Westone Spectrum on YT…

… Googling the above guitar produced a snippet of a video from the Spectre Music Group, which is fronted by a very loud Canadian, where he referred to it as “a sh1tty old Westone”!

I leave it to y’all to crucify the bloke…

I can’t find the link now, but it was some sort of pickup comparison video, posted quite recently…

edit: found it… it’s at about 0:40…

https://youtu.be/CdeqqfTW3_Q?si=4kgyd9VC9sa4T7B2

Bigger fool him! Guitar and bass snobs aren't worth the time - from my experience they usually can't tell one guitar from another, apart from some obvious details that any guitarist/bassist would probably be able to tell too. And the fact that he has a nice red Spectrum and thinks it's 'sh*tty' proves the point that he's talking out of his rear end

There's a Scottish bloke called Malc who has played/reviewed a bunch of different Westones and has a much more reliable and balanced take on Westones generally. He just takes them as they are and assesses them from that point of view - he also plays them so you can hear what they sound like. For example, this video. You can find all of his Westone-related videos here.

What an absolute loud mouth A-hole!

"A 1986 piece of poop Westone"?! Hardly an unbiased opinion.

I can't comment on the single coil pups but the '86 Spectrum builds got saddled with the cheaper UBC humbuckers so that certainly would sound wimpy compared with a vintage Strat output.

But even if you don't like the guitar that remark is truly off base. There's no denying that the Spectrum build quality is superior.

From experience, I can safely say that Fenders, Les Pauls, etc can be a little over-rated. I think people just buy into the mystique to the exclusion of all else. Even then, it's only certain guitars/basses from those factories that people tend to think they should gravitate towards, rather than some of the others within the various lines. They do make good stuff, but you have to go around the houses a bit sometimes to find a good one. That said, Japanese Fender output is waaaaaay better than US output, often as not. It's like a whole other planet

Jerry_B wrote:Bigger fool him! Guitar and bass snobs aren't worth the time

Absolutely right. What's disturbing is that he has so many subscribers.

Thanks for the link to Madmalko, that's a much better balanced look at gear, especially our beloved Westies! What a volume of videos too!

Jerry_B wrote:... They do make good stuff, but you have to go around the houses a bit sometimes to find a good one. That said, Japanese Fender output is waaaaaay better than US output, often as not. It's like a whole other planet

True.
Fender and Gibson are where it all started for electric guitars so you have to respect that, they're the baseline for everyone else.

But that doesn't do much to justify the expensive price tags on these buggers. Others have taken their basic designs and improved them considerably while in many cases the big boys have not made many significant changes in decades.

And the quality is often dubious for that price too. When I worked at the guitar shop we too often saw sloppy workmanship on both top end Gibson and Fender models. By contrast, the Japanese and Korean made Gretsch's and PRS models arrived in flawless condition.

When Epiphone and Squier can turn out amazingly competitive versions of their big label brothers for far, far less money, you really have to question the F and G pricing.

In order to get a good-ish Fender fretless Pbass I had to make one out of... bits of other Fender Pbasses. The neck is the best quality, but the stock Fender tuners are a bit heavy. The body finish is not great (it's from an American 2009 Pbass). Squier make some quality stuff. Epiphone SGs in different flavours are generally good - my friend has an 80s-era Epiphone Les Paul which is just awesome.

The general problem is that things are a bit faddish. People won't look at anything that isn't Fender or Gibson, and even then they only ever look at bits of what they do. Faddishness also extends to other manufacturers too - for example, I bought a Peavey T-40 in 2010 and the bloke I got it from was almost giving it away. No-one else was interested in it. But nowadays they change hands for $900+, even for one that's a bit cruddy/'modified'. That's not to say that the T-40 isn't a good bass - it's bloody amazing - but back in 2010 people just looked down their nose at them

That guy Malc is good at assessing Westies - he's not a fan boy at all but appreciates them for what they are, and is honest what he likes and dislikes.

I thought the throwaway remark by Fricker was a little off the mark for him, too - I’ve watched a little of his show and, by and large, he is NOT a gear snob, and has forthright views on most things music, and my understanding is that he a talented and hard-working engineer and producer…

I have one American Fender here that may actually have some Fender DNA left in it; it’s been heavily modified over the years… I use a Vantage X-33 for strat type tones these days.

I love my Spectrums, I really do, but only 2 are out getting regular play; the ST Telecaster and the GTBass; the LX, the GT, the SX and the MX are currently languishing in their cases, which on some levels absolutely horrifies me!
One rack has the ST, the X-33, my Avenger with lipsticks, the GTBass and an Avenger AV 310 and they get used a bit, but the floor rack has an APII PE Supra and a PE150, as well as a Vantage VA900, an Avenger X-99 and an Vantage VS696-12, so it’s my ‘expensive’ rack, and yes; these guitars get played more than anything else simply because their playability is so much easier than anything else, especially for lead guitar lines and solos…
The VA900 and the Supra are the equal of any mass production guitar ever made, without any question and into that mix must go Westone Prestige and X350/390 Panteras, which are, I’m reliably informed, absolute beasts of guitars and sublime examples of the luthiers art.

For a YT influencer to so casually dismiss Westone guitars shows a lack of knowledge on his part; and ignorance in promulgating that lack of knowledge.

It's Glenn. He's a massive asshole who has mastered the art of suckering people into watching his videos by just being extremely negative. Listen to his music, recordings, ideas, it becomes pretty apparent he doesn't know much about anything. Just another useless angry man with zero constructive to add.

Madmalko was the guy who sold me on Westone. Like another person said, he takes everything at face value, doesn't worry about the name up top or the numbers on the tag and just gets on with it.

I can understand someone disliking the UBC pickups, but to poopoo a whole brand on one instrument is a peak Glenn Fricker dick move.