In Praise of a Rondo Guitar

[firstbassman]

I have never been much of a fan of the Strat sound. Of all of the identifiable guitar tones it was probably my least favorite. (I’m one of those true believers who feels that Clapton lost his tone when he switched from Gibson to Fender.)
However I’ve toyed around with the thought of getting one someday but even at the lowest Fender price points a Strat seemed like an unnecessary luxury for the amount of time I was going to be able to commit to (and, let’s be honest, at my level of playing).

But I decided to take a peak at the Rondo SX SST62 3TS Sunburst and for $99 I felt I had not much to lose. Well, ninety-nine bucks I guess (plus shipping).

Now, I’m afraid, I’m going to have to revise my award for “best valued” low-price guitar – which used to go to Ibanez (and to Epiphone at some extent). For $99 this instrument is amazing.

[Side Note: I am not a guitar technical geek by any stretch of anyone’s imagination. For all I know, this guitar may fall apart tomorrow. Or it may use pickups that are one-tenth the quality of regular ones. Or the wood may really be balsa for all I know.]

But, for my level of playing, it nails the Strat sound amazingly. Feels nice to play. And I love the very distant tones derived by moving the pickup selector.

As I said, this guitar is amazing. Just can’t beat cheap Chinese labor I suppose. And I’m also starting to get into the “pure” Strat sound. I’m not after Hendrix or SRV. I like the sound just the way it comes out of my Blues Junior:

[johnallg]

Mark, I concur on Rondo and SX - I've wanted a Jazz bass for quite some time, and didn't want to spend for a Fender American or even a Standard (MIM). I played many Squire jazz basses, never really taken with them, but felt they were pretty close to the sound and feel of the MIM models. But they were still around $230 - $280. That's when I heard of the SX basses at Rondo, and after reading hundred of posts on TalkBass on them, I got a '62 style black SX Jazz.

I have a thread on it in the Others forum, but in short it was totally worth the $120 plus shipping. I had to dress the frets as the #2 and #3 frets were a bit high, and then I put Fender flats on it and set it up to have a tad neck relief and medium/low string height. It is so easy to play with a fast and slim neck. It is fun to knock around on as you can get the "classic" jazz bass sound out of it. The hardware is better than I expected - many said they replaced the tuners but I found them to be pretty good. The electronics will be replaced when I get the time - the jack is pretty flimsy, and I'm not sure how long the pots will last. The clear finish could be a bit thicker also. But it was only $120.

I guess that wasn't very short! Anyway, I just wanted to add my 5 cents on Rondo and SX.

[charlyg]

I still have my SX jazz. That will be getting the EBO in the neck for my Schacher experiment. It may be a while though. I want to get all the kinks out of the P/J first.