SX GG1 CUS

These are the stats from the Rondo website:

Single cutaway body made from solid Mahogany
Triple bound body (front and back)
Mahogany set neck with an adjustable truss rod
Bound Rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo (2.7mm) frets and trapezoidal inlays
Black speed knobs. Black pickup rings
High quality gold humbucker pickups help reduce hum and noise and offer superior performance by giving a thicker fuller sound than single coils
Two volume and two tone controls tailor your sound
Angled double bound headstock for improved sustain
Gold hardware (including diecast sealed tuners), tripple body binding and black pick guard compliments the guitar's beautiful vintage appearance


Now for my impression... I have owned this guitar for about 8 months now and have had countless hours of time to pick it apart at every level. First of all the finish was excellent. No visible flaws in the paint both on the body and on the back of the neck. The binding is beautiful and compliments the black finish well. The only thing that I did change about the guitar is that I went with a set of gold speed knobs instead of the stock black ones.

The tuners are a bit of a drawback on this guitar only in that they are not as high quality as they could be. I would gladly have paid a little more for a little higher grade of tuner. Also the nut is plastic and will eventually be replaced.

I bought this guitar with the fullintention of replacing the pickups within the first week or 2. I figured that I would give the stock pickups a chance to disappoint me and also give me a reason to replace their dull lifeless carcasses. Well, they proved me wrong. The pickups are not 'hot' by any means but they are smooth just like a Les Paul pickup should be. They have a crunch when a little overdrive is added and stay smooth and creamy when just a little compression is added. They have a great clean tone with a good jazz tone.

Factory setups are usually not to be trusted out of the box. I have been playing for 20 years and I have grown to understand that anything needs a setup out of the box. This guitar was no exception. I like my action to be low and easy to fret. This was a bit high right out of the box but the intonation was almost dead on. The factory strings lasted about 2 weeks and got replaced with a little heavier gauge. Like I said before a graphite nut would have been welcomed. The gold harware seems like it will hold up well.

So far so good. The guitar feels solid enough to gig with but I would never go without a backup. That is a cardinal sin. The pots on this guitar will eventually need replacing as I figure that being that they are the small type they are probably not going to be around too long. I prefer higher quality pots in my guitars anyways. It is a cheap upgrade and it will drastically improve the sound of this guitar. The strap buttons are the oversized style that SX is known for. They are enough for knocking around but I prefer straplocks. Like I said though they are adequate and by far better then a lot of the butons out there.

Kurt at Rondo has been great in the 2 times that I have dealt with him. Excellent turn around times on orders and also quick responses to any questions that I have ever had.

In the 20 years that I have been playing guitar I have owned nearly 40 guitars ranging from $100 to $1500 in price. I have played all kinds of gear over that time as well. I have been running this guitar through a Boss GS10 and even though there are a few sounds that I haven't found with it I still love the way it plays. The neck is nice and fat. This is no Ibanez neck by ANY means. This has the baseball bat feel that it should. Nice and round with a decently flat fretboard.

If this guitar were lost or stolen I would definitely get another or maybe even step up to one of the Agile triple humbucker models.

The only other thing I would consider doing to this guitar is adding a Varitone circuit to it.

Exccellent value for the money.