Rally Big Apple

I got the one in blue but most seem to want the one in white. The blue is fantastic, the grain comes through. In fact it seems to be the same blue as my Yamaha 302S. It is a jazz style guitar very very similar to the Epiphone Joe Pass I had but has a Tune-o-matic bridge and a trapezium tailpiece. It is finished in all gold hardware with twin humbuckers and the usual pup switch. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the hardware.
This is brand new made this year but as usual with rally kit, there is no serial number to tell exactly when it was made, just a sticker to say it was made in China. The neck is rosewood, short scale with 20 frets and. Not sure what the body is but the guitar itself is fairly heavy even though it is a hollowbody - there is no solid piece under the top.
I know that Rally guitars come with an allen key and a lead but this was missing. It is no problem but it should have been included.

It has a great sound though, nice and crisp at the bridge but meaty at the neck without being too boomy. It is a little noisy but that disappears in to the background when it is played. It suits my style for this guitar as I like a bluesy rhythm style.
Though it is better than the Joe Pass it still suffers with some feedback. Most of this comes as feedback through the vocal mic. This is the only thing that I dislike.

When I took it out of the box I was well impressed with the colour. The online pics hadn't done it justice. I liked the look of it online but this had that wow factor in the flesh. I couldn't find a flaw on the finish. Almost straight away I noticed the inlays which I hadn't paid much attention to on the pics. They were to die for with multi coloured pearloid in a fantastic design. 10/10 for that alone. It came single boxed and I think something like this deserves a double box for shipping. The guitar was set up by the seller and I have to admit it was really good out of the box, just needed tuning and played well. Later I decided to tweak it a little and lowered the action etc. As far as that goes I can say it easily compares with the Epiphone Joe Pass. The join at the base of the lower bout isn't central but that isn't visible most of the time and is hardly a problem considering the price of it.

It seems to be built like a tank. I have an Atrics which, though a cheapie and has been excellent, this is to replace that and this seems much more like a businesslike guitar but only time will tell as it is too early yet to really comment. Suffice it to say it seems very solid and should last.

I have dealt with the seller - this is the second Rally I have - and he has been very helpful. The manufacturers have not replied to any email enquiries I have made though. Pretty poor I think.

I have been playing for a long time but stopped gigging a good few years back so now I am a bit of a closet player. This meant that some of the more expensive guitars I had I couldn't justify keeping. In fact I was not unhappy to see my USA Fender Strat go and so on. THat enabled me to try a few of the less expensive guitars. I recently had an Aria TA 50 which I have reviewed and that was awful but the Rally ones have restored my faith in the concept that you can get a very good intermediate guitar for little money these days. This is one of those guitars that I would replace if stolen with the same.
I love the inlays, there are inlays on the bridge, so I would say that the inlay work is my favourite feature next to the gold hardware. The colour, to my mind, was absolutely the right choice. I have had a few archtops over the years - I started with a Hofner Senator in fact. This one I compare to the Joe Pass I had as it is in the same category really and I think it fares well (particularly in the sound, it is better!) and if you take the cost in to account it knocks spots of it.
I wish it had serial numbering as that adds that extra validity but then I guess it would be much more expensive!