Wesley Coloma Strat

Standard strat fare. The base of the body is slightly more circular than most out there. The neck is a heavily varnished (perhaps too much so) and a slightly yellow colour. However it feels great and plays just like my friend's Fender USA Strat so who am I to complain? There is a tortoise shell pickguard which makes a nice change from bog standard white ones. The covered (not sealed) machine head does not have tightening screws but they work perfectly well. It was a cheap guitar but worth it.

The pickups are pretty weak in comparison to my Ibanez. However when I turned the volume on the amp up I was pleasantly suprised at the different sounds each pickup selection gave.

Incredibly well made and beautifully set up. Arrived in tune.

It will last, no question. In terms of gigging, I feel the lacquer on the neck put me off using it live and I have other more expensive guitars. However, I have no problem using it if I had to.

pass.

I bought this for seventy pounds after I had bought a Wesley telecaster. The tele is a better guitar but this certainly has its own character. Cheap and cheerful, but extremely well made. Unlike some bargain hunts this was not money wasted.

Made 2005. S/S/H pickups. Nice natural wood body (Alder?).
You can get rest from Wesley Site or eBay!
Tortoise shell plastic pickguard.
Basically nothing on this guitar that I don't like!
Finish and quality much better than expected for this price.
Cost #80 from eBay.

I am not into metal, but prefer blues, clapton, fleetwood mac, etc.
Very suprised by the tone! Wide range of tones from 5-way switch. Pickups are not high output but v low hum. Pos 2 is hum cancelling.
Tone controls for pos 1-4. No tone control for Humbucker (pos 5).
I have a Kustom 16W and a VOX AC30CC1 with Vox Tonelab. Sounds very nice.
Even unplugged you get a very nice fender-ish tone. The wammy bar springs give it a nice boingy tone which has character but as I am not into wammy bars at the moment I put a plastic ruler under it (like Eric Clapton who likes the springs but removes the wammy bar!).

Very wide range of tones from pups.

I bought this guitar expecting it to be crap and I was going to use it to experiment on (e.g. change pickups, fret job, alter neck, etc.).
Basically the standard of build and workmanship was excellent. Frets, tuners, body, bridge all good.
Now the bad bits - I needed to stone the frets to level them (they weren't bad but some were a bit high and buzzed around 12th fret). Adjusted intonation. Removed string trees which stopped strings from keeping in tune. Filed nut slots to prevent strings sticking.
Now its almost perfect - just needs a tiny bit more off some top frets. Action is now 1.2mm on high E and 2mm on bottom E at 12th fret.
I also shimmed the next a fraction but I don't think it really needed it.
If this guitar was given a pro setup before I received it, I would have given it a 9 (but it would have cost twice as much!).
When using the wammy bar it does go out of tune and I found it very difficult to tune it when floating so I blocked of the bridge and removed the wammy bar. Now VERY stable tuning. Sounds much better with 10s strings (9s are too weedy). The 10s toughened up my fingers but it was worth it to get the nice full tone from it.

Seems OK. The bridge does not seem to return accurately but I am NOT experienced in setting up this type of bridge!
I have had this guitar for about 8 months and had no mechanical issues.
I would gig with this as I could replace it cheaply and it would not be the end of the world.

I have contacted John Wesley before (this is my 3rd JW!) and he has been very helpful and sent me replacement parts. If you have any issues with JW guitars I would urge you to contact him he is a very decent guy!

Playing 2 yrs (after a lapse of 20 yrs). I have played/owned Washburn WI66 pro, Cort Matt Murphy, Wesley Connaught Semi, Wesley LP Tigerstripe, Squire Bullet, Vintage VRS100, PRS SE EG, Cort G260.
For playability I prefer the PRS. For tone I prefer the Wesley Coloma!
I tend to alternate between the two. The PRS SE has .09s and has a lot of hum pickup.

Compared to a Vintage (make) guitar, the finish and sound on this guitar was much better.

Bottom line - if you want a budget guitar and can set it up yourself (or get a friend to do it) this guitar will not let you down. The pickups are suprisingly good and I have not changed them yet.

I bought this guitar in September 2005,Typical Strat layout, 22 frets, same weight as my Fender Strat. Excellent maple neck, every bit as good as my expensive instruments which include Fender, Schecter, Yamaha and others, 13 altogether

Tried the guitar through my main stage gear Peavey 5150, Sounded just as good as my strats

Guitar was well set up when it arrived, played like a dream straight from the box, perfectly in tune. Would have no fear of gigging this instrument

I have since bought a Sweatleaf from Wesleys and plan to gig both guitars with no back up, very confident

As I said I bought a Sweatleaf from them which arrived with the neck snapped off from the body (Bad handling in transit) I rang John Wesley who told me he would send another straight out, As I only live an hour from his place I went and picked it up instead. He was very friendly and apologetic, the rest of his staff were really chatty and helpful, Top marks

I have numerous guitars, My strats are my main guitars but will definitely gig my Wesleys. Top class. Can,t understand the bad reviews

this years model i guess, not sure if it was made in uk or far east.
Alder body?????? 2 piece sandwich maple neck. usual strat layout 3 single coils which must be rated at about 2 k each , quietest pups i have ever heard.i wont this on e bay for 78 bp but held of reviewing it for a couple of months. this guitar is extremely light which makes me wonder what grade of alder is used on it.the maple neck is already showing signs of lifting from the fret board.included in sale was a cable(weeeeeeeeee). tuners are usual schaller copies.
overall i give this a 5

this is where the fun begins.my son uses this through a little johnson practice amp, to get any sort of volume out of it the amp has to be almost at 10.the pickups really are that bad.on the distortion setting the whole sound is a muddy mush.the only thing i can ever see this been useful for is strumming gently to something like "my ding a ling" im sorry to be brutal here but that is my honest opinion.

guitar came very well set up,ie.action and intonation.finish on the frets was very poor 3 were actually loose others were badly filed.
vintage bridge also was very sharp at the edges. some of the pickguard screws were also badly chewed??all in all was very disappointed with finish.

as i stated fretboard is already beginning to lift from neck. bridge needs to be replaced if i could be bothered.can i depend on it.????
ummmmmmmmmm......NO.

has a 12 month warranty but i never bothered contacting them.i actually have my own theory that wesley buy large amounts of thesr guitars as "seconds" from some far easr company ..hence the low prices..i would have been better of buying a decent pickup i think.

all i can say really is i wont be back. for 78 gpb i at least expected something that would last a year even..sorry for being brutal but i call a spade a spade. im sorry now i did not buy a squire or a pacifica.