for them to solve, so who knows. But at least they do seem to respond to their potential customers, which is more than many online companies do!

Fantastic bass!!!
Get one. No, get two! Now! :-)
I have no connection with the company (other than having bought the bass) but I have been recommending it ever since, so maybe some people think I work for them :-) I most definitely don't!
I have been playing guitar for almost 20 years, and bass on and off for a while, but more seriously for the past 2-3 years. My favourite basses are my two Warwick Corvettes (a STD and an active $$), but this one is very close in my preference list. It sounds great, it feels great, it's just a great bass at any price, but at ??115 is a bargain. I bought mine on an impulse after seeing it on their website. I then regretted it, before I received it, as I bought a nice fretless and felt that buying the Wesley was a silly idea... until it arrived. Within 10 minutes I was in love.
And it can go for as little as ??50-60 on eBay, if you're lucky, new! (I found that after I got mine). But even at ??115 it's excellent value.
It has no shielding (although it doesn't suffer from hum, not in a noticeable way) and the hardware is basic, and the pickups are low output (but great sounding)... but those are small details, and if interested one can upgrade the parts over time and end up with a bass that plays better than some basses costing 3-4 times more.
If I had to sell everything and just keep a cheap bass, I'd keep the Wesley MOnarch, and I wouldn't feel I was making much of a compromise (even 'though I still prefer the Warwick).

The Wesley Monarch is a 4 string bolt-on necked bass with a design essentially copied from the more affordable Spector ranges. As I bought it as a backup for my Spector Q5-Pro this is what caught my eye as I'm a long-time fan of the Spector range and this bass is very nice to look at. The hardware is fairly basic, with a nondescript bridge, sealed tuners and two nameless large humbucking pickups in the EMG soapbar style.

The body is Alder and finished in amber high-gloss. The finishing itself is very good quality and shows off the understated grain of the wood well. The neck is maple with a scarf-jointed, angled headstock. A rosewood fretboard and 24 jumbo frets. The neck has a satin finish and the fretting appears well done, with no sharp edges or rough spots at any point along the neck. The neck itself is a nice size. Not too wide or thin (although I'm used to playing a 5 string by this point so my opinion my be a bit skewed).

The nut was cut more or less perfectly, and although the bass was shipped with fairly light gauge strings I was able to restring it to 125/100/80/60 without needing any alteration to the nut slot. However the bridge would not accept these heavy gauges as the holes are too small.

Sound-wise I was quite impressed with the Monarch. I wasn't expecting to be blown away but even a dry run through a rehearsal room amp gave excellent results. The stock pickups produce a good full range sound with a nicely prominent midrange. The pickups appear to be fairly quiet and although there is no real shielding of the passive electronics I didn't notice any interference issues. Fiddling with the volume and tone controls gave a good range of tonal variety.

My normal rig is a Sansamp bass driver with a pretty hefty dose of overdrive. And when tested during a soundcheck I found that the Monarch needed little other than a bit more gain to compensate for the lower output compared to my regular gigging bass. And just to get a second opinion, I lent the Monarch to a friend for one practice session and he agreed that it's a damn fine sounding bass.

The Monarch was set up prior to being shipped and arrive fully tuned and with a nice action. I've read some complaints aimed at earlier Wesley models and their default set-up and this seems to be an area in which Wesley have improved considerable.

There were a few small assembly niggles. The stock bridge was not installed straight (although I later replaced it with a Leo Quan Badass II bridge to accommodate my heavy strings) and a few of the recessed screw cups on the neck joint were inconsistently recessed. Nothing major however, they may not have passed QC on a branded bass but nothing that affected playability. The neck pocket is tight and all the body routing is good. As mentioned earlier the bridge unit was a generic type found on many Fender copies but it was of good construction and I've certainly seen less heavy-duty hardware.

I haven't subjected the bass to a serious gig workout as yet however it will be going on tour with me in the forthcoming months so time will tell. The only thing I would really consider replacing on the Monarch (other than the bridge, which I could have been quite happy with if my strings had fit) would be the tuners. As they are not quite as smooth and positive as they could be.

I've been playing bass for over 13 years and I have no shame in admitting that my playing style is pretty much "bang! smack!" rather than any attempt at subtlety or technique! The Monarch feels nice to play and I've no doubt will hold up to my abuse with no difficulty. It's a fine bass which cost me less money than my first (a crappy plywood Squire Jazz). If could have found a bass of this quality at the same price 13 years ago I would have been a very happy bunny!

I had considered replacing the electronics & pickups with EMG active components but in relection decided not to bother. The replacements would cost more than I paid for the bass! And to be honest it sounds just fine as it is.