SX KY1CE24

This review is based on 2 of these guitars. The first one I recieved had a cracked neck and had to be returned. The second one I am keeping. HOWEVER, the 2 guitars are completely different from one another. Why? I have no idea, but they were! So, you'll see a lot of 1.)'s and 2.)'s for this review. These #'s represent the 2 different ones I recieved.


Clear finished "matched" maple top on a mahogony body. 24 frets/ rosewood/ abalone bird inlays
SX brand tuners, no-name tremolo (Wilkinson styled), both in gold
2 open-face humbucker pickups. 1 volume, 1 tone, 1 3-way pickup toggle switch.

I'm giving it a 5 because feature-wise, it isn't great, but it isn't poor either. Right in the middle. Standard cheapie guitar.

Just to reiterate, I had to send one back. The first guitar sounded very mellow and full in the bridge position, to a lighter/brighter sound in the neck.

1.) Very bluesy and full. Nice, rich sound. I would give this one an 8.

2.) This guitar sounds NOTHING like the first one. ???? Pickups seem a lot "hotter". Bridge position is very "bright", Neck position sounds almost the same. Middle position sounds OK, but it is seems odd to have such different sounds than the first, and also odd that the neck and bridge position humbuckers sound so similar. This one I'd give a 5.

OK, here's where it gets really weird.

1.) Arrived with a cracked neck, which was unfortunate. I sent it back for replacement. This one had VERY few finish flaws on the surface of the guiar (top), but several spots on the binding where the stain underneath had bled through, creating dark splotches.
Neck pocket was cracked, there was glue all around the joint.
Headstock had some blushing of the clear poly coating. Fretboard inlays were very nice, with no open gaps. Tuners sucked, but I bought this planning to immediately replace them.

2.) A whole different ballgame. Dirt on woodgrain UNDER the poly finish on the top of the guitar. Noticable seem due to dirt down the middle of the guitar. Hardware arrived with some tarnish on it. Tuners still suck, but I expected this. Fretboard inlay has several open spots where filler should have been used. However, headstock, neck joint and binding are much better. This one came with several glue spots around the upper frets (20-24) on the E-B-G strings. This one had noticable scratching along the binding on the neck, indicating hand-filed frets, first one had no suck scratches. 2nd one also had deep scratches at the fretboard to body edge. Lighter "finger-print" type marks in the stain on the body, UNDER the clear poly coating on the top of the guitar. The inside edge (towards the neck) of the tremolo rout is horrendous. Obviously mis-cut and leading to "rubbing" problems, some ass-clown at the factory took the back plastic trem cover off, and literally drilled holes every 1/4-1/2" and fucking hammered out the wood with a chisel. I am not shitting you. And it appears they did it while the tremolo was still on the guitar, because there are obvious drill bit marks on the metal body of the tremolo!!!!!!

You're going to have to set up this guitar in order to play it. Neither guitar was set up properly upon arrival. I expected this, and you should expect it as well.

There appears to a HUGE discrepancy in quality control on these guitars. The bookmatched top is a very thin veneer, and the toggle-switch for the pickups is left in bare wood. No stain, no finish, no nothing.

This guitar is quite neck-heavy.

I think if you are able to set this up on your own, or are willing to take it to a shop to have it set up, you'll be fine. But the tuners are really poor, and the quality control out of the box for the second one is so bad, that I have to slam it here. True, it's a $179 guitar, and one shouldn't expect PRS quality control, but the differences between the two, coupled with the crappy tuners are going to bring it down.

The birds look nice on the fretboard. Would've looked even nicer if I didn't have to go get some wood-filler to fill in the gaps.

The fact that the guitar has DIRT in the woodgrain under the finish, and was allowed to leave the factory that way also brings it way down. Nevermind the tremolo routing on the second one.
First one didn't have this problem, so it brings it up from a 1 to a 2.

You guys wanted honest answers, right?

YOU MUST REPLACE THE TUNERS. Otherwise good luck playing even a whole song in tune. 1 shimmy of the tremolo, and this sucker goes way out of tune.
Who would gig with a $179 guitar, anyway? Not really a fair question.

Finish seems thin, but should hold up for awhile.

Strap buttons seem solid.

I wouldn't gig with it without a backup, but then again, who would?

I'm leaving this as a "No opinion", because, well, I can't really form an opinion in this category

Rondo is the best. Great communication. Super-fast responses, absolutely excellent return policy.

However, they say they check every guitar before shipping, and then they sent me guitar #2.
True, the offered to return it, but I bought this to use as a project guitar base with full intentions on upgrading tuners, etc...
I've decided to keep it, and make it as good a beater as I can.
I'm unwilling to ship it back and take another chance on the crap-shoot of whether I will recieve another one damaged or finished worse than the one I currently have (though it couldn't be much worse.)

Been playing for close to 25 years. My main guitar is a 1990 Charvel ST Deluxe (or Custom, I forget), that I have modified over the years.

I bought this guitar as a project base. Disappointed in several things, including finish issues, the fact that I returned one, and they sent me this one, and the fact that the two guitars sound totally different (shame, because I really liked the first one.).

There appears to be a HUGE QC issue, as the routing on the tremolo unit on the second one has to be seen to be believed. I cannot believe the factory would ship it out like that, but they did. First one didn't have this problem.

Couple that with the flaws in the fretboard, the dirt under the finish, the tuners that suck, and the fact that neither guitar was set up very well, and I cannot in good conscience recommend this guitar for anyone other than an experienced player who wants to do what I'm doing to it. Gut it and start replacing parts.

New, 2004(?) SX KY1CE24 model. It's a single-cut, Mahogany/ maple arch-top... somewhat of a cross between a PRS and a Peavey Wolfgang, an interesting and unique shape (IMO), & quite comfortable.

NOTE: The scores below are heavily influenced by the low price of this guitar. Don't expect that you can get a top-notch showpiece for this kind of money.

More specs:
24-fret 25" (PRS) scale slightly figured maple neck w/ rosewood fingerboard.
Laminated flame maple top (very thin veneer, but still asthetically pleasing).
PRS-style tremelo bridge.
2 uncovered ceramic humbuckers.
Bound body & fretboard (though in different colors?!?)

Rating:
I give it a solid 8 in the features department, based on it's 'bang-for-the-buck' factor. It get's the job done, but doesn't give you anything too fancy. I would score it higher if it offered more sound varieties.

From the factory, it wasn't too overwhelming. But, what can you expect from a guitar in this price range?

The ceramic 'pups had a decent, though somewhat sterile sound. They were good for pinch harmonics and had a decent enough tone both clean and distorted, but just didn't feel organic enough for me.

I bought this guitar fully intending to upgrade the pickups with a combination of a PAF-style humbucker in the bridge and P-90 in the neck. So far, I've installed 2 covered PAFs (from customshopparts on Ebay) and set them up so I can split the coils on each independantly which really opened up the sound of this guitar. I can't really compare it to any of my other guitars, but it has a rich full sound now (somewhere between my LP and Strat, if I had to try and explain it).

Sound rating: 7 (feeling generous) due to the crappy pickups. If it at least came with covered pickups, I might have gone higher. Like I said, the stock ones just sounded too sterile to me, but would probably lend themselves nicely to heavy processing since they were dead quiet.

This guitar was either set up by a blind man or recieved no setup whatsoever. I had to adjust the intonation, action, bridge spring tension, pickup height, etc, etc, etc... but I expected as much prior to purchase, so no points off here.

However, I found obvious filler on the lower bout, the fretboard, & even the top. The neck pocket looks like it was carved with a pocket knife, Sloppy. The nut doesn't fill it's cavity (rosewood visible on BOTH sides beneath it). The bridge route is a tad off, which causes the trem block to rub against the body ever so slightly... so far, it's not causing a problem, though. There is also what appears to be thread marks from a screw imprinted into the 'flame' top (at least they covered/ smoothed over it). Finally, the tuning pegs are very short & the tuners have far too much slack in them (no MAJOR problems yet, but tuning up is a pain). PLUS, opening up the control & trem cavitied revealed more sloppy routing and gobs of extra poly finish.

On the plus side, she is a very capable player and still looks good from as close as a few feet away. Once I change out the tuners and slap in a graphite nut, I think the intonation will settle down nicely. Major points off for the shoddy QA, though.

As-is from the factory, I woudn't go anywhere near a gig with this thing for fear that I would spend the entire evening re-tuning it. The major problems, however, can be corrected by replacing a few parts. Once I've done so, I have no doubt that it will become a gig-worthy instrument.

As far as the reliability factor is concerned, I fear that the super-thin 'flame' top is liable to chip away if it gets too much abuse, but the guitar seems structurally sound and solid enough to last for at least a few years.

Overall, let's say it's a 7 in this category based on the low price.

I hear good things about Kurt & Rondo Music. I doubt that I'll ever have to call on their support services, but it's nice to know that they care about customer satisfaction.

P.S. Saturday delivery! A big plus in my book!

I've been playing almost 25 years, owned Gibsons, Fenders, Etc... blah, blah, blah... you get the picture.

Having gleaned through the various reviews and discussion board banter here on HC, I got a pretty good idea about the overall quality of the SX guitars, so I didn't go into this purchase expecting too much. I was surprised at the overall playability of this guitar but discouraged by all of the little annoyances (finish flaws, etc). As expected, I'm replacing much of the hardware & electronics.

Overall, this guitar, once I sink a little more money into it, will sound & play very nicely. It's amazing what you can get these days for the money. My first electric guitar purchase was a POS Hondo which I sunk HUNDREDS$$$ into and it still played like garbage. These SX guitars make great instruments for the beginner as-is or can be transferred into a fully gig-worthy player with a still very low investment outlay (when I'm done, I'll have spent about $250 on this one... not bad).

Great bang-for-the-buck! I give it a 9.