Wesley Nimrod Vee

The only flying v bass guitarm that ain't an epiphone. There's not many about, and due to being a student, I couldn't afford the epi.

Hard Maple Neck & Hardwood body

20 fret rosewood fingerboard

Full Scale 867mm

Dual Hum-Cancelling Pickups

Diecast Black Metallic Machine Heads

Includes 2.5m Guitar Lead

As figured by the guitar, I play mostly rock and metal, so looks wise, it suited me fine.

The pick-ups were ok, but it was a case of what you buy is what you get. Ok mids and highs, but the lows weren't amazing. I bought this bass with the sole intention to change the pickups for some EMG bass pickups.

Gotta say, with the EMG's in place, this thing does sound a hell of a lot better plugged in.

Unplugged, there's a lot of fret buzz at the second fret, a problem that plagued my starter bass (Stagg fusion) and a sound I absolutely hate. I know a lot of budget guitars do this, simply because the build quality isn't going to be that of Gibson or Fender, but it really annoys me playing it unplugged. Amped up, you can't actually hear the buzz, thank god.

Action's good, it doesn't take a clamp to get the strings down to the fret. In fact, tha action was a little loose, which is fine for me as I like to feel the strings 'bounce' a little bit, but may not be so good for other users who like tight actions.

Pickups, like I said, were changed almost straight away for the EMG's, but the stock ones were set fine.

Got to say, this is probably one of the nest budget basses I've seen for a long time in terms of build. Very good quality. The frets were cut down and flush-fitted with the neck perfectly, appart from on on the 20th fret, but at the end of the day, I don't journey that far up the 'board, so that doesn't bother me.

I'm not a big fan of bolt-on necks, as they tend to loose a little sustain, plus a lot mroe can go wrong with them than set-necks, but at this price, the bolt-on neck is really good.

I have actually played this guitar at a couple of gigs, and with the EMG's, it performs outstandingly. I have no worries about dropping it or breaking it, after all, it only cost me about #65, the pick-ups cost more than the guitar itself. If it ever does break, I'll just rip the pick-ups out and pop them in another one of my basses.

I always keep my warwick rockbass nearby, because I'm not very trustworthy with cheaper branded guitars. Why don't I use the rockbass? 'cuz the wesley's got more stage appeal, and it does look sexy. I mean, how many bands do you see that have a bassist with a flying v?

Never had to use them, I've heard mixed things about them, but more good things than bad things.

I've not been playing long, about 3 years, but I have tried a lot of basses to find 'the one'. Most of them turned out to be good, but too expensive, or crap and cheap. It;s a very fine line to tread with copies and budget models, especially if you have little or no experience with the company. I own three other basses, the rockbass, which is a corvette 4 string, an Epiphone EBO for punk duties, and an epi explorer bass, for the metal/show-off look. I rarely use the EBO on stage, but the explorer gets a look in more than the rockbass.

The wesley was bought more on an impulse, I saw the RRP, then found it going far cheaper on E-bay, so I just thought 'what the hell, go for it'.

It was obviously not going to be as good as the other basses, especially my explorer (the thing's my baby!) but it stood up surprisingly well, especially with the EMG's put in (I'm an EMG whore, got them in the explorer and the rockbass - I just love their growling low ends, perfect for metal). Straight out of the box, it needed some fine tuning - action adjusting, checking everything over, etc - but plugged right in, and after twiddling the knobs for a bit, I found a good setting, made better by the EMG's.

If you want a bass that you can tinker with, and one that you fell like upgrading, I'd say this is a very good toy to play with. It was cheap, it's fun to use, it gives me more of a presence on stage than using the rockbass (although not as much as the explorer!) and you can't really go catastrophically wrong.

The only other thing I'd say is, judging by what other people have said about wesely, it's kind of a game or russian roulette, every now and then they churn out absolute blinders, and other times you could get the most horrifically built peice of wood that would have been better off as a tree. It's kind of a case of cross your fingers and hope you get lucky - which doesn;t install the hugest confidence in me, and means that I'd be cautious about buying another bass from wesely again. I'd hate to buy another bass from them and find out it's a lump of turd.

Overall, if you;re looking for a bit of a bargain or a toy to play around with, get it. Even if you want to do the same as me and upgrade some of the components, it may just be worth it.