theplumber Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Just bought a Westfield p bass from e bay...£20 plus £20 postage...bad spray can paint job but plays great...what a bargain!...Despite 3 or 4 other decent guitars...I am now stripping the paint off this....maybe stain it natural as the body is 1 piece...or paint it white with new scratch plate and 60's type vibe....Jen from the band horse has one which looks and sounds great....and she got it for pea nuts...Anyone else got one of these cheap great guitars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I'm pimping a cheapy Squier Affinity at the moment and having fun. Just can't decide whether to go for some relicing, stripping back to natural or just leave it alone and give it a polish up. Enjoy your project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dom in Dorset Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I've treid one in a shop , great value bass. I was particularly impressed with the tone , nice clear P bass sound. They also had a Squire (I think affinity , it had an extra Jazz pick up in the bridge position) , wich just sounded muddy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the namecheck :-) The Yellow Bass indeed! With added Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder pickup goodness. I've a couple of clips of it online. Go into "Live at the Queens Hall 2009" clip in the music player, URL below, and it's between 1:20 and 5:00. It still amazes me that a bass so cheap can sound so good. If only they were available back in the day when I started :-) [url="http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com/music.shtml"]http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com/music.shtml[/url] Looking forward to seeing how the customisation on yours turns out. I'll try to get some photos of the yellow bass for this thread. Jennifer Edited March 25, 2011 by endorka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slipperydick Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 [quote name='theplumber' post='1174118' date='Mar 24 2011, 12:21 AM']Just bought a Westfield p bass from e bay...£20 plus £20 postage...bad spray can paint job but plays great...what a bargain!...Despite 3 or 4 other decent guitars...I am now stripping the paint off this....maybe stain it natural as the body is 1 piece...or paint it white with new scratch plate and 60's type vibe....Jen from the band horse has one which looks and sounds great....and she got it for pea nuts...Anyone else got one of these cheap great guitars?[/quote] I bought cheap one off ebay about 3 years ago for bits. My 13 year old daughter saw it and asked for it. so I set it up a bit and gave it to her, started her off with Bass, which she had shown no interest in before, and she's still playing. Still got it. Its pretty good really if a bit on the light side, plays well and even the pup aint bad. Well impressed for the price to be honest. On the strength of it, I bought a cheapo Westfield les paul copy just to mess with, it was bloody awfull ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 [quote name='Slipperydick' post='1175989' date='Mar 25 2011, 02:53 PM']I bought cheap one off ebay about 3 years ago for bits. ... Its pretty good really if a bit on the light side,[/quote] Mine is pretty light too, I see this as an advantage! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I bought a Westfield P for about £50 a while ago, came with a decent gigbag, tuner, quality stand, strap and lead too! Was impressed for the price, i had originally intended to use it for parts but i played it for a bit and sold it on. The two tone sunburst was particularly well done, nothing really stood out but then again there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Just a good sturdy bass that i wouldn't hesitate to gig with if i needed to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplumber Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 [quote name='endorka' post='1175946' date='Mar 25 2011, 02:16 PM']Thanks for the namecheck :-) The Yellow Bass indeed! With added Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder pickup goodness. I've a couple of clips of it online. Go into "Live at the Queens Hall 2009" clip in the music player, URL below, and it's between 1:20 and 5:00. It still amazes me that a bass so cheap can sound so good. If only they were available back in the day when I started :-) [url="http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com/music.shtml"]http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com/music.shtml[/url] Looking forward to seeing how the customisation on yours turns out. I'll try to get some photos of the yellow bass for this thread. Jennifer[/quote] Yeh...see what you have started!.....oh,I don't suppose you will be using it tomorrow night at the City Halls,I'm looking forward to the gig!......The bass was bought from e bay and had been sprayed red using a car paint.....I have been scraping it off,and its now down to the next stage of sanding! Last time I did a renovation on a p bass it was a 2nd hand Fender bought from McCormacks music in Glasgow,way back in 1976!....Needless to say I totally devalued an early 70's p bass by stripping the sunburst finish off.....then stripping the frets out!....well,I was only a teenager then! So with the £20 Westfield,which seems to have a lovely finish,I will be staining it clear,adding new pickups and scratchplate.......and stinking the house out with nitromors and varnish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Nitromors! Evil stuff that! That's great that you are getting along to the concert tomorrow night. It's double bass all the way through for me this time though, no bass guitar, yellow or otherwise! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I have one of these at home. They are pretty cool and well made enough to act as a basis for modifications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 [quote name='theplumber' post='1174118' date='Mar 24 2011, 12:21 AM']Just bought a Westfield p bass from e bay...£20 plus £20 postage...bad spray can paint job but plays great...what a bargain!...Despite 3 or 4 other decent guitars...I am now stripping the paint off this....maybe stain it natural as the body is 1 piece...or paint it white with new scratch plate and 60's type vibe....Jen from the band horse has one which looks and sounds great....and she got it for pea nuts...Anyone else got one of these cheap great guitars?[/quote] I have a Jazz type Westfield: £40 + £10 delivery. It amazed me. Eventually I put a J-Retro01 preamp because I just love having these options... but the bas was great stock. In fact, I kept th pickups as I think sound great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Great colour! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentbob Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Picked up one of these bad boys today in my local crack converters. They were asking £80 but i got them down to £60, with the unexpected bonus of a Ritter hardcase. Seems to be in good nick and plays really well, but i'm still going to mod the hell out of it. As it's already got the black on black colour scheme, i'm going to carry the stealth theme on a bit further with all black Gotoh hardware, a Wizard Stealth pick-up, and the usual CTS/Sprague/Switchcraft electrical upgrades. Theplumber, how are you getting on with your project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplumber Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 (edited) [quote name='silentbob' post='1194204' date='Apr 10 2011, 12:38 AM']Picked up one of these bad boys today in my local crack converters. They were asking £80 but i got them down to £60, with the unexpected bonus of a Ritter hardcase. Seems to be in good nick and plays really well, but i'm still going to mod the hell out of it. As it's already got the black on black colour scheme, i'm going to carry the stealth theme on a bit further with all black Gotoh hardware, a Wizard Stealth pick-up, and the usual CTS/Sprague/Switchcraft electrical upgrades. Theplumber, how are you getting on with your project?[/quote] Had the bass up with me to a gig in King Haaken Bar in Skye last night. It played and sounded really great....smashing bottom end!(ooh err!) I have refinished the body to a natural,road worn type appearance,fitted new vintage type bridge,sprague orange drop cap,thumbrest and an old set of tuners from a jap crap bass I had lying around.....pictures to follow. As I only paid £20 for it I am holding off buying some better pickups for it...as I said before,plenty of bass,but it lacks a decent middle/grungy bass sound which was needed at the start of Be My Girl and Chelsea Dagger.....lucky for me I had 2 more guitars with me! Edited April 10, 2011 by theplumber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBollocks Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 (edited) I saw a Westfield 'P' copy at a car boot sale with a price tag of £40. I offered £30 as I was after a Precision-style body for a project, and we settled on £35. The bass was covered in dust and had corroded strings but I figured it was worth it for the wood. When I got home I had a proper play on it for a couple of hours and decided that it was too good to tear apart. It was finished in translucent blue which, although a nice colour, revealed the rather unappealing grain of the wood. I decided to refinish the body in a solid colour. A trip to Halfords secured some white primer, Ford 'Transit Van' white and some clear lacquer. After sanding all the old finish down to the bare wood and cleaning up, I sprayed two coats of primer, half-a-dozen coats of the 'Diamond White' and four coats of the lacquer. Allowing two weeks for the lacquer to harden a bit, I rubbed down with wet 1500 grit paper, then 3000 grit 3M Trizact polishing pad before rubbing out with 3M Fastcut and Machine Polish. Another couple of weeks for the lacquer to harden further before reassembly (you need a certain degree of patience to refinish a guitar!). In the meantime I buffed up the satin-finished neck with the Trizact and some T-Cut to a high gloss and treated the rosewood fretboard to a liberal coating of lemon oil. The frets were mirror-polished using the trusty Trizact. I wanted to upgrade the hardware but, in keeping with a budget instrument, decided to follow an economical route so fitted a Wilkinson bridge and pickup. Nothing wrong with the scratchplate, and the machineheads seem to work just fine and stay in tune so I left them alone, too. CTS 250k pots, Switchcraft jack socket, Sprag[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]u[/font][/size]e [size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]0.047 uF capacitor, vintage-style cloth covered wiring and copper shielding tape finished off the electrical side and, well, that's it, really. For less than £150 I have a bass which looks, feels and sounds great, and compares favourably with the VM and CV Squiers (which are excellent for the money), plus I have the satisfaction of having rebuilt and refinished it myself.[/font][/size] Edited November 18, 2012 by BassBollocks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 (edited) Picked up a pink Westfield P from eBay a few weeks ago. Not a good bass; badly fretted. YMMV, naturally. Edited November 19, 2012 by alyctes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iconic Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 I have a b1000, their p bass clone and i love it, great neck plays very well indeed after a good set-up.....70 something quid new in 3ts. Mines light too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpc Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I have a candy apple red B1000 lefty. Great player and great sound. Mine is wearing tapewounds right now. Has has flats on it before. Am I right the company doesn't exist any more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 On 24/03/2011 at 00:21, theplumber said: Just bought a Westfield p bass from e bay...£20 plus £20 postage...bad spray can paint job but plays great...what a bargain!...Despite 3 or 4 other decent guitars...I am now stripping the paint off this....maybe stain it natural as the body is 1 piece...or paint it white with new scratch plate and 60's type vibe....Jen from the band horse has one which looks and sounds great....and she got it for pea nuts...Anyone else got one of these cheap great guitars? I bought a Westfield Jazz for £40 a few years ago... and it is a very nice bass that sounds just right and plays very nicely. It was not the prettiest, with a translucent green finish that allowed one to see badly matched (esthetically) bits of wood, but I played a few gigs with it and I had no complaints about it. I had a J-Retro in it for a while, which cost a lot more than the bass but turned it into a real beast. It's passive now again. I took it back home to my parents so that I have a bass if I want to play. My brother plays guitar and I sometimes join in with his band, so it's good to have a decent bass around. I tried a Precision once and it was similarly pleasant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigGuyAtTheBack Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 Just bought this bad boy off evilbay for £32. Great neck, lovely translucent blue finish. Ok pickups. Unfortunately mine had a misaligned bridge which was easily rectified. Changed the pickups for Wilkinson Alnicos and a set of flatwounds. Decent giggable bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 (edited) Nowadays I have one which was modded with an extra P pup at the bridge before I got it (a Wilkinson, IIRC). Gigged it a few times. I want to put a fretless neck on it, which is on my vast list of Stuff I Will Never Get Round To. Edited January 9, 2020 by alyctes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horizontalste Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 £40 off eBay about ten years ago, it now resides at my brother's house. Decent bases! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 19 hours ago, Horizontalste said: £40 off eBay about ten years ago, it now resides at my brother's house. Decent bases! That's freaky!!! I have a translucent green one. I bought it on eBay. For... £40. When? In 2010, so nearly 10 years ago. Where is it? With my brother!!! 😲 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 9 minutes ago, mcnach said: That's freaky!!! I have a translucent green one. I bought it on eBay. For... £40. When? In 2010, so nearly 10 years ago. Where is it? With my brother!!! 😲 I'm not sure this is a viable business model, TBH. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baxlin Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 I’ve previously bought two Westfield basses, both from EBay, both for less than £30, both excellent buys. The first was a 5 string, to see how I got on with the extra string, I didn’t so I ebayed it and made a profit. The second I defretted, again to see if I liked it. I did, very much, but had no opportunity to use it apart from at home, so that went too. TBH, I regret selling that one, even though I more than doubled my money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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