SX SJM 62

You can read all about this in the previous posts; mine is the two P-90 pickups variant.

The body on mine appears to be a three piece.

Sealed tuners work like they are supposed to. Ditto for the electronics.

Sounds Great.

P-90s are what they are. They have a hum factor. You either love 'em or hate 'em.

This guitar, properly set up, is a joy to hear. Mine has the jaguar-type bridge, so in combination with the break angle coming from the whammy (which is smooth) you get that plink out of it when you push it that only this type of configuration can provide.

Frets needed leveling and re-crowning, which I did myself.

Was well worth the effort.

The neck is really very nice. Nice wood, nice profile, done right.

Paint finish on the guitar is fine. No flaws.

With the work, which some much more expensive name brand guitars also too often need to make them into superb players, this one is a real keeper.

This is as solid a guitar as any Fender slab I've had, and I go all the way back to the pre-CBS days.

Kurt is the best. Period.

Here's the part you should always skip to when first when reading a review here at Harmony Central.

How long somebody has been playing, and their experience level.

I've been playing for over 50 years now.
Some of that has been as a professional, in a variety of musical fields, some of which are: jazz, country and rock (the kind with the roll).

I know guitars.

At this stage of the game, when it comes to slab guitars I have no need to shop anywhere else but at Rondo.

As I can do my own work, it just would not pay to Pay So Much More for a Fender or Pick Another Company in the contoured slab department.

The SJM is a unique body design, which is a kick, and a great guitar when properly set up. What's not to like?

I'm going to have to get an STL tele-type guitar from Rondo.

Alder body, cannot see seams and don't know how many pieces, traditional Jazzmaster type tremelo. The finish is vintage powder blue, amber clear on the neck with great ???clay??? dot markers. Very balanced when sitting or standing. Nice chunky ???V??? shaped, singly piece w/stripe neck. The hardware is light and musical, after a lot of work. Electronics are cheap, but do not add artifacts into the sound {clicks, scrapes, etc.} and are holding up well after a 1 1/2 years.

Perfect for all styles except metal. Like its comparison, the Fender Jazzmaster, it is a finicky axe that will embellish every good and bad note. It will not hide poor playing, like a Les Paul or PRS will. It will sound great if you have good chops. Even when set perfect, the single coils require the player to find the sweet position to play to avoid hum as well as working the volume and tone knobs. All that said, it has a nice balance of percussion, sustain, twang, grind & is touch sensitive. Tone and volume controls provide variety. Note: hum can be greatly improved {see my notes in the Action, Fit and Finish review}.

I would have rated higher, but it takes a lot of work to get it to a great tone.

The finish is vintage powder blue, amber clear on the neck with great ???clay??? dot markers. Very balanced when sitting or standing. Nice ???V??? shaped neck. Sits funny in a guitar stand. It now sounds and plays like a very expensive guitar {I have many of those}.

Here is what I did to turn this into a $145 guitar that rivals more expensive guitars: 1.) let it sit for a year to let the neck wood stabilize. 2.) shimmed the neck to increase the neck height and angle {tilted slightly back} ??? creating a better bridge angle, 3.) compressed the bridge spring in a bench vise to the point that the bridge would ???float??? for the string gauge I use {9???s}, 4.) reversed the magnet polarity in the neck p/u so it would hum cancel when both p/u???s are selected, 5.) wax potted the p/us {50% beeswax / 50% paraffin}, 6.) tightened the tuning machine nuts, 7.) deepened a few nut slots and put in lots of graphite every time I monkey with strings, 8.) changed the volume pot to an Alpha 500K audio {instead of linear} taper {note: the only non-stock hardware about $5}, 9.) found the best string spacing on the bridge and filed those slots slightly deeper, 10.) used a fret file and Dremel polisher to take a few high frets down, 11.) lemon oil to the fingerboard, 12.) conductive pain to the inner control cavity and star-grounded, 13.) wrapped Teflon tape around the bridge posts to stabilize tuning, 14.) dipped the height adjustment screws in rubber cement to keep them from backing out, 15.) adjusted p/u height, 16.) considering grinding a waist-offset into the body.

Alpha pots are quick-turning and have a usable taper.

Without these mods, strings pop-out of the bridge and nut, tuning suffers and managing the hum is difficult.

Again, higher ratings would have been given, but I did not want to mislead the reader - it took a lot of effort and patience to make it play and sound perfect.

This guitar is a tank. If set up correctly, will stand abuse.

I've bought from Rondo five times for myself and friends. Kurt has been fair and responsive. Shipping is timely. Unlike Ted Webber, he won't engage in much chat. Try to combine your purchase with e-Bay or Amazon cupons for $ off.

Be sure of what you want in a guitar before buying this. Like the early 60's offerings from Fender, the SJM-62 is unique and requires patient and skillful adjustments. If you are after this type of sound, excellent playability and extreme value - buy this axe!

3 piece alder body. Maple neck, rosewood fretboard. 2 p-90s. Jaguar style whammy and bridge. Sealed tuners.

The woods are good on this guitar.

Sounds like you'd expect p-90s to sound with this type of bridge and whammy, if you've been around vintage jags.

These particular p-90s are very noisy.
Partial shielding helped, but a dip in hot wax might be something to consider, though I haven't really taken a good look under the hoods.

The guitar needed a total fret leveling and re-crowning to make it a player.
Anything less would just be a guitar that wouldn't cut it.

Neck needed shimming.

With the work done, it is a fine player.
Neck is on the fat side.

But you do need to know, SX is terribly poor on playability overall out of the box. This guitar isn't my first rodeo with Rondo/SX.

Took apart the whammy and adjusted from the bottom up. Had to. It was unusable without this.

The hole for the bridge pickup in the guard is far enough off with respect to pole pieces and string alignment to cause a significant downgrade in sound in strings 1-3. Would have to re-cut/rout to really make it right.

This guitar has the basics. You have to belly up the $$ or the time and expertise to make it into a solid guitar that can really be of use.

To make this guitar reliable would take work and $.

The sealed tuners are fine.

Because the pickups hum so badly combined with the pickguard bridge hole being so far off, I don't think that I would try wax-potting them. Would just replace them.

But you would have to get a new pickguard for that, as this one is not cut properly. The alignment is too far off. Have someone else make one or make one yourself, but it is a must.

Because of the poor pickups I don't and would not trust the pots and switch. They would have to be replaced.

The bridge is standard fare for a jag. That means it has the same downsides. I would replace the bridge with a tuneomatic that matched neck radius or a compensated barrel bridge type affair.

The whammy is fine, once you understand how it works and properly adjust it. This one was unusable out of the box.

All this is in the interest of making this a guitar that would be reliable as a touring guitar for an act on the road, and for recording where someone is paying bucks for time. In other words, to up it to professional grade.

Kurt is good on support.

SX is a cheapie.

Know that going in and not be disappointed.

Ok. Final assessment category.

Good woods.

You have to supply the finishing touches, which are plenty, to make this into a valid instrument.

The final cost will depend on whether or not you have any abilities to do the work that must be done and know well parts sources for good dollar/value ratios. It will be an inexpensive way to get a great guitar if you do. If you don't you'll have to weigh the extra costs more critically.

You can wind up with a somewhat unique guitar that is solid and can go the distance.

Purchased May 2008, bought 2 (black & sunburst model as it came available) ~ still, that's around $300 for both. Chinese made. Scale is 25.5". 1 vol. control, 1 tone control, 3-way selector for 2 SX made P90 "style" pickups. Alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Body is firebird/jazzmaster mutation with JM type floating tremolo bridge ("fulcrum tailpiece" as they call it). Jumbo frets. I think both guitars look very cool & it is surprisingly balanced even without a strap.

Bought it initially as a tour/backup guitar for a guitar-based shoegazer band (less slowdive, more ride). My primary amp is a 70's vibrolux SF, most of my distortion comes out of a rat, shredmaster, pax fuzz-wah, & ts9. The TS9 sounds great with this guitar thru the Vibrolux with some amp reverb. on top of that i use delays, tremolo, chorus. This guitar gives me as much definition as i need with the ts9 or pure noise w/ the pax. i'm one of those guys that wants the guitar to feedback sometimes. Clean sounds from SJM P90s are on the 'good' bright side but if you're looking for 'depth' or 'full' (I don't know how to explain that) I wouldn't recommend. Pretty satisfying character for such a cheap guitar.

Setup was passable, it was shipped in mint condition but it was not ready to be used outside of my living room. I spent $40 on a setup and the playability & sound improved noticeably. At first look, the guitar tech recommended a fret level job. I wasn't ready to spend that kind of money, but afterwards he commented that it wasn't as bad as he thought. If you play above the 15th fret a lot it would be necessary as there probably will be some buzz spots but this isn't a shredders guitar anyways. The bridge placement on the black SJM def. is slightly different than the sunburst. Small things like that (& the cut of the pickguard) seem evidence that quality is improving from the older models. For the price, you are getting more than you pay for in quality otherwise I would have rated it lower than a 7.

Now that it's settled in I have gigged/practiced with it consistently over 2+ months with no problem. I haven't put on the buzzstop which is a popular mod on this guitar & I like to bang some strings as much as anyone. Honestly, the tremolo system is hard for me to judge. After the setup, it seems like I can use it a certain amount before the guitar goes slightly out of tune but I think that could be fixed with a tuner upgrade. But it's not like I'm afraid to use the trem bar. Input jack on the sunburst model died within a month of constant playing. I have gigged with no backup a few times now. I am using a bass gigbag so it gets banged around a little more than if I had a hardshell case but the guitar plays great. I would insist someone get it checked it out completely for serious use.

Rondo has very responsive customer service. I haven't had a problem with my purchase. They offer some kind of warranty or exchange but I forgot what it was.

Since old Jazzmasters are about the cost of a new used car, I think the SJM could easily find use by a lot of guitar players at any level. I've been playing guitars for 15 years, electrics mainly by Fender - & I love the feel and sound of longer necks. So the SJM-62 combines my favorite feature with a nice solid body and a P90s style pickup that I am extremely happy with. Wish I had bought the JM style hardshell case at the time as you're not going to fit this in anything else other than a gigbag. I love the fact that it has a vintage feel and a unique look at 1/10 of the price but not at 1/10th the sound. This guitar screams indie/punk/psych/rock. But most importantly it plays great in my hands. I think it could turn into a minor classic.

Purchased in April '08, snot yellow-green (cream?) w/2 cream soapbar P90s, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, 25 3/4 scale. Knobs: 1 tone and 1 volume. 3-way toggle for pickups. I think this is an updated version of the SJM62, since it is neither short-scale nor does it suffer from lack of shielding.

So far I've only used it with my modded Carvin Nomad and a Fender Deluxe -- sounds great on both. Nice range of tones from the P90s. As others have said, these fine pups are a pleasant surprise on a $129 guitar. They alone are worth the money spent. Good cleans and excellent overdrive sounds.

Nice and straight. Decent fretwork. Good neck fit in the pocket. My guitar tech, who did a pro setup, said the fit and finish is much nicer than the average Mexican strat or tele. Cheap, wobbly, but working tuning pegs. The nut was smooth and cut properly. I had trouble with the bridge/whammy system. Every time I touched it, the trem would go down and not return. Assuming it was getting caught on the innards, and knowing I was getting a pro setup anyway, I brought it to my guitar tech. He said the spring was defective -- it would compress and not return. He said everything else in there was fine. So I emailed Kurt at Rondo and he Fedexed me a whole new bridge system overnight for free!! Try getting that kind of service from your favorite guitar maker.
So I drop the new trem in and the thing works perfectly and stays in tune even though I've been whomping on the trem like it was a Floyd Rose.

I've messed around with the trems on Jaguars, Jazzmasters/Mustangs and this one is at least as well machined. Maybe nicer. The bridge -- I dunno. I play with a pick and my fingers and when I pull up on a string with my fingers, I do have a tendency to pull the high E out of the little Tele-style barrel bridge it rests on. I noticed a few SJM owners mentioned replacing it with a Tune-O-Matic style bridge and I think I'll give it a try. Overall, I think this is a well-built and reliable instrument, except that the tuners won't last that long. But that's a quick and cheap replacement at some point.

I own an Agile and 2 SX guitars. This is the first time I had any problem. Like I said, they Fedexed me a replacement part overnight. How can I give them anything less than a 10 for customer service??!!

I've been playing pro and semi-pro since the 60s. I currently own about 20 guitars, including a vintage Gibson 335, a Parker, a Taylor and a Music Man, so I know about high-quality instruments. I also know that some of the Asian imports, like this SX, provide a huge bang for the buck. If you don't know how to do a proper setup, including fret dressing when necessary, bring it to a pro. You will not believe the difference a good setup makes. Because of the weird shape, you will need to find a case that fits. I'm using a bass case. This is one cool-*** looking and sounding guitar. If lost or stolen, I would definitely replace it. I love the look and feel. The tuners and bridge are a little sketchy, and I probably wouldn't have liked the earlier short-scale version as much. This guitar is a great value and a helluva lot of fun.

Multi-piece alder body, maple/rosewood short-scale neck, P-90 soapbars, and a Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge and tremolo. Came with two allen wrenches for the truss rod and bridge saddles.

This guitar sounds damn good amplified and resonant but buzzy unplugged. Like most have said, the P-90s are surprisingly nice. They are fairly loud and bright compared to some (hell, they're ceramic) but the tone is solid. Lots of variation with the 3-way switch.
Stock, the guitar is noisy due to the no-shielding issue, but lots of foil helped. Pickups are still single coils so you get the 60-cycle hum.
The bridge is buzzy but even clean it is not a problem amplified. Go ahead and buy a Whizzo if you've got issues.

HAH! Looked great in the box, but when I pulled the pickguard to put in some real electronics (they do, indeed, suck), it looked like a shop-class experiment. The neck pickup rout had been widened with a raw router bit on one side and it was still unfinished splintery wood. The neck pocket isn't too bad, and there are some finish flaws on the neck, but not anything I haven't seen on Mexi-Fenders at 3X the price. The fretboard had massive sanding marks (we're talking like 180-grit here), but the fretwork is damn nice and the neck is sharp looking and straight. The sunburst body is great, and the pickguard is where it is supposed to be and looks fine. I had to replace the craptastic nut straight off (a graphtek Strat nut dropped in perfectly), but the bridge isn't bad for all it's fiddly complicated bits, and the tremolo is what a Jag should be.
The tuners were binding a bit but after a couple of months they're smooth and work fine!

Out of the box, this guitar is nigh-unplayable. Needs a setup BADLY and I suggest a nut at least and maybe some electronics work for the intrepid tinkerer.
Now: Yes, it is a nice sounding, sharp-looking, sweet-playing giggable electric guitar

I've heard Rondo supports their products well. I didn't need any help, and the price for what I got ($112) was more than fair for a new guitar shipped to my abode.

Played for 20 years, und so Weiter und Sofort. Do you care> No.
Nice guitar to tinker with. Good "bones" and looks wierd. If you want this little offbeat sucker, you can't go too wrong for the price and a few grains of salt. Don't expect a plywood Squier you can play immediately but is unimprovable---your time invested in upgrading this guitar will pay off.

A great, strange shape. Has a amazing maple neck with vintage tinted gloss, and rosewood fretboard. Body is SX's take or spin-off of the jaguar or jazzmaster. sits on the leg perfect, so its easy to sit down with and play. the neck is sort of wide, but i have big hands, so it fits pretty well. 2 p90s, volume and tone pot, and 3 way switch. Mine is the 3/4th scale, i wanted something different, and this answered my prayers.

I love the p90's in this guitar. I'm normally the first person to rip out stock pick ups and upgrade (all ofs my Fender have been upgraded), but i felt absolutely no need with this guitar.
The guitar buzzes a good bit, on any setting, due to complete lack of shielding mostly.
I ran this through my Marshall half stack, cranked up the distortion and you have a hell of a punk or classic rock guitar.
tone down the distortion and its a great blues rock to reggae-ska guitar.
clean through a vintage ampeg amp, and it will give you more smooth tone than you can handle.
Now, the guitar isnt all good. The neck pick up gets muddy and jumbled together when its clean. and with too much distortion the bridge can be really bright, and piercing, but with little low end to even it out. The good DEFINITELY out weighs the bad though, hands down.

Here is where the s**t hits the fan. When the guitar showed up, it looked fine (there were 2 very minor imperfections on the neck, but they took me an hour just to notice, and they dont affect anything), but the guitar needed some work to really be playable. The neck and saddles needed to be adjusted right away.
I've read lots of reviews on here about this guitars bridge needing to be replaced, and i dont think it does. Now, I dont have the vibrato arm on the guitar, mainly because its use is very limited. so unless your going to be doing some serious wailing on the vibrato, it shouldnt be a problem for you.
The saddles do rattle, but its only noticeable when im not plugged in just strumming, so it doesn't bother me.
also, it really needed to be set up, or it was hard to get it in tune well. It would stay in tune, it was just difficult to get it there to begin with.

I have not had the chance to give this guitar a gig test yet, but i would have no problems doing so with it any day. Very reliable, sturdy guitar for the money.

I have not had to deal with customer service, but I have sent my share of questions to the guys at Rondo Music and Kurt is always quick to respond with answers to all my questions.

I have been playing for about 8 years now. I own Gretsch, Fender, and even custom built guitars. This guitar really holds its own in my line up.
I had been looking at SX's for over a year now, and finally decided i would take the plunge and order this guitar. I read every review i could find on this guitar, and couldnt find one that really turned me off of it. This guitar reminds me so much of my Jaguar that i had to part with about a year ago. especially the short scale. The neck has the same feel, and it plays amazingly, just like my jag. I have no problem mentioning the two guitars in the same sentance.
Why go and spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on a guitar, because of what name is on the headstock?
I really like this SX and can say you wont be disappointed.

Made in 06/05? 21 frets,Jazzmaster with out all the whisles and bells Soild body 3 way switch,1 volume ,1 tone knob Two P-90 Body wood is Alder ,Finish is a great swiming pool blue , well finsihed .Neck rosewood with vintage stian and finsh. The Body is the artdecco 1950s coffee table design (Very cool) Jazzmaster tremlo bridge style bridge (Also cool) Grover stlye tuners ,fat neck .Comes with allen wrench.

I play in a Rockabilly band ,and I play with echo and need twang!! I use a Marshall JMC 800 combo w/short time delay , comp, a wah ,and a phaser.I play clean so you I can hear the single coil hum , the body cavity needed sheilding I had to use tin foil after a nights practice as the hum was nails on a chalk board to me.Neck is bassy w/ balls ,middle switch nice mix , bridge pup not stronge but has a tele bite to it.Good for surf with the trem arm , great for rockabilly ,reagge, blues. I hate the frets way to high and not filed.Its tuff to get comfortable playing this guitar, I tweek it almost everytime I play,but for $130.00 thats not bad.

OK ,the frets are the biggest problem in my opinon ,WAY to high and not filed, I had to file the upper as the strings hit dead spots ,flat notes ,and It really was madding.You have to get a whizzer bridge piece this will give the strings the proper tension.Picks ups adjustment really won't help your bridge sound louder then the neck, routed body is nice, but the pickguard cut is terriable , it does not sit on the body well ,and is pushing up against the neck,must been a rush at the factory thatt day to get these out.Nut is good tuners hold tune even the trem arm use, switch seems alright ,pots not to scatchy , changed Volume and tone knobs to tele type, change saddles ,(awful jazzmaster copies)

The guitar will last live , but I will only use it for a few songs, the hardware should last , finish is not going fall off anytime soon. Warning strap buttons will strip ,you will want to get longer skrews.Warning input cuts out , I have leaned over and got the ANNNNN, not cool if your playing live, had to open up the input and bend the prong.Gig with out a backup , way to risky I have had the guitar for 2 month and its not settled.

Kurt at Rondo is great. he will do alot for the customer ,but this is one of the low end SX/Douglas/Agile guitars in the line.

Well I have a Douglas hollow body ES335 type, and an Agile strat , very good guitars for the money. I bought this for the shape ,look, and color.I do love the sound as I play with a telecaster and a gretsh 5120. Great for slide, hate the frets,, love the trem. I knew buying this I would replace some parts , but its not worth buying new pickups ,or a new neck.If it were stolen I wouldn't worry ,I have a really good picture of the guitar!Bottom line its a fun toy ,you can play it out , good for a project, and it looks hanging on the wall.

SHORT SCALE (24") SJM-62. Freaky-cool shape, solid alder body, maple bolt-on neck, one volume/one tone, generic Jazz/Jag style trem and bridge, 6 strings, one tuner per,etc. 3-tone sunburst finish, the only one available in short scale. Two P-90 soapbar pickups; basically the Asian equivalent of a Jag with Jazzmaster pickups, minus all the extra switches and circuitry.

There's virtually no internal shielding save a thin strip of foil on the pickguard directly under the controls - not ideal, but easy enough to fix with foil tape. However, the tremolo is grounded by a wire sandwiched between its mounting plate and the body, which grounds the strings and reduces noise.

Already had an SJM-62 standard (25.5") scale in candy apple red and the oddball trem/bridge appeals to my penchant for the wierd, so when I saw the short-scale version I grabbed it.

Sounds very good, with a wide range of tones. The P-90's are loud and smooth, with a little growl thrown in if you play your cards right.

The neck position is bass-heavy and the bridge treble-happy, likely a result of the wide pickup spacing and short scale as the standard-scale version is less extreme. Sounds great with both pickups (toggle centered) but the extremes are there when you want them... anything from Dokken to Johnny B. Goode.

A great toy for tinkerers... take that as you will.

The 3-tone sunburst is gorgeous; not too yellow, not too dark... perfect colors. The wood grain is well matched on the front so it looks like the body is one piece. The back shows that the body is 3 pieces - slight color shift and finish wave at the joint, but looks good. Pretty "vintage" shaded finish on the neck with enough peghead grain to be interesting.

The neck seems to be straight and the fretwork is good; I haven't taken a straightedge to it but it plays well. In fact,I didn't have to do a thing to the neck; all the required tweaking was down below.

LOVE the neck shape - the 25.5" SJM feels good, this one feels perfect. Don't ask me to describe it, it just feels right in my hand.

The trem arm is long, convenient, and smooth but range is limited, so it's perfect for adding twang but dive-bombing isn't an option.

Now comes the fun part... for starters, this trem was never intended for the skinny little .010 strings that were installed. Can't fault SX too much for that because Fender does the same thing. A bit of research revealed that .011 or .012 strings are recommended to balance the trem springs.

Lots of potential adjustments and this design trem/bridge is notorious for buzzing if you don't get them right.

First, I re-strung it with D'Addario Chrome .012 flatwound strings. Then I tried adjusting the spring tension but the spring was STILL too stiff. Loosened the springs, removed the trem, removed the spring, and used a Dremel tool to grind about half a coil thickness off each end of the spring. While it was apart I wrapped the bridge height adjust screws (there's a tiny allen head buried in there) with Teflon plumber's tape to reduce play in the threads and covered the inside of the pickguard and all body cavities with foil tape to shield them. Re-assembled and adjusted tension until tuning was the same locked or unlocked.

Then, adjusted saddle height and intonation, with a few extra tweaks to make sure that ALL the height-adjust screws made good contact with the bridge. Also needed to make sure that the strings didn't contact the top of the U-shaped bridge when fretted at the last fret. To get perfect intonation on the low E I'll need to shorten the saddle spring and screw, but it's close enough to do until the strings wear out.

The parts are all there and seem to be solid, but do some online research on Jaguar/Jazzmaster setup to see what you're getting into. The trem/bridge design works well once properly adjusted, but there's a lot of adjustment to do. Also had to tighten the tuners - a couple loose mounting nuts, and most of the knob screws needed to be tightened to reduce play.

Still, it's a gorgeous guitar and for a measly $120 I knew what I might be getting into and didn't expect the factory to have performed all the required tweaks.

My rating does not take the price point into account. My friendly neighborhood guitar shop charges $90 for a freaking setup, so if I do that myself the guitar is nearly free!

Yeah, I'd gig with it; once set up everything seems to be solid and it sounds too good and looks too cool to hide.

Without a backup? I wouldn't do that with an $8,000 Gibson Custom Super-Perfect Vintage reissue that I can't afford. I'm an engineer; I believe in Murphy's Law of Exponential String Breakage (the odds of a string breaking are proportional to the square of the number of people watching).

I'll likely replace the tuners eventually, but this axe is as solid as they come.

If it breaks, I'll fix it. Haven't dealt with customer service.

I've been messing with guitar off and on for 5 years; my technical skills exceed my playing skills but I have fun. Own several acoustics ranging from a Seagull to a Martin, electrics by Epiphone, Agile, Switch, and SX, and a Vox VR-15 amp.

Lost or stolen? Don't want to think about it; I'd buy another after exacting painful vengeance.

Love the look, the tone, the freaky trem. Wouldn't mind a separate volume/tone for each pickup, but really no place to put it.

Didn't really compare, just thought it looked cool. I like its swoopy looks better than Fender's Jaguar. A vintage reissue Jag is 11X the price and a Jap Jag has iffy pickups, so for this beast there's no real competition.

Big Bang for the buck! Basically a striped down Jazzmaster with p90's for about 1/13th of the price.

The p90's sound great. Bright,and full. The three way switch give three very distinct sounds. I added some shielding as to reduce the hum when played live at loud volumes. For studio or bedroom playing, this is not necessary.

If your a begimnner or this is a bedroom guitar then I guess it is fine. I like this guitar so much that I made it one of my main axes when I play out live. I had to do the following:

1.Added a whizzo buzz stop. Essential for the rattly bridge. It costs $50.00 from allparts.com
2. I had a complete restring and setup. This cost me $25.00
3. When the action was lowered the frets had to be filed. This cost around $60.00 dollars.

Now it plays like a dream. The best part is with a few modifications, you pretty much have a nice jazzmaster copy for a fraction of the price. Being a left hander, this was by far my best option!

Tuners seem good, great finish,no complaints.

I would buy this guitar again if it were stolen. Just say no to corporate guitars and their ripp off prices!