Mr 9finger
Digitally Challenged
Well I finally broke down and bought one cheap guitars from Rondo Music. I've have a few of the Agiles come through from friends that needed a little fine tuning, but never had any of the SX, etc... get brought over. So I decided on the SX LP jr. type guitar. The specs on this booger are. 2pc Mahogany body, probably African. Very nice grain. Mahogany neck, bound rosewood board, 22 frets, "24 3/4" scale. Tune O / Stop tail setup w/ your basic LP style control layout w/ a P90 in the bridge and neck. Price, $157 shipped to my door in 3 days!
Right out of the box. Guitar was in tune. The action was set almost to my liking. Was not in need of a truss rod adjustment. The intonation is a little off. No big. I'll be doing a complete setup anyway since I'll be switching over to some heavier strings. 9's just don't work on a short scale guitar for me. RUBBER BANDS!
The finish. The finish was flawless. I can't find 1 run, hazy spot, discoloration. Nothing! Which I promptly(by accident) scratched the back by leaning the back of the guitar against the zipper of jacket. DOH! Again, no big, nothing a little buffing compound won't take out. The only thing I wasn't overly thrilled about was the neck binding. It's actually done very nicely for a cheap guitar, but they used what appears to be some cheap plastic. I'm kind of curious to see how durable it is. There was a little glue on the fretboard from where they glued the frets in. Yes, i said the frets are glued in. Not something you usually see on something in this price range. That's not really a bid deal either. Some steel wool and it'll come right off.
Electronics and Hardware. This is where my expectations weren't very high and I was correct for the most part. You know IT IS a $150 guitar. They had to cut some corners somewhere. The tuners are garbage. I've stretched the crap out of the strings and they still won't hold tune. I've checked the nut and it seems to be cut pretty well so I don't think that is the issue there. The bridge rattles a bit. Not enough to cause odd harmonics when plugged in, but enough to make me not want to play it unplugged. Both the bridge and the tuners are an EZ and if I watch Ebay close, cheaply fixed.
Electronics wise. I'm really digging the P90's. It's my first experience w/ them and they def. have a very cool vibe of their own. They're both ceramic. I haven't put a meter on them to see what they're running at. The neck is very smooth, clear, and fat. The bridge will prolly get tossed eventually. It's very raw, but also kind of harsh under some gain. The pots and switch are your run of the mill chinese garbage. 4 mini pots and a box style 3 way toggle. I'll probably swap these out eventually as well. New pots and caps may be just what I need to tame the bridge pickup a little bit.
All in all, for no more than I paid, it's a solid piece. Sounds and plays well. Will sound and play better w/ some tweaking. It's built really well and I really have no complaints what so ever about this guitar.
Here's a couple pix. I'll take some more and hopefully better ones once my camera recharges!
Right out of the box. Guitar was in tune. The action was set almost to my liking. Was not in need of a truss rod adjustment. The intonation is a little off. No big. I'll be doing a complete setup anyway since I'll be switching over to some heavier strings. 9's just don't work on a short scale guitar for me. RUBBER BANDS!
The finish. The finish was flawless. I can't find 1 run, hazy spot, discoloration. Nothing! Which I promptly(by accident) scratched the back by leaning the back of the guitar against the zipper of jacket. DOH! Again, no big, nothing a little buffing compound won't take out. The only thing I wasn't overly thrilled about was the neck binding. It's actually done very nicely for a cheap guitar, but they used what appears to be some cheap plastic. I'm kind of curious to see how durable it is. There was a little glue on the fretboard from where they glued the frets in. Yes, i said the frets are glued in. Not something you usually see on something in this price range. That's not really a bid deal either. Some steel wool and it'll come right off.
Electronics and Hardware. This is where my expectations weren't very high and I was correct for the most part. You know IT IS a $150 guitar. They had to cut some corners somewhere. The tuners are garbage. I've stretched the crap out of the strings and they still won't hold tune. I've checked the nut and it seems to be cut pretty well so I don't think that is the issue there. The bridge rattles a bit. Not enough to cause odd harmonics when plugged in, but enough to make me not want to play it unplugged. Both the bridge and the tuners are an EZ and if I watch Ebay close, cheaply fixed.
Electronics wise. I'm really digging the P90's. It's my first experience w/ them and they def. have a very cool vibe of their own. They're both ceramic. I haven't put a meter on them to see what they're running at. The neck is very smooth, clear, and fat. The bridge will prolly get tossed eventually. It's very raw, but also kind of harsh under some gain. The pots and switch are your run of the mill chinese garbage. 4 mini pots and a box style 3 way toggle. I'll probably swap these out eventually as well. New pots and caps may be just what I need to tame the bridge pickup a little bit.
All in all, for no more than I paid, it's a solid piece. Sounds and plays well. Will sound and play better w/ some tweaking. It's built really well and I really have no complaints what so ever about this guitar.
Here's a couple pix. I'll take some more and hopefully better ones once my camera recharges!
