SX GG7

Year: 2006, manufactured in China
20 frets
Laminated top, sides and back.
1 volume, 1 tone control
Single ceramic humbucking pickup
Body is plain figure maple, neck is mahogany or related species
Heavy transparent finish
Single cutaway, hollow body with non-traditional bracing. A lateral brace runs across the top just below the pickup and then qty 2, tone bars run from this brace under the bridge to the butt.
Bridge is tuneamatic type with a rosewood base
Tuners are inexpensive cast type
Scale is approx 25.5", fairly chunky with rosewood fingerboard
Comes with allen wrench (truss rod)

Features are typical for a stripped down hollow body

This guitar is well suited to playing amplified jazz and blues. I found the stock pickup to be somewhat muddy sounding and replaced it with a GFS "Filtertron meets PAF" humbucker and new pots. This gives a much wider tone range from slightly twangy to strong midrange to lush humbucker sounds depending on guitar volume and tone settings and amp settings. Very nice upgrade. Tone rating below is after upgrade. I would rate it a 5 before upgrade.

Unamplified sound is poor. Considering the heavy bracing, heavy finish and plywood construction it is about what you would expect. Based on my experience with old Epiphone solid wood hollow bodies (good projection and unamplified tone), Gibson ES125s, etc. it is slightly less prone to acoustic feedback when playing amplified. At high volume levels acoustic feedback will be present on certain notes and may be difficult to control in live performance situations. This is simply due to body resonance issues and is typical of non-thinline hollow bodies.

Set-up was adequate with moderate action. Intonation required adjustment. Didn't like the stock strings. Replaced after several hours of play with flatwound strings. The neck and fretwork were better than you would expect for a guitar of this price. The nut is cheap plastic.

The finish is a rather odd sunburst black/amber with an almost greenish transition between the shades. Finish is heavy and mine came with several finish imperfections including slight sags and depressions near the binding. The binding is bright white and looks a little odd. In addition, the matchup of the binding and routing on the sides is not well executed and uneven gaps filled with black are noticeable. My guitar came with scratches near the bridge and a number of small scratches and dings in other location on the body so I am uncertain whether the guitar was new when shipped. The boxes appeared to have been taped up several times.

While replacing the pickup I discovered a ball of newspaper stuffed up in the upper bout. Inspection of the interior indicates fairly heavy glue application with glue strands hanging from bracing and excess glue evident in most locations. The construction does appear quite sturdy however.

Tuners are cheap and my B-string tuner is much stiffer than the others even after backing off on the adjustment screw. Time will tell whether the tuners hold up.

The harp tailpiece is poorly designed and the string barrels wedge in and jam if not oriented properly. It is difficult to remove strings when this happens.

I don't expect the gold plating to hold up very well because it usually doesn't on stuff this cheap.

I am rating action, fit and finish against $700+ plywood instruments so factor price in when comparing my rating to others.

This appears to be a very rugged guitar.

The hardware will probably hold up OK expect for the finish. Tuners may be iffy.

The finish appears very rugged.

Strap buttons are solid but will be replaced with straplocks.

Guitar appears dependable.

Always bring a backup.

Been playing 30+ years. Own a Guild Starfire 2, a nice Tacoma acoustic and mostly cheap stuff that plays well including a nice Agile AS820 (big step up in quality and build craftsmanship in comparison). Own clone Tweed Deluxe and Tweed Pro amps.

This guitar fills the niche for a jazz/blues hollow body and considering price plays very well. This would be a great instrument for a working musician who doesn't want to gig with a more valuable instrument. SX appears to do an OK job on necks/fretwork and provided the fingerboard/neck and neck/body glue joints hold up over time this should prove to be great value for the money.

Chinese manufactured 04/05. All Maple Body, fully bound. Abalone inlaid Rosewood fingerboard. 20 frets (NOT 22 as stated at the Rondo website.)
1 humbucker at the neck, 1 vol, 1 tone. Gold plated hardware. Tune-o-matic style bridge sits on wooden pedestal which is not glued - always restring one at a time if you don't want it falling off!
As with other SX guitars, one can only look at the finish and wonder how the hell they can do it for the money.

These guitars are so inexpensive that you can consider them as part of a toolbox. I have always wanted an f hole jazz guitar - you simply cannot get 'that' tone from a solid body - you use the right tool for the job. The GG7 is now part of my toolbox. Once I had restrung this with some flatwound D'Addario strings starting at 12... it came alive. The manufacturer obviously has somne deal for roundwounds starting at 9. You really cannot appreciate what this instrument is capable of with those puny strings. Get some flatwound girders on it before anything else!
The sound can go from the mellowest tone to a suprisingly bright,almost rockabilly edge. I'm using a Fender Champ 25 with this guitar.

Once the new strings were on, a little tune-o-matic adjustment, a slight lowering of the action - amazing. Really. The neck is absolutely great. Did not need to touch the trussrod.
Fretwork was better than I found on two other SX guitars previously purchased, a strat and a tele. Both of those guitars went straight into the shop to have rough frets taken care of. This guitar needs no work at all. It was a little more expensive than the other two SX's.... maybe they put a little more effort in?

I have no idea how the gold plating will stand up. The rest of it should provide years of service if well looked after. I would not do any gig without a backup. In this case, I would back the GG7 up with a 1965 Gibson Firebird. Only other guitar I own with humbuckers. :)

Rondo are great. 3rd guitar I've had from them.

Been playing over 40 years. I would replace this in a heartbeat. How could you not at that price/performance?
I continue to be amazed at how they can produce, ship and sell these guitars for this silly money. These guitars are good.

this is a brand new 2005 model. Made in China by the Team Instruments Company. 20 jumbo frets. solid maple top/back/sides. Nicely bound on the top/sides/back of the body and also on the headstock and down the sides of the neck. One volume and one tone control, no pickup switch necessary. One wax potted ceramic gold plated humbucker at the neck. Stock SX Standard pickup. ( I changed mine out for a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover SH-55 model) Neck is mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. Finish is cleared in Polyurathane. It has a gold plated "harp" tailpiece and a floating style rosewood and gold plated "tune-O-Matic style bridge. 25.5 scale with a "les Paul" type neck thickness and beautiful abalone inlays in the fretboard. SX stock Keystone style 14-1 tuners that are gold plated. Headstock is inlaid with a pearl "SX" logo at the top and a pearl "flordelay" in the center.

I play blues and jazz. It suits my style very well. I use it with an original 1959 Fender Bassman amplifier.(2 Tung-Sol 5881's/2 Telefunken 12AX7's/1 Mullard 12AT7/1 Mullard GZ34 Rectifier) My pedal board consists of an original solid state Alfonso Hermida " ZENDRIVE" O/D pedal. an original Alfonso Hermida " Tube driven" Zendrive O/D pedal and a modified Boss DD2 delay. That's it. Pure signal flow, all hard bypassed. The SX GG7 is real sweet for what I play. It could be a touch richer in it's pure unamplified sound but when I plug it into my rig, it's awesome

the set up was decent, still needed a little fine tuning but pretty good for out of the box. There were some flaws in the cleared finish but for 199.95, come on, how important is that when it comes to how it plays and sounds after all. They could have installed a real bone nut but once again....

Yes it will stand live work. Hardware is fine, Finish is very nice,strap button on back bout is very solid, you would have to add one at the neck heel if you want to use a strap. I depend on it. If you play for a living and you don't have a back up... do I need to answer that one?

Rondo Music is without a doubt the finest company on earth to deal with...Period! Don't worry, if you have any issues, Kurt will fix them, fast!

I've been playing longer than I want to admit. 40 years plus... I would definitely buy this guitar again, no doubt. Best bang for the buck out there. There is nothing to hate and everything to like for a mere 199.95. I wish it came with a real bone nut and a Seth Lover pickup but it wouldn't be 199.95 then, now would it?