Westfield SE888 Reviews 
5 / 5 based on 1 reviewsI bought this guitar from my local guitar store, JG Windows located in Newcastle, England. I purchased it about four months ago and paid 170 pounds, but that was though a shop sale, I found that the avrage price is around 225 pounds. This is the second electric guitar that i have purchased since i first took up the instrament almost 2 years ago. I bought it because I wanted to move on from my old "begginer-package" guitar and to get myself a "real" beuty.
(Not that i'll compleatly neglect my old "Rocket Delux", I just haven't played for about four months)
When i set about buying my second guitar, i hunted out practicaly every electric guitar (not made by Daisy-Rock) that i could get my hands on in almost all my local guitar shops (my spending amount was limited to 400 pounds). I could sit in the shops playing all there axes for hours (including the ones which i knew i couldn't afford like Gibson Les Pauls) until eventualy i found it, the "Westfield SE888" and its good looks made me play it. I knew straight away when i fell in love with it that I just had to have it! When i asked the price, i was told it was in the sale for 170 pounds and i was suprised as i thought it would be nearer a 500 pound range. Anyway the guitars sound is what does it for me (aswell as looks), the tone is what you would hope to find on a guitar worth at least 500-1000 pounds, as it is equiped with 2 humbucker pickups. The neck humbucker gives off a nice chuncky and smooth sound were as the bridge side humbucker gives a more singlcoil type tone, but with more of a punch to it. Effects units go well with the SE888, i have a small effects pedal but combined with my guitar it can produce monster clear sounds though watever effect you choose. And with a good amp (I use a marshall 15watt) this guitar can produce not just quality sounds, but also some serious fun, and thats what playing guitar is all about.
The only minor problem that i can really think of is the dreaded fretbuzz that i seem to be having at times. This is only really noticable if you play the guitar without the amp on or when the volume of the amp is turned down low, even then you only sometimes get it on certian fret spaces revolving mostly around the 6th and 5th strings, probably due to low action. It doesn't really bother me that much, but if you thought it was a big problem and you don't know how to raise or lower the action then you can easily ask someone at a local guitar shop or just someone who knows about these things.
When i was playing my first "begginers" guitar (not the SE888), I had to take it back to the shop were i bought it from and complain about things that went wrong with it (like the volume and tone pots falling off in the first week of purchase) and that was quite annoying. But this guitar (the SE888) is compleatly different as not even a pot has come loose yet. Everything seems to be nice, solid and in place. The looks of the axe would win it a fashion or beuity award hands down! With a metallic blue quilt top and a wavey-shadowy pattern, it's almost impossible to say that it looks anywere near ugly (It also comes in an amber colour aswell). It has a mapel neck (fretboard) with 22 frets. There are 3 tuning heads on either side of the headstock. It's almost like a part "Les Paul" part "PRS Santana" instead of the full santana clone in which it is based. It's also a nice "light-weight" guitar. This is probably based upons it's structure, but if you play standing up (i.e. in gigs) then you will be able to withstand it's weight more than most electric guitars, and sore shoulders or bad backs may occour alot less. If you do decide to play it at gigs then by all means do so, after all with the well put together build and quality, along with it's outstanding sound (even next to a Les Paul) you shouldn't even need to bring a backup guitar (if you choose to play with the SE888 that is).
I know that the golden rule is "buy the most expensive guitar you can, the more expensive the better" and that may well be true in most cases, but in this case the rules may not apply as much. This is a great guitar and should very well be somewere in the top 5 guitars under 500 pounds or dollars. I wouldn't call it a begginers guitar, but then again you probably won't see guitar gods like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, (Jimmi Hendrix if he was still with us) and many more axe weilders, holding this guitar. Mainly because the name "Westfield" doesn't show up to much and most of the pro's like to be sure that the guitar there going to use to play there stuff on is of good quality, therefore people like to stick with famous titles such as "Gibson", "Fender" ..... exe. just to be on the safe side. Then people with good money (avrage guitarists) like to buy the axes that there heros use, as they know that there worth the money (great because i would love to buy a Les Paul one day) but people should start looking more towards the smaller companies like "Westfield" and they may find that if they do there homework, they could find themselves a rare bargin just like the "Westfield SE888".
Suldo rated this unit
on
2003-12-17.
