Westone Spectrum One

The first of a long line of Japanese-made Westone Spectrum basses, from the same factory which makes Epiphone and Aria [or so I have heard]

Four string, 21 fret, solid-bodied bass, with one volume control, one tone control and the lead socket in the front. The abscence of scratchplate gives it a really nice smooth look. The body of the bass is jet black, smooth as glass and quite small and [pardon this] spikey-looking, making it ideal. Not quite sure what materials were used to make the body and neck of the bass, but the fretboard is definitely rosewood. The neck is a pale wood, as is the body [there is a huge dink through the finish on the back of mine] so it might be ash or maple.

The major beauty of this bass is the neck - thin enough for me to fit my hand around one and a half times, but with fairly large frets. the nut is made of brass, and appears to have been fitt4ed backwards by the previous owner, but even this doesn't much hurt the overall performance of the guitar. Perfectly balanced bass, which doesn't nosedieve when I put it on, and will happily hang around for hours.

I play pretty much a bit of everything on this bass - lots of heavy stuff, a bit of grunge and pretty much whatever else takes my fancy at the time, and it adapts really well to everything. Currently using [at random] a Bogey 20watt [my own], a Marshall BassState120 and a Marshall200watt. It sounds really good through all three amps, and gives a sound which can swing between clear and mellow, and a tone which i can only describe as "filthy", sounding like a Fender with three fit groupies on the best weed it could afford.

Using it mostly for practices, the sound of this guitar is BIG, big enough to make even my liberal-minded neighbour [a drummer himself] politely ask me to switch back to using my old guitar [Westfield custom], and that was just through my pathetic 20watt, 9-inch speaker amp.

Brilliant old bass, this.

For a bass over 20 years old, it's in incredibly good condition. Admittely, the finish looks to have survived a nuclear holocaust, but the chips and dinks and scratches have nowhere near harmed the actual playability of this bass. If anything, they just let me do more with it, as I'm not as worried about chipping it as i would have been with a new bass. It has survived at least three previous owners, including onewho added and one who removes a thumbrest, leaving two more unsightly holes in the finish.

The pickup itself is a single humbucker, and, although I am no expert, it seems to work pretty well, despite a tiny tiny tiny touch of rust on one point. Consider, however, that it has spent the last seven years in a garage, gathering dust and rainwater. The tuning heads are a joy to behold, solidly made, closed mechanisms and solid as rocks.

The only real trouble with this bass is the new nut, which seems to have been fitted backwards(!), but that was no fault of anyone but the previous owner.

So far this bass has survivied four owners, including myself, life in a garage, at least one trip of five hundred miles on two trains, three underground trains and a bus, the sheer indignity of being dropped off a roof [but thankfully caught before it hit the floor] and apparently numerous other brushes with death. Despite everything, all that it has to show for its troubles are a few dinks in the paint and a bit of tarnish on the chrome finish of the bridge.

The strap buttons are solid, but may have been replaced at some stage - they work perfectly anyway.

If this bass was a person, I would trust it with my life. If it was a car, it would be an old Land Rover.

Bought it off Ebay, hence customer support was a nightmare. Doesn't really apply. Don't think it will ever need any customer support like.

This is my third long-term guitar, and my favourite of the three. I currently own a Bogey 20watt amp [bought for thiry quid] and a Westfield Custom bass [sunburst - pretty!]. the Spectrum was bought to replace a rather nice Spectrum ST, which I had borrowed and fallen in love with, and it matches the later model perfectly. If it was lost, or stolen, or accidently wrecked, I would definitely look for another, but the chances of finding another are getting increasingly slimmer, as the company folded several years ago.

The defining feature of the bass isdefinitely its small body and thin neck, which nontheless is still slightly longer than a normal scale bass, making it an interesting one to play. My only real wish for this bass is that it didn't have those two holes where the thumb rest used to be.

Overall, a truly lovely guitar, which I would cheerfully reccommend to anyone.