Wesley Freeport

A tele-shaped guitar with a set neck, dark blue (a bit too dark. It hardly shows) finish with P90 type pick ups. At the price fo eighty nine pounds I thought this had to be good if only to look at. What is it like? Well, the neck is incredibly thin for a set neck. The cut away looks nice but it really is an electric guitar rather than a semi. Good machine head, okay hardware and of course a great look.

I found the pickups rather similar and so it was the tone control that really came into use. The pickups do give a lot of hum compared to my other guitars but that is because they are single coils. I knew that when I bought it but I keep expect them to be humbuckers.

The guitar arrived in tune, which is nice. However the action was a bit low hence some fret buzz. I lifted this and it is great now. I also gave the fingerboard some coats of furniture polish to increase the smooth feel.

Unlike some "semi" guitars this feels ever so strong. I like it very much though I have other guitars that I would gig with. The strap buttons I'm pleased to say are large.

I have dealt with Wesley before and they have been great. For somereason they sent this to me using a faster courier.

My main guitar is a gorgeous Ibanez SAS32fm and this does not feel all that different despite being one third of the price. The pick ups are the main difference. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for but with Wesley you always get more than most other companies. However sometimes I wish they're pick ups were just a little better as I would be willing to pay more especially as altering electrics on a semi is a difficult task. Nevertheless, it is rare to find a thinline guitar at this price and so it was worth the few pounds I spent.

As said before thinline tele copy. Set neck stop tailpiece bridge etc. Two P90's with adjusters in the middle which makes it look a bit tidier. I prefer this bridge to through stringing alot less effort. Rosewood fret board and a nice finish. 3 way toggle one tone and one volume. The tone pot is a little off and you get a high pitched squeal sometimes if its up to high. Came with a free lead. I bought it at the beginning of this year so 2008 probably.

Alot of people complained about buzzing from the pickups I haven't noticed it if anything its actually better than my 62 strat RI pickup. Nice sound, neck pickup is warm and quite bluesy the bridge is a nice rhythm tone for rock and can handle soloing without to many problems. I tend to not touch the tone and usually keep it up but it works well if you do want less. As i mentioned before get a bit of a squeal sometimes with the tone up but I had the same on a japanese fender tele I had.

Very well setup turned up pretty much intune and at an excellent string height. Replaced the strings that came on it straight away though awful strings but they aren't exactly a selling point! Pickups are fine again some people have said that the poles aren't aligned correctly but mine are fine. Some people have also complained that the fretwires are to sharp but mine were fine maybe one or two that could do with a filing but not bad enough for me to have done it yet. Altogether very nice out of the box.

I wasn't expecting alot for 66 quid to be honest and half expected it to be plywood but actually its very solid and pretty heavy. All feels very solid and reliable to me no problems with any thing and I've played it a fair amount looks like it'll last me a while. I would be happy to gig without a backup as much as I would with any other guitar but generally not a good idea in the first place even solid equipment can go wrong.

Never had to use it but they seem quite friendly.

I've been playing 7 years I have owned alot of guitars but the ones I'm currently sticking with are a Gibson Les Paul, Mexican 50's RI strat, a custom strat I built myself. And I've owned and sold more guitars than I can remember including American Strats. I bought this as a guitar I could take any where and not really be to worried about it but actually I'd be pretty upset if it broke or went missing and I probably would get another. You will not find a guitar more value for money easily better than squires and the standard mex fenders. ??66 for a brand new guitar is ridiculous and it is a quality instrument I would and have recommended it.

Tele thinline look-alike, but with a set neck, P-90s and a tuna-o-matic stop tailpiece. Non-locking tuners, fat-ish frets. One volume, one tone, three-way switch.

It's a nice combination of features. I'd wanted a Tele with P-90s for a while, and so when I came across this on Ebay for pocket money I thought, what the heck? Very pleasantly surprised.

It sounds really very good. I've been playing quite a lot of Motown/Stax recently, and it can do the nice clean Steve Cropper "chop" and bluesier solos too. I've used it for rockabilly, jump/jive and doo-wop. It's very versatile.

For reference, I have a bunch of vintage guitars including '40s and '50s Gibson and Gretsch archtops and a Warmoth Tele made for me by one of the UKs top luthiers. This Wesley isn't at that level, but it's much much closer than it has any right to be. I was prepared to replace the P90s straight away, but I think I'll keep them on there. It really is THAT good.

The set up was OK, and certainly playable. I replaced the strings immediately as they were rather nasty, then took it to my luthier for a set up. He commented that the fret shaping and filing work was better than he's seen on even high end modern Gibsons. Total work done to get it to where I wanted it:

Fret polish, set up nut for 10-48 flatwounds, screen the control cavity, replace the cheap switch with a decent one, and move the bridge pickup towards the top E string a few mm. The last was the main issue - the pickup cavity is routed a little off centre. I called Wesley, and they checked - they're all like that. A little work and it lines up great now.

The finish is good with no obvious blemishes. The clear blue top shows the wood nicely, the back and the neck are finished in thick black lacquer. The binding is nice too, slighly yellowed except at the edge of the fingerboard.

9, because of the low price. If it was a Squier, it would get a 7.

I've gigged this a few times with no backup. It just works! Like any single coil guitar it's a bit buzzy, but now it's screened better it's OK. Best thing is I can throw it in the hold of an aircraft and not worry at this price, although I'd be sorry to lose it now. My Hiscox case cost more....

I called the company a couple of times, initially to ask them to pick out a good one (always worth a try), once about the pickup placement. They always returned calls and emails. The shipping was fast and the guitar well packed.

I'd buy another Wesley guitar, no question. If it's not a high end vintage piece, it's just a tool so why not a cheap effective one? I'm tempted by their 335 copy....

The only drawback is the weight. It's no Les Paul, but it is heaver than an ash Tele. I'm suffering back problems at the moment and wish I'd had a shorter set last Saturday!

8 overall, only because of the pickup routing and the crappy switch.

Nothing to add.

Harsh? Yes a bit, but to be honest I wanted a backup guitar that was completley different to my Les Paul. I think the best description of the sound is brittle and I like that raw kind of sound very much. The P90s are fine not too noisey, but I have to aggree about the tone control; I will never turn it away from full trebble, it's far too muddy when turn down.

Set up was very high out of the box but was easy to correct. The intonation wasn't good either but after adjusting the bridge the intonation was bang on - strange. I haven?t opened the back of the guitar so can't comment on the wiring. The finish is really nice if you don't look too closely. My guitar has poor colouring around the f hole and the neck, but you have to look to find it - The guitar cost #65, quite honestly I'm surprised it is finished as well as it is - you really have to look hard to find the mistakes.

Not sure yet, I've only had the guitar for a week. It does seem quite robust and therefore gets an 8. I have a practice session next week so I'll comment if there are any problems.

Not contacted them, but the Ebay deal was done well and the postage was quick.

Why a 10? Well, for the price of this guitar I've got myself a backup in case of problems during gigs, I've added a completely different sound and I can't see anything else around that would have given me that for the money. It's not perfect but it is fantastic value and I would buy another if I lost this one.

There's isn't anything I can add to Tim Aves earlier review, this really is a beautiful looking guitar.

The sound is brutal, in a good sort of way, this guitar couldn't be subtle if it tried, but having said that, I love the sounds it can produce. I didn't have the same problems with the tone control as Tim, mine works fine, but I did find other problems which I'll detail in the next category. The P90's are incredibly noisy, far noisier than any single coils I've personally heard. I don't know if this is charateristic of P90's, but I can overlook the excess noise for the incedibly raw sound this guitar gives. I use a cheap and cheerful Digitech RP50, and a Roland Microcube, strictly for home use/recording and these with this guitar make a damn fine combination.

At first glance everything seemed ok, but on plugging in to my amp, I found the bridge pickup wasn't working. Expecting a loose wire, I opened the back panel to find a wire had been (mistakenly?) cut, then joined together and taped over. No big deal to put right, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. The action was low, with a few buzzes, but I know what I'm doing with a fret file, so these were soon sorted out. The nut was too big/set too high for my taste, luckily, it was loosely fitted so no big deal to remove and file down to size. I suppose this should be regarded as a fault. The overall finish was excellent, bar one or two minor points. The main one of those being what seems like a 'water' mark on the front, but is more likely to be where the staining didn't completely take before the laquer was applied.

Again, there's nothing I can add to what Tim Aves has already said

I reported the faulty pickup via email to Wesley, and told them I had found the fault and corrected it myself, but pointed out that a 'newbie' to guitars would likely not known what to look for/fix. They soon replied saying they would ensure their tech team would investigete the current batch of this guitar. I would imagine this fault to be a one off, but as they didn't ignore my email and said they would look into the other Freeports available, I've got to give a fair rating here.

I already own a Wesley guitar, a Conaught electro-acoustic (which is superb) and liked the look of the Freeport. I found Tim Aves review here, and based on that and my other Wesley guitar, decided to buy. I've not been disappointed.
Again, much the same as Tim, I've been playing for 25+ years, on and off, and with a couple of provisos, I agree with his rating. For the money I paid thro' ebay, #84 inc vat/delivery/insurance, etc, this is a superb guitar, even at the full list price of #129 it would still be a bargain. Like Tim, I also wish they did a version with humbuckers, but it's no problem to put a set on, and I wouldn't be wasting my money in doing so. This guitar looks great, sounds great (if a little too noisy) but I have no hestitation in recommending one. I'd soon buy another if this was lost or stolen. Wthout the faulty pickup, I would have given 10 here, but even taking that into account, I've still got to give a 9.

This is a gorgeous-looking guitar! Not sure where it was made, since nowhere on the instrument, nor on Wesley's website, does it say. China would be my guess, since the Chinese are doing wonders on a shoestring these days.
I bought it brand new, sight-unseen on eBay for a price which meant it would have had to be pretty awful not to be a bargain.
The overall vibe - despite the Tele outline is Les-Paulish. The (alder, according to the manufacturers) body is a Tele Thinline shape, with cream binding on the front edge and f-hole, and a fair-sized hollow portion in the top bout. This, however, (apart from the 6-a-side headstock and general control layout) is where any similarities with a Tele end!
It has a big, fat, chunky 22-fret set neck which looks like mahogany, but it's hard to tell, as both the neck and the rear of the body are finished in a deep red lacquer.
The top is a nicely-figured piece of wook The neck is nicely fretted with medium frets and edgebound.
The head is vaguely Stratlike, but like the neck, is a bit oversized, sporting a very acceptable set of mini-M6 copies.
At the other end, it has a Gibson-style tunomatic bride and tailpiece.
It is fitted with a pair of really good strap buttons with large flanges, which will stay on any strap - other manufacturers note!!!
It sports a pair of body-mounted P90-style single-coils, controlled by a rear-mounted single volume and a single tone, placed roughly where you'd expect a Tele's controls, plus Gibson-style toggle switch sited beneath the pots - close enough to reach, but not so close that it gets in the way. The jack socket sits on an oval metal plate on the bottom edge.
It came with a cheap lead - the kind you would usually just throw away and a wrench for the (neck-end adjustable) truss-rod.

This guitar sounds great! I play blues and usually play Strats and Teles, using a range of Fender, Matchless and Trace Elliot amps.
The P90s on this guitar are brilliant - distinctive, characterful and well-behaved at volume. Yes, they're a bit noisy, but that's single-coils for you and the guitar is no noisier than my Strats. I'm also expect it to be rather less noisy when I get round to shielding the control cavity properly.
The chief fault with this guitar is the pots, which are really cheap and nasty and frankly, the wrong values for the pickups. Wide open, they don't detract at all from the excellent basic sound of the pickups. Otherwise, they really cramp its style, if you're the kind of player who rides his volume a lot. The volume pot is useable, but not terribly smooth and responsive, while the tone is control was worse than useless - it does nothing for 95% of its travel and everything the rest of the way!
When I took the back off this guitar, the control cavity was a bit of a shock - no screening at all and about three times as much wire on each link as was needed... a real rat's nest. I've trimed this back and will shortly be replacing the pots with some decent 500k CTS ones, which I expect to make a huge difference to the controlability of this guitar.
All the same, this guitar has a really good basic sound - very reminiscent, in fact, of a P90-equipped Les Paul Special I used to own. What you have to remember is that this guitar cost #46 - less than you'd to to pay for the pickups alone!!!

The guitar arrived reasonably well set-up out of the box, but the strings were very cheap and nasty and refused to hold their tuning.
A new set of Ernie Balls and a bit of tweaking later, it plays superbly well.
The neck is BIG - wide, fat and chunky... very much like an old Les Paul. In fact, a lot of players may find it a bit too much of a handful - it have big hands, so don't have a problem. However, for all that, once the setup was tweaked, it played so damned well that after a while you almost forget you have this great big lump of wood in your hand.
All the hardware is fitted properly and seems to work well, though the tensioning of the tuners needed a bit of a tweak to even them up.
Flaws? Considering what a cheap guitar this is, there are very few. The worst, cosmetically, at least is probably the nut, which has been quite crudely set into the neck's edge-binding. Oddly enough, the actual cut of the nut itself is fine - I've paid a lot more and got much more badly-cut nuts in the past.
The overall standard of fretting is perfectly acceptable and the finish, while perhaps not quite as smooth as you'd find on an upmarket guitar, is quite acceptable.
The binding on both the neck and the body is quite neatly done, though the inside of the f-hole is a little on the rough side - noticeable, if you poke your finger in there, but not a problem otherwise.
The control cavity cover isn't an especially good fit - the recess for it is deeper than the plate at one point and Wesley have chocked it up with little wedges of wood to even it up. They've also glued an extra bit of wood inside the cavity where one of the cover plate screws failed to line up with the mounting flange.
These are the kind of defects I would bitterly complain about on a #500 guitar. On this one, they're minor irritants at most.

The guitar seems to be quite well made and I have no reason to suppose it won't serve me well. Pots aside, the hardware seems reasonable, but the rest of this guitar is so good, I would have no hesitation in upgrading the bridge, tuners etc if I needed to.
I would never gig without a backup guitar - I've spent too long watching other guitarists changing strings in mid-big not to carry a spare - but other than that I would have no worries about it.

No idea

I have been playing guitar for 25-plus years,most recently playing blues in a busy semi-pro band - www.rockinarmadillos.com.
I'm a real guitar nut. I currently own 14 guitars - the usual Strats, Teles etc, plus a good few cranky bargains like this from eBay.
I love finding bargains which make good, working guitars and add something to my collection that I don't already have.
The beauty of this guitar (its ridiculously low price aside) is that it is effectively a Les Paul for people who prefer Fenders. I just wish they made one with humbuckers, too - in fact, next time I see one this cheap on eBay, I might get it and slap a couple of Seymours on it.
It's also a real looker - friends have estimated the price at between #200 and #800! In actual fact, you can buy one of these directly from Wesley for #129. Providing the quality is consistent, which according to other reviews here, may or may not be the case, at that price it's still extremely good value for money.
I paid #46 - #61 delivered to my door! - which makes it the bargain of the century.
It's got me looking at Wesley's see-through Strats and wondering what THEY'RE like!!!