SX PST SC Scorpion

The other reviews set it out well enough; strat clone.

I'll be brief, as I just bought this whimsically as it was cheap. Also I have another little SX Traditional/Vintage series one. I put some nice vintage sounding Wilkos in that one; so I thought why not go for a less vintage single coil sound? The other SX is so nice this could be fun. It was.

Briefly - tuners neither good nor bad, adequate; bridge quite good, pots have nice feel to them, nut is OK, of course a graphite one at least is going to sustain more. Switch quite adequate/sturdy.

It is a very handsome thing indeed.

I sounds quite good. Not as good as the vintage series SXs, but the pups don't have the baseplates and the silicone in them for microphonic absorption. But they are OK. Good ballsy bridge, nice middle, good SRV type tones from neck. Depending how you tweak the pup heights 2 and 4 have that nice quack/chime. Not bad.

I agree with the other reviews that it is a chord guitar; it's OK but not inspiring for solos.

Nice looking thing. Well made, reasonably substantial, good overall quality. Not as spellbindingly good as the Vintage series, but nice. Inlays are so crass I love them! And they are well done. Nice SX neck; they do do a very nice neck. Body looks 3 sandwich ply, probably Chinese alder. Weights a good good feel. Rather nice.

Yes, the strings that came with it were utter garbage, fair enough. On went some DRs. Brightened it up as I thought it would. Intonation was consistently sharp; fixed. Action lowered a little, and saddles matched to radius. Agree that still can't get a buzz out of low E, raised saddle, and treaked rod. Still, these DR strings do have a long vibration cycle. Only an issue when played acoustically. Sounds fine amplified. Always have to look down the neck and file some frets with cheapies. And remember, this is a $100 cheapie, not a vintage strat.

The trem fits rather snuggly in the screwhole, which is rare, and nice. Speaking of the trem bar, it was bent so that you had to reach a long way from the guitar to use it....in the vice and bent it to how I like it; and shortened it ala Gilmour too.

Replaced the strap screws, always the same story with cheapies.

Seems dependable enough. Have given it a couple of extended sessions. Not bad.

The EBay shop it came from would be the point of sale to worry about stuff like this. There probably isn't anything on it that I don't usually do myself anyway. The fun of these little cheapies (though SX are a cut above the real crap out there, quite a cut) IS doing it yourself.

Been playing for, um, a long long time. I love getting little cheapies on a whim and getting them playable. Not all that much to do on these SXs, they are a good little budget guitars. I'd compare the neck on the Vintage series ones very, very favourably to just about anything. This one's neck is all black, and has that dark Indian rosewood (that sheds on your fingers if you don't linseed it first). It's nice, but not as nice as the Vintage series of these.

If you read the review of that other Vintage SX, I'll repeat that if you were getting an SX as a first guitar you'd be pretty happy. You probably wouldn't pay twice the price for this one, but the Vintage series one you certainly would. Nice little strat clone, that looks good and has reasonable hardware. Set it up and put some nice strings on it, tweak the pup heights and this a predictably good guitar for not much money from SX.

standared strat style body, lacuered finish, cheap tuners/pickups, nothing worth getting excited about. 22 frets, with a volume and two tone knobs, as well as a 5-way switch. complete with a gig bag and matching strap. oh, and scorpion inlays at the 12th fret and on the head.

the sound is moderate to pretty good for hard rock/metal players. very crunchy and suitable for rythym. i use it on a roland mini cube, and together they sound fine, especially with the many effects the mini cube offers. good for beginners.

the action is wayyyyyyy high and theres a lot of buzzing. the rest of the hardware and finish looks great

i recorded using this guitar and it sounds great. as i said, good for rythym, but i wouldnt go crazy on solos with this thing

n/a

ive been playing for about a year, and this is a good guitar to begin on, because of its good crunchy sound. but sometimes that buzzing may get annoying, but i learned to work through it. if it was lost or stolen, it'd probably be a good reason just to buy another model.

22 Frets
Strat style 3 pickup configuration
2 Tones and a volume Control
Crap Tuners
Gig Bag, Ugly Strap, Allen keys and a Whammy. Oh and a lead. I give it a 7 because of these things.
Flyod Rose Style Bridge (crap)
Mother of Pearl Inlay in 12th Fret and Head

I play alot of soft rock and hard rock eg. Foo Fighters, System Of A Down, Nirvana etc. Im using a crappy frontman amp but guitar still sound ed like shit throu my mates better amp so that wasnt the problem. The sound was buzzing, annoying and not anything you would expect from a guitar that looked so nice. Pickups Sound like shit.

The Action was the highest I have ever seen on a guitar ever. when trying to lower it it would buzz alot and could not be played properly
Up by the nut on the neck the varnish was all ugly and missing bits. The strings were of very poor quality and snapped in the first couple of weeks.

If i tried to play this guitar live I think that i would end up smashing it after the first song because on doubt it would screw up. The strap buttons are small and i had my guitar fall off many times. Luckily i never let it hit the ground.

Customer Support were great! After about a month or two i was sick of the high action and decided to try get something done about it. Took it back to the shop and asked him to take a look at the action. It seemed there was a small bow in the neck. He told me the truss rod needed to be adjusted and to come back the next day. Went back the next day and i was told that he had tried adjusting the truss rod and that it didnt seem to change anything no matter how much it was adjusted. So the shop being the nice people that they were loaned me another Sx which was the same guitar as the one that had just been sent away. unfortuantely this guitar was worse than the one that i had just sent away. The tone was absolutely horrible all bass and nothing else even when the treble on the amp was up. I got a call a week later saying that my guitar was not going to be returned to me so im geussing the problem was much deeper. I kindly declined this offer because sx guitars are shit well at least this one is anyway. So i got a 300 store credit and now im doing what i should have done in the first place and saving for a nice Cort G254

If this were stolen i would only have been unhappy for the fact that i lost 300 dollers. I now dont trust sx and probebly never will. Taught me to stop going on looks alone.

Made in 2004. Strat Copy with 3 single coils, 1 volume, 2 tone and 5 way switch. Solid Alder body, maple neck, dark rosewood fretboard. Single ply plastic pickguard. Cheap no name tuners. Thin neck, Sort of jumbo frets. String through bridge with tremelo. Glossy all black finish and hardware with mother of pearl scorpion and "SX" inlays on headstock and another MOP inlay on the 12th fret. Came with a logo gig bag, cable shoulder strap and allen wrenches. I'm giving it good marks here because of the design, accessories and looks. Otherwise it is your standard strat style guitar.

Very nice classic strat sounds. The pick ups are nice. No issues with the 5 way switch yet, but I have noticed that others had problems with them. I use it with a Behringer GX112, a Peavy Musicman and a old Silvertone tube amp (1483). It sounds good for a while when playing chords, but for the reasons detailed below, it isn't good for leads. No hum or feedback from the pickups.

Initial impressions were very favorable. When I opened the box, I was sort of in awe for a minute. It looks like a lot more guitar than it actually is. The guitar is beautiful and the black finish is flawless. The inlays are very well done. From here though, things go downhill. When the guitar arrived initially, there was a 1/4" 1/8" chunk missing from the rosewood on the bottom edge of the 12th fret. It was missing when the guitar was manufactured because the "chip" had been sanded and finished over. The top and bottom edges of the entire fretboard were also crudely sanded and badly finished. They had very deep sanding grooves in them and some were actually slightly scalloped between the frets. I sent it back for a new neck and the second one looks considerably better. The second neck is well finished and flat on the edges. This guitar suffers from a slight but very annoying fret buzz that just can't be adjusted out. It is especially noticeable on the 3 low strings from the first to the 7th frets. No amount of neck adjustment will fix it. The bridge has also been adjusted as high as it will go and still don't stop it. The frets look even and none of them appear to be loose. Can't figure it out. The neck looks stright and isn't twisted. I really didn't want to pay for a professional set up on a 99 dollar guitar, but will probably have to. I have never had a problem setting up any other of my guitars, but there is a first time.
The tuning pegs are of poor quality and will not stay tight on the headstock or in tune. It literally goes out of tune in minutes, and the bushings that hold the tuners to the headstock back right out to where they are just rattling around under the string windings after a while. I did sort of expect cheap tuners even with the rave reviews the SX guitars seem to get, but these are not good. I don't use the trem, and judging from the tuners that's a good thing right now. Nut was really bad. Soft plastic and cut way too deep and uneven depths. That was changed out for a graphite one that works better. Along with the tuners, the soft single ply pickguard will be the next to go. I will change it out for a good 3 ply. I will keep the same electronics for now because they seem pretty good.

The over all construction of the guitar seems good, but the hardware is from down near the bottom shelf. After everything except the electronics are changed out, it should be a pretty reliable guitar. Right now, I do not gig with it at all. It is a pretty little toy, but not a serious guitar yet.

Rondo was very good about the problem with the neck, but they did not refund my postage on the return like they advertise. They probably forgot and I didn't remind them. I shouldn't have had to though.

I haven't been playing long this time. I took it up again after many years of not playing.
I wish I could say differently and this may offend some of the SX lovers out there, but I am not impressed with this guitar overall and would not replace it if lost or stolen. I would probably get a Jay Turser, Oscar Schmidt or Kona. They all three make similar guitars in this price range and all have great reputations.
I think I probably got a "Monday" guitar, because all the people giving these things rave reviews can't be wrong, but unfortunately my SX is all show and not much go. Maybe my opinion will change when I get it set up and change out the inferior hardware, because the thing looks nice and has potential.
Man I just read over this review and I sound kinda like a chronic bitcher. Let me assure you I am not and have left several other very favorable reviews for other gear. I just haven't found a lot of good things about this guitar other than it's VERY pretty. Like I said, I probably got a bad one because these things generally get good reviews.