SX SST 57 Vintage

This is a new 2006 sx strat 57 copy.
The tuners are smooth, better than on johnson strat copy I owned and the neck is vintage tinted, a beautiful neck thick for this price and easy to play comparing it to my 80s fender super lead 3 which has a maple neck.
The body is alder wood, black with a white pick gard and vintage aged looking pick up covers and knobs.
It has the vintage style tremolo, works well.
pickups sound like a strat should. The pick ups and pick guard had plastic protective wrap on it when arrived.
They took great care at rondo music to ship it and came in great shape.
I did not expect such a great quality guitar for this price.
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This is an update to earlier review I submitted with corrections, it was late when did 1st one. Please use this one in place of
Thanks Wade....

The pickups on mine are fine, pots are fluid and sounds like a strat.
I Will eventually replace with better seymour duncan alnico but it sounds fine as is.

It felt alright out of the box, after I set it up some, lowered action just a tad, got the right radius for stings at the bridge and got rid of a buzz on high e string etc...
Now I am playing most of the time over my fender guitar. It did need to be set up to my preference, but this is an awesome guitar now.
I had a johnson strat copy that cost a bit more than sx and the sx is by far the best feeling neck, even better than some fender strats I've played on.
Yes its that good.

First class, a solid well built guitar. just had a buzz on e that I was able to correct in set up. As long as you know how to set up there should not be a problem. The tremolo is not bad but have seen better. may at some time replace. I would have no problem playing live with no back up.

Great so far

I love this guitar and plan to buy 2 more to set up with different pickups and experiment with tunings.
Looks a lot like David Gilmours guitar of pink floyd used live at pompeii on dvd. Its a beautiful guitar, love the pro finish on this neck.
I prefer this guitar over the fender guitars i have played lately. More like a custum hand made feel to it. This guitar is lighter than my finder but I like that. Has good tone unpluged as well.

This is a new 2006 sx strat 57 copy from rondomusic.net
The tuners are smooth and the neck is vintage tined, a beautiful neck thick for this price and easy to play comparing it to my 80s fender super lead 3 which has a maple neck.
The body is alder wood, black with a white pick gard and vintage aged looking pick up covers and knobs.
It has the vintage style tremolo, works great.
pick ups sound like a strat should. The pick ups and pick guard had plastic protective wrap on it when arrived.
They took great care at rondo music to ship it and came in great shape.
I give it a 10, I did not expect such a great quality guitar for this price.

The pick ups on mine are fine, pots are fluid and sounds like a strat.
I Will eventually replace with seymour duncan alnico but it sounds great as is.

It felt great out of the box, after I set it up some lowered action just a tad, got the right radius for stings at the bridge and got rid of just a little buzz on high e string etc...
Now I am playing most of the time over my fender guitar. It did need a little bit of set up to my preference, but this is an awesome guitar now.
I had a johnson strat copy that cost a bit more than sx and the sx is by far the best felling neck, even better than some fender strats I've played on.
Yes its that good.

First class, a solid well built guitar.

Great so far

I love this guitar and plan to buy 2 more to set up with different pickups and experiment with tunings.
Looks a lot like David Gilmours guitar of pink floyd he used at live at pompeii on dvd. Its a beautiful guitar, love the pro finish on this neck.
I prefer this guitar over the fender guitars have played lately. More like a custom hand made feel to it. The weight is a bit lighter than my fender but I like that. It rings out a nice tone even unpluged.

This is one of the newer vintage strat copies from Rondo music. I purchased one the ash strat copies a few days ago and was so impressed I had to order another SX strat a few days later from their website. It has the traditional strat copy layout with a vintage green color to the body. The body is made of alder but I can't tell how many pieces. It has a maple neck thats covered with this aging toner, it looks retro. The neck is hefty for a strat copy and feels vintage with rolled edges along the edges of the fretboard that give it a broken in feel while playing. It has a tremelo that works very well. The guitar has 21 jumbo frets.

The guitar arrived with defective tone pots. The tone pots I got on my other SX ash strat last week work fine but these tone pots have no business being on a guitar. They are scratchy when the tone knob is turned and offer only treble frequencies, I can't back off the treble on the guitar. I think the pickups sound fine but I could make a better judgement of the pickups sound with new tone pots installed. The guitar has very good sustain. It does not feel like an economy guitar while playing. I think all of these SX guitars have some degree of fret buzz and there is some fret buzz on this guitar. I don't think this axe would make a good studio guitar because of the fret buzz situation.

When I opened up the guitar box I was shocked at the high quality level of the guitar. The overall cosmetic quality looks to be equal to that of a good made in Mexico Fender strat. I can't find any cosmetic flaws anywhere on the guitar! Amazing construction and detail for the price paid.

It looks very durable and suitable for live playing.

I've been playing 20 years and this is the 20th electric I have purchased. I liked the guitars color which is why I purchased it. The guitar I really wanted was that MIM Fender 50's strat in surf green but this guitar did not dissapoint me as an alternate axe at a lower cost. This guitar is very impressive overall and I don't think there is anything as nice out there as these SX strat copies in this low price range.

Fabulous Strat copy, Alder body vintage looks, great neck.

For the money this is a great buy. Pickup's are pretty damn good and have a vibe all of thier own. I play this through a Vox ac-15.
great Strat tones all round.

Needed a bit of tweaking when i got it but overall wasn't to bad.
Great Sunburst finish. Tight neck pocket.

It's a couple pieces of wood like a USA strat is a couple pices of wood..you know what I mean. Yes you can depend on it.

For a spare gigging guitar or even a main guitar this is the buy of the century. Great quality for the price.

Easy to play electric guitar, perfect for the beginner or intermediate player
A great backup guitar for the professional
Solid Alder body for that great rock-n-roll sound
High quality P-90 pickups offer superior output and outstanding treble response
One volume and one tone control plus a 3-way pickup selector switch
Beautiful Maple neck with adjustable truss rod and Rosewood reinforcement for added stability
Ultra-fast Maple fretboard with 21 jumbo frets
Vintage fulcrum bridge with six adjustable saddles
Three-ply pickguard (White, Black, White)
D’Addario strings are installed at the factory
Actual weight is only 8.5 lbs
Overall length is 39" including the strap button
Scale length is 25.5" Width at the widest point is 13"
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 1/8" Body thickness is 1 3/4".

Sound.. It sounds great!! I've got another P90 Strat using Mighty Mite Pickups and this sounds much better..
Nice ..Full and smooth!!

Had to do a basic Setup.. everything else seems fine!

Shouldn't be any problems..

Haven't used it but I've heard plenty of positive stuff about Kurt at Rondo.com

Been playing for 12-13 years
I own 3 other guitars and a couple of Custom Hand built Tube Amps..Lots of pedals..on and on..

For the $109 plus freight you can't miss with these axes...

SX SST-57 Stoptail model made in 2005 in China;21 fret;sunburst finish; alder body with maple neck & fretboard with S/S/S pickup configuration( and S/S/S routing, not S/S/H) and standard Strat vol/tone controls;Tune-O-Matic style bridge(not string through body- no tremolo). Bridge pickup has no mounting ring like a humbucker guitar so it's a little far from the strings, maybe 9/32's , when fully up. The other pickups can be adjusted okay. Have to take at least a point off for that.

Sounds just like the SST-57(sounds like a real strat), which isn't too bad considering the price, but not sure about any real gains in the sustain over the tremolo model. Switched the pups out for Fender Deltatones on this one (a little more clarity and bottom end but not as big an improvement as expected, which says something about these pickups) and Bill/Becky Lawrence 280s/290 in my other tremolo SST 57 (even better). Comparing again quality wise to my American Lonestar Strat - 95% of the way there. Maybe I should go play a Squier at a local music store some day ? All ratings are based on price factor ! If this were a $1000 guitar it might be an 8 stock.

Action was a little high, nut slots slight sticking "G" and "E" strings, bridge pickup needs springs removed to get more height even with bridge at semi-string buzzing levels; fret #13 a shade high with low action, causing a buzz when "E"& "B" strings bent hard. Finish was great, strap pins nice and wide; tuners could have less play; volume/tone controls work fine.If you like a medium to high action then the only problem would be bridge pickup height adjustment.They probably should have used a string through non tremolo bridge instead.

Hardware, weight, and feel are not as good as an American Fender, but more like my Mexican Tele and Strat. For the money it's good quality.

This is maybe the 5th or 6th Rondo purchase with no problems or returns. E-mails answered promptly. Warranty ?

Playing on/off since 70's, mostly on in last 7 years; if stolen or lost might give up and buy a new American Fender Deluxe with SCn pickups and S-1 switching, but only after trying out at least 10 in stores. Have or had Gibsons, Fenders, Michael Kelly, Agile, Tacoma, and the differences in quality don't seem as extreme as many write about here, but the price differences are extreme ! Anyway, I enjoy swapping pickups and rewiring almost as much as playing.

i think it is a 2005 model, vintage series strat 57 copy. purchased in the phlippines of all places to practice since i left my real vintage strats in canada. this guitar is ok. it is not a fender 57 or a reissue but it is ok. the neck shape is more C shaped than a 57 which has the soft V so i am having some problems playing it but still ok. in general, this guitar is good value for the money and i would purchase for a beginning guitar player. it is superior to a fender squire for several reasons. firts it has nice lacquer finish n the neck and finger board. i do not know what wood is in the neck but i'll call it "maple style". the frets are jumbo and work ok after i dress some of them. the machine that rolls them into the finger board leave ridges in some frets and they are difficult to remove. once removed everything ok. the nut is not quite cut to the right depth in my opion and it affects the action enough in the lower frets to mess up the intonation. it is sharp from the 1st to 8th fret depending on which string you check. after that it is bearable. skunk strip is well fitted and unnoticeable to the touch while playing(i can't say the same for my 57 reissue fender strat). my sx has 2 string trees in the headstock. the one for the 3rd and 4th strings is superflous and only services to stiffen the feel of these strings so i popped the strings out and they feel much better.
the brige and the tremelo system is a problem but i am getting it worked out. first the tremelo creaks and does not keep tune like the fender 57 reissue. fender really does have that system mastered. both my strats stay in tune regardless of how much i use the tremelo but the sx isn't quite right and i have not solved the problem as yet. the saddles are ok but the tremelo mount screws interfere with them on the 4th string. i filed the screw so i could get the intonation set on this string. others are ok. it is possible to set the intonation of the sx but the saddles on the 1,2,3 strings are in strange position when complete. also the actin is so low it is on the verge of buzz but plays real nice now. trouble is it affects the tone; so good tone and intonation are not possible on my sx.
the tuners are low quality but nearly the same as fender reissues. the hold tune ok, but i suspect they are wearing out after only 5-6 months of use since it is becoming difficult to get the exact tuning possible when new.
the pick ups are ok but i cannot comment on their sound at volume since i have not played the sx at volume. it sounds ok at living room volumes. the pick up separtion is good, the tone differences are good even on the combined pick up settings(i have the 5 way switch set up).
the volume pot works nice but i have not experienced much tone pot use. i set my tones on 10 and forget them.(1 vol and 2 tone pots). the finish is good and the strap buttons stay afixed to the body( hahaha! my 57 strat tail button popped out the 2nd day i owned it).
there is a problem with the cable jack on my guitar. it is mounted well but internally it is weak and if the chord is moved too much it loses contact.
only other really annoying problem was the tremelo bar. shame the tremelo housing was not threaded through. mine is blind threaded and so the tremelo bar will not go into place. it is an easy repair but the assembly line engineers need find another career. it might also be nice if they changed the material in the tremelo. the white metal crap doesn't thread easily and the tremelo bar brings the threads out with it when removed.

plays ok. i play blues and rock and roll. cannot comment on stage volume since i have yet to play it on stage. loses tune sometimes when bending strings and the tremelo creaks when doing same. the guitar is sharp from 1st to 8th fret(depending on which string) and it needs work 16th to 21st.

factiry setting, hahahaha! i think they look at a picture of a fender strat that is properly set up and just place the saddles in same relative position. action was so bad i could not play it off the rack. if the line engineers saw my present saddle set up they would calculate for a month to figure what was wrong. my neck seems ok. it has a slight bow in the middle( similar to fender spec) but i am not yet certain the the neck angle with the body is quite right. time will tell i quess. this is a work in progress now. i am also contemplating the nut depth?? not sure about it yet. it is centered ok but depth ???
pick ups were set ok for the factory set up, hahaha!
controls were quiet but the knobs are knurled to finely and i suspect would slip the shafts under stage use. gentle use goes out the window when i'm in the middle of a tune.
body construction and neck mounting is strong and stable.
one thing both sx and fender need to learn about their strat guitars. you know that plastic cover over the tremelo hole in back side of body? shame someone would not take a look at it and MOVE THE HOLES so we can string the guitar without removing the cover. really stupid engineering mistake their!

finish is good. i would need a back up. i trust my fenders now because i have put them to the test but the sx??? buttons good and strong, jack not strong enough.

i do not have any experience with this

have been playing 37-38 years. i will keep it and use it along with my strats. price is good for how it plays when the bugs worked out.

A great strat copy made in China. It has a flawless sunburst finish with looks that will match any Fender and your standard Strat 3 - single coil configuation with a 5-way selector and 2 Tones and 1 Volume. It has no-name tuners and fairly thin metal Trem and a plastic nut (which I changed out) but we're not talking about a $1000 guitar.

This guitar is one of the best sounding copies that I have heard. I play mostly classic rock and blues. My other guitars include an Epiphone Les Paul modified with Semour Duncan Humbuckers and a Tele copy. I wanted something that would give me the SRV and Clapton sound and this close to dead on. Even though ir sounds great out of the box I will probably change outh the single coils later.

The only reason for an 8 here is the plastic nut. This seemed to bind the strings and caused the guitar to go out of tune when you used the whammy bar but I changed out the nut with a graphite nut and that fixed the problem. As I mentioned before the finish was great. The guitar was perfectly set up out of the box.

It seems almost as rugged as a Fender. I take care of my guitars so I beleive that it will last a very long time as long as you don't go beating it on the stage. You could probably use it on a gig without a back up but who would do that (even if you had a Fender, Gibson, or PRS)

Haven't had to deal with customer service but I bought it online and had a very pleasurable experience with the company. It was sent to me very quickly and packaged extremely well.

I've been playing for 7 years and for the money, this is about as good as it gets. I thought if the sound of a strat was right for me, I might get a Fender but instead I'll keep what I've got (and maybe buy a couple more).

Typical STRAT setup. Sunburst Alder body with maple neck/fingerboard with 21 jumbo frets. Chrome hardware, 3 ply pickguard, 3 single coils, 2 tone & 1 volume control, whammy bar, etc. Made in China

I play mostly blues, classic rock, surf & this guitar fits the bill just fine, once you get everything adjusted correctly (I'll get to that in the next category). When you look at the pickups, they look cheesy, but they definitely have some punch & actually sound very good. They have the typical hum of standard single coils, but nothing excessive. My amp is a Fender Performer 1000 hybrid (100 watts). Playing Clean, with no distortion, this guitar sounds as good as any Fender I have ever played, even at higher volume. The bridge pick-up has that Classic, glassy twang perfect for Surf guitar. Position the switch between the neck & middle pickup, & you get that beautiful, sweet tone of Stevie Ray's " Tin Pan Alley" or Craig Erickson's "No Reply".
Playing with distortion, it has warm vintage tone for Classic Rock & blues.

The wood & finish on these guitars is beautiful! The Neck is the best part of the guitars! High gloss, age tinted laquer finish. It is very slick & fast & the Jumbo frets are a huge bonus! (more below about that). The sunburst body is highly laquered & polished near perfectly. As most reviewers have stated previously, this guitar needs a lot of adjusting out of the box, but you have to expect that with a 99.00 guitar. The neck had a slight bow in it, so a few light turns of the truss rod fixed that. The tuners were terrible. It wouldn't hold a tune for 5 minutes! The pickups were too low & the action was too high. The tremolo was very tight & would barely move. The low E string was binding in the bridge saddle. The intonation was pretty close, but after all the other adjustments are made, you will need to re-do that too. The electronics seem to be very good. The switch & pots work correctly & are quiet. The pickguard is very cheesy, but adequate. With all that said, I had this guitar in top playing condition within a week & I really love it!
I replaced the tuners with some used Gotoh's & installed a Graphite nut.

With a bit of tweaking, I don't see why this guitar wouldn't hold up for Professional gigging. Anything can go wrong, even with expensive guitars.

I have had only minimal Email contact with Kurt,the owner of Rondo Music. He seems like a good guy. I really don't care about the warranty. It's a 99.00 guitar. As long as there is no damage when you get it, it should last for years.

I've been playing for about 27 years. I play for my own amusement, not professionally, but I know a good guitar when I see one. I currently own & Gibson les paul Classic & a Fender Waynes World Japanese squier. I have had probably 12-15 guitars over the years.
I really like the sound of the WW Squier, but is has a very slim neck & tiny frets, so I was going to buy a neck with jumbo frets & replace it. While searching for a neck on Ebay, I came across these SX guitars with Jumbo frets & the whole guitar was cheaper than if i were to buy a quality neck. So I came to Harmony central to check out the reviews & most of the reviews were were fairly Positive, so I figured I'd try one. I looked at new Fender guitars first, but you can't really get a reasonable Fender with jumbo frets. The MIM & Squiers would be the most I could afford, & they only come with Medium or Vintage style frets. The Jumbo frets are great for vibratos & bending strings, so if you like to play blues like I do, bigger frets make life easier. The neck is shaped perfectly, not too fat & not too thin.
When this guitar arrived, I was pleasantly surprised that the reviews were accurate for the most part. The action & set-up were terrible, but the wood/finish was beautiful & all the basics were there. Once you get it set up correctly, It's really a great guitar! Even the Tremolo works good, once you get it adjusted. I'm not saying that it would hold up to AIR RAIDS or DIVE bombs, but for basic Surf & Blues playing, it's just fine & stays in tune well.
The sound is very good & is classic single coil Strat! If you're into Heavy Metal, this guitar ISN"T for you. If you like the sound of SRV, Trower, Buddy Guy & Dick Dale, this should meet your needs just fine. I changed the Tuning pegs, the nut & the pickguard, but I think everthing else will suit me just fine!
If you want to build a Monster STRAT, the body & neck on this guitar is more than worth the price!

I got this guitar in early 2004. I think it's made in china, I took the sticker off a while back. Maple neck with 21 jumbo (huuuge) frets. The neck is coated in a thick laquer. This takes some getting used to. The body is supposedly alder, but there is no way for me to verify this unless I grind off the paint, which is a very nice lake placid blue. The paint seems to hold up well enough, but not quite as resilient as my standard strat. It has strat electronics, 5-way switch, 3 single coil pickups, 1 volume and 2 tone control, etc. Vintage style strat tremolo w/ modern style bridge saddles. Tuners are generic 6 inline type.

Sound is like a regular strat, but even more bright. The pickups seem to be pretty hot in this one, so some EQ adjustment is usually necessary. Needless to say it really cuts through even in the in between pickup settings. Probably would sound more mellow with some new pickups. Acoustically it sounds good.

Guitar was setup ok from the factory, the bridge springs were really cranked down however (with the bridge set against the body). I went out and got it (mis)adjusted and finally did my own adjustments to get it where I liked it. It plays fine compared to any other guitar I have. The only factory flaws I noted were a couple of strange black marks on the font of the headstock. It looks like someone accidentally touched it with a sharpie.

This guitar would hold up as good as any other for live playing. I will make a complaint about the hardware however. The bridge inertia block thing on mine was mis-cast, so it wouldn't thread the tremolo arm. The arm ended up shearing off inside the bridge as I was tring to unthread it. I just left it for the longest time until recently when I replaced it with a mighty mite strat bridge (much better construction - $25) The string spacing on the SX stock bridge is a little more narrow than standard bridges, so it's not a perfect drop-in replacement. I don't really like the feel of the tuners since they are not perfectly smooth when they are rotated. However - my standard strat has the same problem, just not as bad. I would consider replacing them if this were my main guitar.

I never tried to contact the company, although I thought about it when my trem arm broke off in the bridge. I'm not sure if it comes with a warranty at this price

I will just point out that you may be replacing some hardware, however you will also be saving a lot of money over buying a fender strat. Overall a good value, might be a good base for a project guitar.