Westone Cutlass

Designed by the late great Sid Poole and boy it shows! A fantastic and overlooked bargain that's stylsih, ergonomic and brillaintly made by the Status company. Made in the UK, circa 1998 and defintely not to be confused with the earlier 80s Westones. Body is poplar - this is the standard model so it has a solid black finish, quite thick but well done. Seems to be a two piece body. Single tone and volume controls (far too stiff for live work) and a three way switch control bridge humbucker and neck single coil. The simple trem has pressed steel saddles and operates on two pivot posts. Maple neck is good quality (no scarf joint), satin finished with very thick rosewood fingerboard, sweet little side markers, lo-friction nut which has slightly sharp corners, Gotoh-clone machines that do the job. BIG strap buttons for extra safety. Medium oval frets could be a bit higher but are a good all-round average choice. The body is a nice design double cutaway that gives excellent balance and top fret access - my only criticism is that the lower boy is "offset" making the guitar hard to stand against a wall of amp (okay buy a guitar stand). The rating is dropped to 8 because the jack socket is on the plate, a feature I dislike, otherwise this guitar is excellently designed and is pleasingly simple to use. Less is more.

A good, workable tone, far far better than most Pacific Rim instruments and no unwanted feedback. Quite a dark and middly sound from both pickups, even with new strings. Tone control works reasonably well. Would benefit considerably from an electronics upgrade and a recut nut. Even so, the thick finish is probably muffling the body's resonance a little bit, as it's possible to feel the neck and body vibrating in sympathy when used acoustically. I play all sorts of stuff but prefer heavy or old-type rock, a bit of countryish rubbish and funky styles. Dropping a pair of Duncans into this gave more snappy top end but not as much as I'd expected....I think the guitar needs to be played in to get the best from it!

This instrument is very well made and came with a great setup. Everything was adjusted properly for maximum playing comfort and tonality. Can't fault it, far better "out of the box" than any recent Fender or Gibson I've seen. The vol and tone controls are a bit stiff, they may loosen up with use and let's face it they're better being stiff than sloppy, if not then they're easily replaced.

I've only had this a little while so can't judge. Long experience of guitars makes me think it will be reliable, though. It has the feel of quality and everything is impeccably put together.

I've not tried to contact the maker. The distributor, FCN, are always very helpful. These guitars were a limited edition as far as I know.

I've been playing about 30 years and have had hundreds of guitars from Auditions to PRS. I currently own about 30 instruments. I got this because I'd seen a few in guitar shops and was impressed by the quality, it will stand up to a US Fender any day. I also figured that anything Sid Poole had taken a hand in must be good. I have to say the quality of the instrument put out by Status (the renowned bass manufacturers) for the price is most impressive. I believe these originally retailed at #500 but were sold off cheaply after disappointing sales....obviously the use of the Westone brand name was a major blunder as it conjured memories of those worthy but cheap instruments so many of us bought in the 80s. I'll look for more of these, particularly the higher-end models to compare them. Meanwhile, this will make an excellent gig guitar, being comfortable and very responsive to picking style.

I'd change the jack-socket location and the name on the headstock. Otherwise, this is a fine buy and I suspect may become a collector's piece when the Sid Poole connection is better understood.

This is a mid-90's British made Westone. I think the company went out of business in the 80's and production switched from Japan to the UK.
The pickups are from the Japanese company Gotoh in a S/H configuration with controls covering master volume and tone, plus a three-way selector,
I don't use the vibrato, but it seems pretty flat, ie it doesn't seem like you would be able to get much out of it.
The fretboard is rosewood with slim gauge frets spread over a medium scale length, it's kinda inbetween a fender and gibson design.
The headstock is tiny, cute and really well designed with Gotoh-made tunners.
The neck is satin finished and is quite wide and feels comfortable all the way up. May not be ideal for speed demons though.
Came with a "back pack" gig bag very handly if you usually need to bring a couple of guitars with you.

Unpluged it has a resonant mid-toppy ring and natural sustain. Plugged and the single coil at the neck as a dark acousticy sound and plenty of treble. The humbucker has a punky bottom end, but still plenty of clarity up top and a mid-range that's muscular not muddy.
It suits my style well (which ranges from moody quiet yo la tengo/mercury rev type stuff to straight down the middle husker du style punk rock/pop)
I can get a great crunch when i select the humbucker, drop to a D tunning and play through a boss overdrive pedal and into a 100w Lanely with a ton a gain.
My only complaints would be that I get a bit too much fret buzzing when i reach passed the 12th fret (but hey it adds character) and both pots act too suddenly, everything happens in the first quarter, so you don't get much control if you need a change mid song.

Everything works great but i had to refit the nut, it still slides out of place occasionally.
The action is quite high, but thats what I prefer.

Stays in tune well expect the for some reason the G string keeps going out of tune whenever i play God Save the Queen ??? i've know idea why???. All in all it's pretty solid. The strap buttons are a touch loose though.

Haven't dealt with the company yet.

This is a extremely cool gutiar, which is more of tool rather than an instrument. It looks nice, different but still traditional, and sounds great. It's small, pretty light but very sturdy.
I bought it about a year and a half ago. I was going into the music store to get an old fender jap strat fixed and ended up leaving with a shiny new Westone Cutlass. I paid #200 plus my old broken guitar. I think the retail price at the time was around #499 but it had been reduced to #300 because it wasn't selling. An overlooked contempary British classic.