Wesley Jarvis

Integral amp & speaker with no overdrive.
3/4 scale fretboard.
Lipstick singe coil pickup
Plexiglass body, aler strat style neck. Volume, tone and internal amp ON/off switch.
External jack plug socket.

Integral speaker is quiet and clean, but not unpleasant.
Amped tone very good, quite telecaster-ish.
Quiet channels wheter using internal or external amp.
Fine for children as it is advertised, but some overdrive would make it more flexible.

Fit & Finish excellent like all Wesley products IME.
No flaws identified yet.

Its advertised as a toy - not a gigging machine. That said it is extremely tough and has withstood abuse by my 8 year od son without complaint. Plastic body gets scratched but no worse than a wood guitar.

I wouldn;t gig with it, but then again its a toy instument. Just as playable as a pro machine though.

not used.

As a kids introduction to guitars its wonderful. And quite a laugh for a grown up to play on sometimes too !

Not a pignose substitute in any way but a credible fun , educational toy, and a tough one too !

Short Scale around 2? shorter than a standard Fender or just over 1? shorter than a Gibson


Made in China
Transparent clear plexi body
Figured Maple neck
21 mid/jumbo frets
black plasic postion markers
6 on a strip tuners
6 adjustable bridge/saddles
Built in speaker and micro amp
Single coils pick-up (neck position)
Single volume control
Amp on/off switch
Guitar jack input
Headphone input
No truss rod adjustment
comes with a set of cheap headphones

Surprisingly plugged into an external amp this guitar sounds as good as most of the better quality made in Korea strat clones, and better than most of the cheaper made in china guitars, the volume from the onboard amp/speaker is fairly quiet, perhaps as loud as a small acoustic guitar, and the tone is very clean.

The score for the guitar plugged into an external amp you be around 7, but the onboard sound only scores a 5, mainly because it?s so quit and only has a single very clean barley audible sound, unlike something like the Pignose PG100 which can really rock to the extent of feedback, or clean up by backing off the volume control.

The general fit and finish is OK, because the wiring is visible they have put some thought into making it look tidy, frets are well dressed, however there was a blob of lacquer that had been sanded off, and not refinished so part of the wood on the back of the neck was left bare, there was also quite a bit of fret chocking when bending strings up and around the 12th fret, this could only be resolved by pushing up the action a couple of mm. there was also a little too much relief in the neck but this can?t be adjusted. The nut was cut OK, but there was room for improvement, so in all the guitar was playable but far from perfect.

The only problem with durability is that I think after a time the neck may warp and it can?t be adjusted, everything else is pretty solid and I don?t think it will fall apart.

I think Wesley guitars have a lot of problematic instruments due to the fact that they sell very cheap import guitars, and they have very good feedback (100% and over 4,000 transactions) because they do look after their customers, and will give refunds if you not happy.

I played a Pignose PG100, and I thought that the Jarvis might be a cheap alternative. But in terms of build quality playability and sound it?s not half the guitar the Pignose is, but then again it?s only a quarter if the price on average, The Jarvis is a handy little guitar for a youngster (although some of the screws are a little jagged) or as a back of the sofa for impromptu practice sessions, or even for the mobile home, but forget barbecue jam sessions or sing-along as it?s not loud enough, but as most thing you get what you pay for.

This is a ? sized travel guitar with a built-in amp/speaker, similar to the Pignose PG100.

Made in China
Maple Neck, Maple FB, 21 frets,592mm scale length
Transparent Blue Acrylic Body
Single Volume control
Inputs, Standard Guitar jack out, Stereo mini Headphone input
1 X single coil pick-up neck position
6 on a strip, chrome buttons
Built in Amp (1 watt or less),700mm speaker
comes with a cheap set of headphones, and even cheaper guitar lead, no allen keys.
The guitar is roughly Strat shaped

Acoustically the guitar sounds pretty much like any other ? sized solid body travel guitar so I don?t think the Acrylic body adds or de-tracts from the general sound, but this guitar is all about plugging in and switching on the built-in amp, however the onboard amp/speaker is a very low volume affair, with a very clean sound, if you were playing anywhere but in a very quiet environment you wouldn?t hear this guitar at all, and the volume control in onboard mode does nothing from position 1 -8 and only kicks in at 9-10, the built-in amp sound is very disappointing compared to a Pignose guitar, but more on that later. Plugged into an external amp, the guitar sounds pretty much as you would expect a cheap Strat copy would in the neck position, only having a single volume control limits the tonal possibilities, but the volume control does work much better in this capacity and if you have a decent amp you can back off the volume control on the guitar to clean the sound up.

With the clear acrylic body you can see the majority of the wiring and it?s quite clean and not unsightly, however it?s clear this guitar has been built to a very low cost and standard, the tuners are a very cheap verity only usually found on old 60?s acoustics, i.e. 6 open tuners on a strip, this was probably done to keep the neck weight down, but they use a very low gear ratio so you can go from flat to sharp with the smallest of movements, the neck is poor quality wood and there are quite large spots on the neck where it has been sanded after the lacquer has been applied and it?s been left like that! Also some of the screws that hold the battery/amp compartments in place have very sharp edges that could certainly cut a child. And the guitar as supplied (i.e. out of the box) was pretty much unplayable past the 5th fret, the strings would choke and the intonation way off, and the neck is bowed so considering that the sellers states ?we give our guitars an intense setup before shipping to guarantee the highest standards of quality?, something went wrong somewhere.

In this section I?m usually happy to award a 9 as there is not much to go wrong, but given the cheap nature of the parts I can?t be that generous.

I?ve dealt with Wesley Guitars before, and in all fairness they are very good at sorting out problems, and they do seem to have more than there fair share due to the nature of cheap guitars, and they would normally offer a refund if your not happy.

I?ve been playing guitar for many years and own a number of guitars etc. I bought this guitar because my Pignose PG100 was stolen and this guitar was less than half the price of a new Pignose PG100, but in truth there is no comparison, as well as the fact that I?m going to have to spend quite some time on this guitar to make it playable, the Pignose is a much higher quality instrument with a much widely range of sounds, especially from the onboard amp, but also though an external amp.

With Wesley Guitars as most things you get what you pay for, I would not recommend this guitar for children but if you are looking for a cheap travel guitar this might fit the bill. Wesley guitars have very impressive feedback and all the negative feedback that has been left has been retracted, probably because people like myself would rather have their money back than then leave negative feedback, or this is their first guitar purchase and they don?t know any better.

If I were to keep this guitar and it were stolen I would certainly not buy another, I regard this guitar as a gamble that didn?t pay off.