Wesley Review: Tartarus V

History: I have been playing lead guitar for about 15 yearsand I am completely self taught. I have been in a number of local bands, and am currently in a large local band called Falx. We mainly play metal but we like to experiment. We are rising stars. I have had many guitars, from Stratocasters to Explorers, but I am very much into my radical shaped guitars. I currently only have one guitar but I plan on buying the entire Vintage Metal Axxe series of guitars.

Purchase: I won this guitar off ebay for £75.00, they sell brand new for £109.00. The guitar came with insured delivery as standard, boxed and poly-packed for protection, the guitar came readily strung and set up so I could just plug in and play.

What I Like About This Wesley Tartarus V: First of all, it's a V. Not only are V's my favourite, but it looks really menacing. This particular guitar has an interesting neck and body combination. It sems that the neck was "borrowed" from a gibson explorer. This combination makes it look unique as most V's have either the Gibson Flying V neck or the Typical sharkfin neck. Then there is the sound, it sounds like something you'd expect from a metallica gig. Amazing. It uses a HB/HB setup and the pickups are Wilkinson Alnico's which is always good.

What I Do NOT Like About The Wesley Tartarus V: It's incredibly heavy, and can be really uncomfortable at times. Also it comes with some horrible plastic Tone/Vol knobs which I changed straight away to metal ones. I had two problems with my particular guitar, whether it was a fault of the guitar or myself is another matter. I was playing one day and the jack socket "came out" so I had to put that back in, also the string nut fell off so I had to glue that back on, but there have been no problems since.

Wesley Tartarus V Quality Rating: It's a simple guitar made to look awesome. The guitar has some awesome beefy strap buttons to keep it up. Also it has a tune-o-matic bridge with a stoptail peice for ease of stringing. A fast neck with 22 frets and the fret wires are small so there is no fret buzz. Nice thick coat of paint on there also. I have smashed this guitar into many things (and people), I even dropped it down some concrete stairs and gigged it relentlessly, and there isn't a scratch on it. The finish is indestructible. The guitar only comes in black, but hey there is no other colour... is there? ;)

Review Summary: Bottom line is, if you wanna be the new Randy Rhoads but you're strapped for cash, then this is the axe for you. Just watch out for that jack socket!!! ;)

Rating of this Wesley product: 4

This Wesley Tartarus V Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Marty Evans

Review Date: 2008-01-17