Wesley STC 33 California Style Strat

Made in 2004 in Korea. 21 frets rosewood fretboard, agathis hardwood body, 1 volume 2 tone pots, S/S/S pickup configuration, transparent tobacco/red hue sunburst, strat style body, string through tremelo, thin wide maple neck, cheap die-cast non-locking tuners, free cheap and useless cable and tremelo arm.

I play everything from folky stuff through to Chili peppers, all the way from Rage Against The Machine, Muse and Weezer to Tool, Iron Maiden and Children of Bodom. I needed a versatile guitar as a backup to my Fender American Standard Stratocaster.

I'm playing it through a Digitech Whammy->Line 6 DL4 Delay->Zvex Fuzz Factory->Marshall DSL401 tube amp with a Celestion Vintage 30.

The guitar sounds pretty nice acoustically, bags of sustain and volume, but it's got a slightly tinny high end. Through an amp it is let down my the stock pickups - everything sounds mushy and lacking definition - the highs are a bit harsh. I'm planning on adding some 90s Japanese Squier pickups and a Seymour Duncan Alnico II in the bridge to see if I can augment that.

The sound is fairly thick when overdriven but it has a harsh edge which is probably again down to those pickups. All three pickups are usable when overdriven but the middle pickup suffers from really bad microphonic feedback which is either poor shielding of the body cavity or a poorly waxed pickup. Most of the pickups do sound similar though so don't be expecting the variety of a Strat with it.

On clean the bridge pickup is the only really usable pickup, coming quite close to a twangy strat sound but missing that rich buttery bottom end.

I'm giving it a 6/10 stock, but I reckon it could potentially be an 8 with better pickups.

The guitar was set up with a nice low action, but the pickups were a bit too high, resulting in clicking from the strings hitting the pole pieces when palm muting. The intonation was also slightly off on a couple of strings.

The general finish of the guitar wasn't that good. The one ply scratchplate was very roughly cut and the edges were left unfinished and surrounded by burrs. The pickup covers look cheap and nasty, probably worse than a Squier. The pots and 5-way selector switch are also cheap looking, which detracts from what is a nice playing guitar. The nut looks like it was stuck in by a monkey, and there is some glue on the first fret and behind the nut. The nut also has a rough edge which could have been rounded off in about 30 seconds if the guitar had been properly checked and playtested. The bridge saddles are also rather sharp when you're resting your right hand on the bridge to palm mute. Again some time sanding the offending height adjustment screw would have been well spent.

The finish on the body of the guitar is quite nice, but the 'grain' showing through the sunburst finish is in fact a paint effect - something I found disappointing as it was the looks of this guitar that made me want to buy it. The grain looks nice but up close it's easy to tell it isn't real under close inspection. From off stage though it would probably be unnoticeable.

The guitar came with two string trees, one on the D and G strings which I removed straight away.

This guitar should withstand live playing, although I'm not sure how hardwearing the electrics, bridge and machineheads will be. The finish looks fairly hardy but it may chip and if the guitar needed to be refinished you'd lose the 'grain' effect.

The stock strap buttons seemed solid enough, but I have replaced them with Schaller strap locks.

This guitar should be a reliable backup guitar with some minimal work (change the pickups and replace the bridge saddles with Graphtech parts).

I wouldn't gig with it alone, just because I don't feel I could full trust it with the stock pickups, with good pickups installed I would play a gig with it with no backup, but feel slightly nervous doing so.

The company were extremely friendly and happy to set the guitar up with a low action and 10 gauge strings at my request. Payment went through quickly and the guitar was well packaged.

Don't bother with the gig bag for #8 extra though as it's a thin flimsy piece of plastic that would be useless for gigging.

I've been playing for just under four years now and needed a backup guitar to keep in alternate tunings and as a stopgap in case of string breakage etc. The only thing I wish I'd asked before buying the guitar is whether the grain finish was real or not, but strangely that never crossed my mind. If it was stolen, I'd probably replace it with the same model as it's a steal at this price - falling somewhere between the quality of a Squier Strat and a Mexican Strat - it should probably be at Mexican quality or better by the time I'm finished modifying it.

The best thing about this guitar is definately the neck. It's lovely and wide, feeling more like a Telecaster than a Strat with a matte finish on the back - similar to an Ibanez neck actually. Very fast and forgiving, a joy to play even at this price range. This gives the guitar infinite playability and makes it a worthy addition to my setup. I hate the pickups and the cheap scratchplate and wish they'd included a good quality 3-ply scratchplate. Also the hole allignment is different from that of Fenders so getting a replacement may be tricky without drilling more holes.

Basically I think the guitar is a good deal at this price, and compares with Squier Strats when bought stock. However I think it has the potential to be a very nice playing guitar which is why I'm giving it an overall 7/10 rating. It's a lot cheaper than a Squier and the neck is infinitely more playable. Definitely check it out if you're looking for a nice quality cheap backup guitar. However, don't believe the other Wesley guitar comments on Harmony Central which give them complete rave reviews. They are gems at this price, but still leave plenty of room for improvement.